Bono Reveals Why He Once Lived Off Airline Food

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Bono Reveals Why He Once Lived Off Airline Food originally appeared on Parade.

U2 singer Bono is an undeniable music legend. But that doesn't mean he's never struggled.

Bono opened up about his harrowing childhood memories in the documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender. In the trailer, he revealed that the last time he ever saw his mother alive was at his grandfather's funeral—she died just three days later. “It sounds almost too Irish, I know," the singer joked.

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In a July 15 podcast interview on Ruthie's Table 4, the "One" singer further opened up about the tragic ordeal to host Ruthie Rogers—revealing how it led to him living off of airline food.

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Bono and his family went through economic hardship after his mother's sudden death. But his older brother Norman found a lifeline via his job at the Dublin airport. "He had talked the company into allowing him to bring home surplus airline food, prepared for airline passengers," the "Beautiful Day" singer explained. "The meals were sometimes still warm when he carried them in their tinned boxes into our kitchen."

Anyone who's ever eaten an airline meal knows it's nothing to write home about. The singer said that the dishes—which were his primary sustenance for six months—always had "an aftertaste of tin." Yuck!

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While the airline food was less than appetizing, it was a delicacy compared to the canned food he had been eating previously. "After my mother died, I would usually return home with a tin of meat, a tin of beans and a packet ofCadbury’s Smash," he said, referring to a brand of instant mashed potatoes. Seems like everything he ate at the time had an aftertaste of tin.

There is one particular food Bono swears by: the chip butty. In the U.S. we'd call it a french fry sandwich—because that's all it is. French fries and butter sandwiched between two slices of bread. How's that for carb-loading?

Bono Reveals Why He Once Lived Off Airline Food first appeared on Parade on Jul 16, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.