Tokyo International Conference on African Development IV-6/29/2008-Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Need Transcript

Inner Central Breakwater Landfill--Tuesday May 27, 2008-Tokyo Bay

"We believe in taking people out of extreme poverty, and Japan is more successful (in this task) than any other (country). We see this in Southeast Asia" and other regions, Bono, known for his philanthropic activities in Africa, said in Tokyo. "We need Japan to take (the) lead. You are very modest people, sometimes (you) do not step forward to take credit, but you should."

"Tomorrow, Prime Minister Fukuda will make a speech where we will find out how serious Japan is about taking leadership on (fighting poverty in Africa). He is a good man, a gentleman, and we will see how serious Japan is getting ready for the G8 Summit."

He was invited to the event, hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, because of his friendship with renowned architect Tadao Ando, an advocate of the Umi-no-Mori planting project.

Complete transcript needed.

Sundance Film Festival-Park City, Utah-01/27/2008

Anthony Breznican, who interviewed Bono & The Edge at the Sundance Film Festival last week for USA Today, has shared with us some of the interview outtakes, which he posted on his Sundance blog:


Bono's the chattier one, as you would guess, but The Edge has that low-key sense of humor that sneaks up on you. These anecdotes didn't fit into the larger story, but they're still fun little moments.

The drive began at Robert Redford's Sundance Ski Resort about an hour's drive from the main festival in Park City, where their three-dimensional concert film was premiering that night.

Redford invited them over for lunch and then toured them through the facility, catching their fancy with a restored 1890s rosewood bar that he brought in from Wyoming. It was once frequented by the bandit Butch Cassidy and his Hole-in-the-Wall gang.

"They got it from Ireland. It was built in Ireland," Bono says excitedly from the front seat, repeating what Redford had just told them. "It was 500 outlaws holed up and they had everything, but they were complaining about the quality of their bar. Of course a lot of them were Irish as you might imagine."

The Edge smiles and bobs his head in the back seat.

"And a bunch of them get together and go, 'Umm, this bar isn't really up to much. Who's good at bars...?' Butch Cassidy had it commissioned."

"You know, it's probably one of the first Irish bars ever exported out of Ireland," The Edge says.

I tell him, well, the Hole-in-the-Wall gang was a successful operation. The Edge says admiringly: "They had a lot of money."

Bono leans back and says he ordered a Bushmills Irish whiskey at the bar, but then wasn't sure how Redford would respond: "I'll tell you, fairplay to Bob. I order the Bushmills and I thought, uh, in America it's kind of against the law to drink during the day. And he was like, 'Yeah...gulp!'" The singer and guitarist laugh. Bono turns back to the front, "I said, 'This is my kind of man!'"

******************************
We conducted the interview in a car during an hour-long ride to Park City for their premiere, and shortly after we started off on the trip I explained to them that I'd asked friends who were U2 fans for a couple question suggestions.

I hit them with some serious ones, which led to most of the quotes in the top half of the story.

However, my brother, Greg, had responded to my call for a U2 question with: Ask them, if you're riding in a car at the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what would happen?

The guys were in a joking mood (having just done whiskey shots with Robert Redford back at the Sundance Resort) and I wanted to keep things light.

So I asked my brother's stupid question.

Bono laughed, but The Edge was stone-faced, sitting beside me in the back seat.

"I can answer that," he said, holding back a smile.

Bono leaned in from the shotgun seat, while the driver glanced occasionally in the rearview mirror. "Edge is the band scientist," Bono said, pointing at the guitarist. "Go."

The Edge said, with finality, that what would happen is -- nothing. "No. Because the speed of light...is...it." He crossed his hands in the air.

Bono considered this in silence, then looked at me and asked, "Know what I think?"

The Edge, the driver and the reporter were all ears. Bono said: "I think you can see where you've come from..."

Twin eyebrows raised over his circular violet sunglasses as he gauged our reactions.

"Ooohh," The Edge said turning to me slowly. "He's very deep, you know."

