Bono's Bad Back Postpones U2's 2010 North American Tour

Bono's Back Postpones U2's North American Tour

You know you're OLD when the rockers of your youth start suffering from the same aliments that plague your grandparents.

These lame aliments involve mucous, puss, and phlegm and they need rehabilitation that requires canes, walkers, and trusses.

One such victim of this phenomenon was hitherto the coolest frontman on the face of the Earth.

On May 21, 2010 U2's Bono underwent emergency back surgery.

"Am I bugging you? I didn't mean to bug you," said Bono's back to Bono.

Surgery went well but Bono will need eight weeks to recover and U2's North American tour was postponed to 2011.

In a split-second Bono went from desirable rock star to Uncle Paul with the achin' back.

Meanwhile, Poison's Bret Michaels suffered a brain hemorrhage, a stroke, and a hole in his heart.

"Don't need nothing but hemorrhage, how can I get rid of this?"

When you're young your contemporaries suffer from romantic aliments like overdoses, car accidents, and suicides.

But when you're OLD they suffer from embarrassing ails like bad backs, strokes, and getting holes in internal organs.

To make matters worse, Bono and Bret Michaels probably take medication from one of those containers that are labeled with the days of the week.

It's perfectly acceptable if a rocker is in rehab. It's sad if the rocker needs a geriatrician.

Jonas Brothers

I’ve heard of the Jonas Brothers. I could pick the Jonas Brothers out of a lineup. But I wouldn’t know a Jonas Brothers’ song if it bite me on the lip. Of course, I’m old and not allowed to listen to their music anymore (nor do the record companies want my money, can we say out of the demo). Still, you would think that the sheer amount of media that surrounds me and the immense popularity of the Jonas Brothers I would still have heard one of their songs—hell, I don’t even know one of their song titles.

In the1960’s an “old” person would have heard at least part of a Beatles’ song—they certainly would have known who Sgt. Peppers was. They same can be said for the major artists of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. But in the 21^st century the times have been a changing (that’s a Bob Dylan reference; he’s an artist I’m still young enough to listen to). Now you can be more famous than the thing you’re famous for doing. Hell, you can be famous for nothing (see Paris Hilton).

It’s a unique phenomenon that in our culture saturated with media I have accidentally gone this long without ever hearing the Jonas Brothers' music but yet haven't escaped being constantly told how popular they are. What a strange media we have that can sing the praises of a musical band without ever letting them sing. It seems counter intuitive to what you think should happen; namely I should hear their music every time I turn on my computer and see them every time I turn on my television.

Unfortunately the Jonas Brothers phenomenon reveals less about the future of music and more about the current state of our culture. We now covet celebrity more than we covet creativity.