Bono Reveals Ed Sheeran's Blunt Response to Their U2 Collab: "You're Not Going to Get Me Into Politics, Are You?"

Bono is out here sharing studio stories, and this one involves Ed Sheeran making his boundaries crystal clear. While the two worked on U2’s 2026 single“Yours Eternally,”Sheeran asked Bono point blank,“You’re not going to get me into politics, are you?”The quote arrives at an interesting moment, since Sheeran’s“Loop”tour is still dealing with the fallout from Macklemore being dropped as an opener over a pro-Palestine speech. Sheeran’s band and other openers left the tour in solidarity, and Macklemore donated his entire $1 million in tour earnings to six organizations supporting Palestinians.

U2’s response to the whole conversation has been pretty direct. Bono and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said artists are entitled to choose how involved they want to be in political causes. But they also pushed back hard on the idea that promoters or billionaire owners could have“some influence on what you say or what you do on a stage,”a line many listeners think points at Robert Kraft.

Meanwhile,“Yours Eternally”sits on the opposite end of the spectrum. The track features Ukrainian soldier-artist Taras Topalia and is written from a soldier’s perspective in the Russia-Ukraine war, part of a larger documentary project. So you’ve got one superstar keeping it neutral and one legendary band going full message. Where do you land on artists and politics? Sound off in the comments.