******************************
Bono said the best for him was the rendition of "Miss Sarajevo," a song the band had originally recorded with a tenor part sung by Luciano Pavarotti.

Hearing it now, Bono said, will raise a lot of memories of his friend, who died last September. "Oh my God, it's going to be very difficult to watch," he said.

U2 and Pavarotti recorded that song in 1995, and over the next 12 years remained close.

"He was a funny one," Bono said. "Pavarotti was so great because he didn't just want everyone to love his music -- but to look like him. So at Christmas he would send these sides of beef and parmesan cheese -- stuff that if you ate you would immediately..." He held his hands out over his belly.

Bono said it was that little thing -- the Christmas present -- that reopened a sense of mourning months after the tenor's death.

"All of the sudden this year, after Christmas, I went and opened the fridge just to look for it. Over 10 years it's been happening. The fridge is filled by Pavarotti." He looks at The Edge in the back seat with me. "And yours too, I'm sure."

The Edge says, "Yes, mmm, good stuff."

Bono continues, "I went to open the fridge, and it wasn't there. Nicoletta (Pavarotti's widow) had sent something, though she would send something more discrete. But he was opera..."

******************************
They also played a one-off song, written for their friend Ronnie Drew, co-founding folk singer of The Dubliners, who at 73 is battling cancer.

"It was a night with some wine bottles," Bono said, as The Edge listened on from the back seat. "We started talking about great singers, like this guy from The Dubliners. We started talking about Robert Hunter from The Grateful Dead. Never met him, but he learned German to translate The Duino Elegies, by Rainer Maria Rilke, one of my favorite poets. So I happen to know him from that..."

The singer went on: "With the wine, we thought we could ring him, and we got the number eventually and we were going to write a song for this fellow Ronnie Drew. Anyway, he misheard the message -- not write a song for Ronnie Drew to sing, but write a song about Ronnie Drew."

Bono and The Edge agreed that worked out even better.

"He sent us some lyrics and we worked on the music and lyrics together. It was just recorded a few days ago," Bono said, slipping a homemade CD into the car stereo.

It's a jaunty Irish folk tune with lines that sound like a pub-full of admirers reciting a toast. Sinead O'Connor and Andrea Coor sing backup.

"It's not for our album it's just a gift for him," the singer said. "I think we might put it out in the next few months, or the summer. I don't know when it will be put out. He's one of the great folk singers of all time and we’re trying to cheer him from the sidelines as he fights against his illness."

I said the subject reminded me of an earlier song for another singer, "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad," written for Frank Sinatra in his final years.

Bono described performing it for Ol' Blue Eyes, but said: "The best bit with that would have been if Frank had sang it." Then he launches into a Sinatra lounge impression, complete with the flat Hoboken accent: "Yes, I've been GREEDY / All of my LIFE / Greedy with my children / my lover, my wife..."

"We played it for him," Bono said wistfully. "He never sang it though."

******************************
Bono had just finished playing me a demo track from their upcoming album, a song called "No Line on the Horizon" that he was inspired to slip into the CD player by the gorgeous white sunset settling over the surrounding mountains.

Bono looks back at the guitarist and says, "Edge -- look, it's 6 o'clock," and the two look from the green digits on the stereo to each other. Bono explains that numbers are significant in each of the new songs, and slips in another CD that may be the first track on the album. It's opening lyric is, "It's six o'clock..."

I said, "Isn't it weird how certain numbers seem to turn up in our lives? It seems like this kind of thing is especially common kind of game with musical people, who must make numbers and patterns a part of their art." "Yeah, we like numbers," Bono says.

Some friends of mine in a Pittsburgh band called Race the Ghost have that thing with 316, which would pop up with all of us at strange times -- the address of a party, part of an important phone number, the title of a Van Halen song, the row and seat number at a concert...

"Three-sixteen?" Bono says, turning down the music to ponder it. For a moment I think he's going to dismiss the phenomenon. Then he jerks his head toward the guitarist and says knowingly: "Edge's is 42."

"I discovered recently that it is actually the secret number of the universe," The Edge says.

