U2 Pay Tribute to Late Tour Manager Dennis Sheehan at Los Angeles Show
U2's performance at the Forum in Los Angeles last night included a tribute to the band's longtime tour manager Dennis Sheehan, who died unexpectedly just hours before they took the stage.
Singer Bono delivered remarks to the audience, which you can hear in the fan-shot footage above. In the moments before the band launched into "Iris," taken from the recent Songs of Innocence LP, he reinforced a message posted at the U2 website that reads, "We've lost a family member."
"U2 is kind of family. It's a brotherhood, although there's a lot of sisters too. But our extended family is very, very important to us. We look after each other and it takes a lot to put on a show like tonight," Bono began. "Last night we lost a member of our family — Dennis Sheehan was his name. He was U2's tour manager for 33 years. He loved, as we all do, the city of Los Angeles, and he called the Sunset Marquis his home away from home."
Bono went on to reference Sheehan's decades of experience in the business — and add a somewhat lighter note to a moment of somber reflection. "He came to this city as a young man in the ‘70s, working for Led Zeppelin. He always thought maybe U2 could be the next Led Zeppelin, which of course is impossible," he continued. "We did try once at his last big birthday. We turned up at his birthday dressed as Led Zeppelin. [Bassist Adam Clayton] was quite something because he had kind of professorial John Paul Jones look. The biggest problem was I couldn't quite fill Robert Plant’s pants."
Billboard quotes an additional tribute from later in the set, during which Bono credited Sheehan with inspiring the audience to sing along with the set-closing number "40" during their Live at Red Rocks set. "We dedicate this song ... in fact, we dedicate the night — in fact, we dedicate our whole tour to the very vivid memory of Dennis Sheehan," he concluded. "St. Dennis of Dublin, as he's known around here."
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