Bono: ‘This is a tipping point for Africa’

Williams: You seem to unabashedly use your name and celebrity, as you say, you can't change the fact that celebrities are out of whack in our world. But it gets you in Capitol Hill. It gets you in places like Ghana. And it doesn't seem to matter a whit to you that some of the villages we've been in, we don't hear a lot of U2 music.

Bono: I'm liking the anonymity, I mean, it's a thrill. People who know me say I start walking differently when I'm here. Because I guess, maybe, I think I'm free. I think I'm free of myself consciously of a rock star. Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you. I thought I was over that. I'm really over it when I'm here, because it doesn't exist.

Williams: But it gets you in the door.

Bono: It gets me in the door. But the thing that's going to bring this home is Americans deciding that's what America is about. That's why I'm a fan of America. America is not just a country, it's an idea, and real Americans are getting busy. Like that fella, John Rushkin in Rwanda building villages to prove a model. Like the fella from Boston who's laying fiber optic cable in Rwanda. Putting broadband in Rwanda. There are many people working on this.

Williams: And what's in it for America? If you succeed in Africa, what's in it for them?

Bono: See, I think it's cool to ask that question. What's in it for America. Because I think there's a lot in it for America. Strategically, making friends during wartime. I think that might be smart. Africa is a 40 percent Muslim country. There's extremists working to take advantage of that situation. I think that's smart. Doing business, OK, every bar you go to in the United States, at any big hotel, what do you find? Smart Americans, and Chinese people. This is a very good place to do business. Africans like to do business. And it's a huge growth rate. It's going to be a big business opportunity for America. Third thing, might be important for America, might be important for Europe, it is important to me, is we might actually find our own soul there, here. Something about serving the poor that you rediscover your reason to be. America, remember, is not just a country, it's an idea. And I'm just a fan of that. And I just believe that Americans don't wait for the right time to be great. This is a tipping point for Africa. It's right on the edge of becoming a success story. We just have to get them through this moment. America went through the Great Depression, Ireland went through the Great Famine, Europe lost a third of Europe to the Black Death. We've all been through this. We will remember who our friends are — the people who stand with us at a moment like this.

Williams: Bono to Africa has been a success?

Bono: It's not about Bono to Africa. I keep saying ONE campaign — Matt Damon, Rick Warren, Green Day, Alicia Keys, you know, there's a bigger movement. But when will we know? I'll  accept that question. We will know when the good people of the United States don't see Bono on the “Nightly News” for a while.

Williams: So your goal is to stop being on television?

Bono: My goal, my job, is to put myself out of a job. So I can be in a rock band in all good conscience. And get on with my spoiled rotten rock star's life. I want to go down to the south of France and, you know, dive into the  waters and drink a martini.

Williams: Rick Warren, the hugely popular pastor and author, is a good friend of yours and an ally. He speaks so highly of you. What is an Irish rock star doing partnering with pastor Rick Warren?

Bono: What's exciting about the ONE campaign and ONE.org is people you would never imagine hanging out with each other are hanging out with each other. Rick Warren, and forget U2, Green Day. Alicia Keyes and Bill Gates, you know rock stars and hip hop stars and NASCAR stars hanging out with soccer moms and church folk. And in truth, from the politicians' point of view, rock stars and student activists don't make them nervous. Soccer moms and church folks are who they pay attention to. Now when soccer moms and church folk start hanging out with Green Day and student activists, that makes everybody really nervous. And they have a right to be. Because this is a big, big grass-roots movement.  There's 2 million people signed up to the ONE campaign. By the next election, by 2008, we think that's going to be 5 million Americans, which is about the size of the National Rifle Association.

Williams: And what do you wear to mark your membership in ONE?

Bono: This white band. Sometimes I think these things are kinda corny. But it's kinda cool to be corny for this. So I wear it proudly. And I was proud to see that some of our African friends where we stopped over for the cola nuts, were dying to get that. I think in the airport they were dying to get the wristbands.

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