"What is it?" Bono asks, and The Edge repeats himself. Bono feigns concern and says, "Steady on, The Edge..."

"Why is that funny? Quite honestly..." The Edge replies. He's so stoic it's hard to tell if he's joking -- but he's joking. "It was in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...But scientists have recently discovered that it's actually true..."

The Edge's voice is then drowned out as Bono blasts the volume on his jangling guitar intro, just in time for the "six o'clock" lyric. Bono sings along with himself for a moment, then turns the sound down again and looks back at the guitarist and smiles sarcastically: "Say it again...Sorry, Edge, for interrupting you, oh master of the universe."

The Edge is undaunted by his friend's teasing and describes a mathematical study about 42 recurring in formulas relating to mass, energy, speed and other physical properties. It's clear he's the scientist, and Bono is the poet -- but both see a mysticism in numbers from different directions.

While transcribing the interview recording, I was trying to Google the number 42 and see what Edge was talking about. But I stopped when I noticed something...

This discussion started precisely at minute 42 on the recording. No joke. I went back to 3:16 on the recording, and that is the precise end of my very first question.

Coincidence...or Mysterious Ways?

Larry King Live Interview

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

Interview with Bono

Aired October 13, 2006 - 21:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight, Bono, he's hanging out with the president on Air Force One and joining Oprah for a major shopping spree. Why do world leaders, even the pope, make time to see this Irish rock star? How come he gets more serious stuff done than a lot of politicians?

Bono is here with Bobby Shriver. They're men with an urgent global mission and they're aiming to save millions of lives and you can help; Bono, next on LARRY KING LIVE.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Good evening and welcome to what we consider a very special edition of LARRY KING LIVE, our special guests, both in New York, are Bono, the acclaimed musician, lead singer for U2, global philanthropist and activist, co-creator of Product RED.

It's a groundbreaking initiative designed to bring new money into the global fund and help fight AIDS in Africa; and joining him is Bobby Shriver, who created the Product RED campaign with Bono. He and Bono also co-founded DATA, Debt, AIDS, Trade and Africa.

Bono, what got you interested particularly in this project?

BONO, CO-FOUNDER (RED) CAMPAIGN AND DATA: Well, you know, with Bobby we've been, you know, banging (INAUDIBLE) and tramping the corridors of, you know Congress and the capitals around the world on extreme poverty issues. But we were realizing that all the work that we're doing there, all the development stuff can be undone by this tiny little virus, HIV/AIDS.

It is shocking to think that it's 5,000 Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease. That's like two twin towers a day or a tsunami every month and they're dying because they can't get the drugs we can get in any corner store. So, we were trying to figure out a way of raising money for the global fund, which gets the drugs to the people in Africa who don't have them.

And, also we're trying to -- how do we create heat in the shopping malls? I mean we've got the churches and the student activists with the one campaign. There's two and a half million American have signed up for that. But how do you get to where people are where they live and how do you get -- how do you access the firepower of corporate America and the creative genius in their marketing departments? So, that's where Product RED started.

KING: Bobby, do we live under the presumption, I guess in America we do that AIDS is no longer a big deal that people live a long time with it and it's not the factor it was?

BOBBY SHRIVER, CO-FOUNDER (RED) CAMPAIGN AND DATA: Probably, Larry, you're right. I know in many of the gay communities that's a big concern, particularly among young men. They figure that they can take a pill and survive even if they are HIV positive.

But, as you know, in Africa people don't have this medicine at all. In fact, many people don't know that there is such a medicine, so part of what these RED phones, when people buy these RED phones or these RED shirts, we get the money and we buy the drugs for these folks and it's super, super important that they continue to live, look after their families.

We don't -- we have ten million orphans now, Larry, in Africa, 14 and 15-year-old boys and girls heading households because their parents have died because they don't have these 40-cent medicines. It's just got to stop.

And, as Bono was saying, that's why we've gotten, you know, this is today's "New York Times." I hope I can show this without offending you, Larry, but there's your friend Stephen Spielberg and they bought -- this is an amazing thing.

