Bono and the Edge seem a little insecure about their Spider-Man musical’s rock credentials, but I don’t really see why. Sure, bandmate Larry Mullen, Jr. sort of dissed the project, but Larry’s always disagreeing with Bono. I think a simple “we’re the freakin’ guitarist and singer of U2, so we’ll do whatever we want” should suffice.
Either way, Bono and the Edge spoke to Italian fansite U2place (via RS) recently and were adamant that their foray into musical theater is actually very punk rock: “We were open to the idea of musical theater,” Bono said, “but Spider-Man, that’s a different thing again, because that’s comic books, and there’s a whole series of relations between punk rock and rock bands and comic books, that goes back years.”
Okay, I get it. A lot of rockers like comic books. The Edge takes the idea a little further though, saying that Peter Parker is “sort of like every rock & roll star’s story, in a weird way. Every rock & roll star probably started out as the geek who was bullied on in school, and eventually their form of revenge was to write songs or learn to play guitar or to sing or play drums and some of us ended up in big bands.”
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark premieres on Broadway on September 12, 2009, so grab your tickets now to see Peter Parker use this whole “superhero” thing as a springboard into rock stardom.