BONO: Chris Rock.

SHRIVER: Chris Rock bought the back page of every section today of the "New York Times."

KING: I saw it.

SHRIVER: And this kind of communication is the thing that we were never in our marching boots, activist, lobbying, educating thing, we were never able to do this kind of thing.

BONO: Well, we couldn't afford it.

SHRIVER: Send people to a website, joinred.com, and say, you know, "Hey, Chris Rock is working on this." Look at him, fantastic, Stephen Spielberg. I don't know if Stephen's ever done an ad before, I don't know. But look at that, what an amazing thing for him to do that.

KING: Bono, you had a -- Bono, you had a short meeting with President Bush yesterday in Chicago on the ground aboard Air Force One. What happened?

BONO: You know, we were sitting on the ground after launching Product RED in Chicago. We had been on Oprah Winfrey. And, they closed down the airspace. They said the president was trying to leave the country. We said, "This is an outrage." We wanted to complain. They said, "Well, you're going to have to complain to the president." So, we said, "Well there are a lot of things we might want to complain to the president." But let's go see him. And, actually one of the things we wouldn't be complaining about this president is what's happening on AIDS.

And, I want to tell you that America is in the lead on AIDS and it's great to be able to meet him and tell him that his leadership has really counted. There is, of course, great support in the Democratic Party also on these things. There's bipartisan support.

But, I think, you know, it's good to be able to show him that it's not just all government money that's going to fight this deadly little virus but the private sector is important.

And, he had always said, "Why is the private sector not getting involved in the global fund?" You know, we want them to spend more on the global fund. And he's always been challenging us back, "Get the private sector to do it." So, we went onboard Air Force One, showed him these products, said we want to see him out jogging wearing his Gap tee shirt, you know.

SHRIVER: There you go, Larry. We're going to have him with -- he's not going to wear "Desired" probably. He'll wear "Inspired." Or, what was the other one, "Perspired." Maybe we'll have him wearing one that says "Perspired."

KING: Are you guys -- are you guys surprised in the area, we don't imagine you're great fans of him generally politically, are you surprised that in the area of AIDS he's come through?

BONO: Well, you know, let me say on extreme poverty it's not clear, you know, who your friends are sometimes. I mean it's true that in the early days on the left they were more supportive of the fight against AIDS. But now you have a conservative president leading the world on AIDS.

But say also on trade, you know, trade is probably the biggest problem facing the continent of Africa. If they could get back to the level of global trade they had in the mid-'70s, it would dwarf all the aid from all over the world that's going to that continent now.

So, getting trade rules re-described to be fairer for the world's poor, sometimes on the left they go missing on you there, you know. And so, it's not clear left or right. We've always with DATA just treated people exactly the same.

And, of course, I come from a labor home. I come from the north side of Dublin and, you know, there are many things many politicians do whom I meet that I don't agree with but I only have to agree with them on one thing and that's that they put the world's poor at the center of -- center stage.

KING: Bobby.

SHRIVER: Larry, one of the interesting things can I just say on that point about the Republicans, one of the interesting things we've seen with them is this emphasis on effectiveness and making sure that the money is well spent and that kind of discipline for the American people to know that the money that they are giving, and they're giving the most of any country in the world in this AIDS fight that that money is being monitored by Republicans who are watching for a rate of return on investment. That's a very good thing.

BONO: That must be hard for a Democrat like you to say.

KING: Yes.

SHRIVER: I have to give my props where they're due. They've done a great job.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Hold it one second, Bono. Where, Bobby, do we buy these RED products?

SHRIVER: You buy them in every Gap store today. In fact, we're having a bit of a rush on the Gap stores here in New York. They're all sold out of the shirts and the other products there. This incidentally, Larry is a Gap RED Product, so not all RED products are red. They just have a red thing here.

KING: This is one day only?

SHRIVER: No, no, no. They're going to be on sale for five years, five years.

KING: Oh but it started today.

SHRIVER: And these shoes are going to be available in the Gap today. The Motorola RED phone at the Sprint stores in about two weeks, these RED razors will be available in all Sprint stores in the United States.

KING: Why did you pick the color red?

SHRIVER: It's the color of emergency, Larry. We always tell people it's an emergency that 6,000 people are dying every day from a treatable disease and they all nod their heads and then don't act like it's an emergency. So, we want them to know that it is an emergency and we're acting like it's an emergency. We're here working to get this stuff going on and they can do it when they're in the store.

BONO: Yes, people need to call us.

SHRIVER: You know, everybody is buying these phones and iPods and tee shirts and jeans anyway so why not buy a RED one. That's the idea of RED.

KING: We'll take a break and when we come back we'll ask Bono what inspires him to do all that he does. Bono and Bobby Shriver are with us. This is a historic day, the beginning of Product RED, going to go on a long time at all the Gap stores. You can buy lots of things and help a lot of people much less fortunate than you. We'll be right back. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Bono and Bobby Shriver. Bono, why do you do all that you do? What inspires you to do -- you raise more money probably than any single individual in the world, why?

BONO: Well, you know, to be fair it's not my money. It's my time and time is precious to me. And, you know, we raise money in DATA from governments but we also now with RED will be raising money through, you know...

SHRIVER: The malls.

BONO: ...you know, the shopping malls. And, again, this is not -- we're not asking the American people to put their hands in their pocket. They just have to upgrade their choice, choose a RED product and those companies will raise the money.

KING: But why do you do all this?

BONO: Well, you know, I'm sure there's a complicated response to that and that, you know, maybe I haven't had time to figure out. I started off during Live Aid in the mid-'80s. U2 played on Live Aid and I kind of got caught up in this and ended up in Africa working in an orphanage in Ethiopia during the famine there.

And, I certainly saw things there that I wish I hadn't and had experiences I wish I and my wife had not had. And, you know, you say you won't forget but we did. We got back to our lives. But always in the back of my head I kind of had a feeling that this kind of poverty is not there just by accident.

There's a sort of structural nature of this and I started to discover that, for instance, that Africa was paying much more back to the western world servicing old debts than it was ever getting, receiving in aid monies and I thought this was mad.

And, you know, we raised $250 million or something at Live Aid back in the mid-'80s. Well Africa is paying that every few weeks back to us. So, I started to see things through a slightly different prism, one that you might call justice rather than charity.

It offended my sense of fairness is probably the answer to your question. And we were talking earlier about this, myself and Bobby, him being a Shriver/Kennedy there's Irish blood there and me, somewhere in the back of your head there has to be a sense that as Irish people we faced a very brutal famine, which was not as people often describe as a tater blight. It was actually -- it was organized by the then oppressive British forces in Ireland that we couldn't get to the food.

And, I started, you know, any Irish person has this folk memory of famine and, you know, as a result of that famine, you know, you have, you know, you have all the policemen in New York now. SHRIVER: You have Shrivers in California.

BONO: And Catholics in office.

KING: Wait a minute.

SHRIVER: You got (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Are you saying it's in your genes?

BONO: I'm saying, well they're Gap jeans today and as you're walking down the street feeling good in your Gap jeans you know that some people...

KING: (INAUDIBLE). Bobby.

SHRIVER: Yes, sir.

KING: What do you think drives Bono?

SHRIVER: I think (INAUDIBLE), Larry, I was telling the story earlier about I asked my mother a little while ago why she really started the Special Olympics, which as you know she started.

KING: Sure do.

SHRIVER: And she said rage. And I think, you know, there's a lot of that in B. He probably wouldn't say that and there's a certain amount of that in me. It's just the unfairness of poor people or vulnerable people being bullied there's something very offensive about that. If you see someone being bullied you really want to stop it.

And, you know, mentally challenged people were being bullied when my mom started that work. People with AIDS in Africa right now are being bullied by us not giving them that medicine, you know.

KING: Your uncle, Bobby, said once in a historic quote, "Life isn't fair."

SHRIVER: Yes, life's not fair, Larry, but if you see a big guy beating up a little guy and you're a big guy, you go off and knock the big guy off the little guy. That's not fair or unfair. That's just, you know, you're a bully, get off.

So, that's maybe where the Irish people and those who traveled over here in the 19th Century and those who were born in the 20th Century, you know, we are mad when we see people getting bullied and, you know, it's just not right. It's not American. I mean that's the cool thing.

And we were reading this poll the other day that the number one movie star, Larry, in America today is still John Wayne. He hasn't had a movie in the theaters, as you know, in 40 years. And why is that?

You know, people like, Americans like that guy who just goes out and stops injustice and does it, you know, doesn't wait for the government to do it. We just go out and stop it ourselves and that's what we're doing here with this RED stuff. We're going to (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Bono, can you see progress in Africa?

BONO: Oh, my goodness, yes.

KING: Yes.

BONO: I mean since 2002 when we started DATA, I think there's been another seven democracies. That's now 31 democracies in Africa. Everywhere you go in Africa, by the way, I just was there a few months ago, you find, you know, Chinese people in the bars, you know.

There's money to be made in Africa and people sense that there's a strategic value in Africa in the war against terror. You know, there's, you know, it's 40 percent Muslim. It's a giant continent and they like Americans. They like Irish people. And let's be with them in their moment of need.

And, you know, what Bobby was saying there about, you know, it's not American, well as an Irish person let me just tell you for a second what I think of America. You know, America's not just a country. It's an idea that strikes me and that idea is somehow bound up in the idea of equality.

It's in your Declaration. You know, in the Declaration of Independence there's a remarkable poetic track but, you know, down toward the end of it, it says, you know there are all these men signed on, committing treason I believe when they signed the Declaration...

KING: That's right.

BONO: ...but they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the idea of equality. Now, I'm not pledging my life or maybe may I say not even my sacred fortune but I'm certainly ready to pledge my honor to it and that seems an American idea. And right now these are dangerous times. For me it's very worrisome that people don't like America and I am offended when people don't like America.

KING: Hold it right there, Bono. Let me get -- I'm going to get a break and come right back with Bono and Bobby Shriver. This is a big day the start of Product RED. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO: I don't know why I sang there. I just saw these people who really I'm sure hadn't a clue who I was probably being told, you know, when you do this, this is a Bono song, a U2 song and I just felt for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Bono and our friend Oprah went shopping yesterday, a Product RED shopping spree. What was that like, Bono?

BONO: Well, she's...

SHRIVER: A good shopper.

BONO: She's a good shopper. And, you know, this is like, you know, it was like running around Piccadilly with the Queen of England, you know, being in Chicago with Oprah. And, you know, Oprah has followed through on her convictions and her concern for the continent of Africa has led to some great actions.

She was just excited that this wasn't the usual kind of worthy thing. We weren't weighed down here by worthiness. It was fun. It was a sexy side to RED going shopping and meeting people where they are in the malls, you know. She was great. She was really something. We love her.

KING: Bobby, do you think celebrities have a responsibility to do things like Bono does?

SHRIVER: I think all Americans, Larry, have a desire. I don't think it's -- and we grew up with that responsibility idea. But I found in my own life that it's a desire. It actually makes me feel better. And, I think Oprah and some of the other people who are working with us on these projects, Penelope Cruz, the great Spanish actress, people really want to feel that.

You see with Bono walking down the street here people come up to him and say, you know, "I want to help you," you know. They say, "Sign my record," but they also want to help because they know he and his movement of people in the One campaign and around the world are trying to do the right thing.

There's a tremendous desire in people to do the right thing. So, I more like to think of it that way than responsibility because that feels a little worthy and a little, you know, oh, whereas if you just do it, it's a joyful work to be able to do a good thing.

KING: Bono, do you still run into people who say, "Yes, we got problems at home though?"

BONO: Yes, you know, that's for sure but they're a different kind of problem and, you know, I've seen people cueing up to die outside of (INAUDIBLE), people cueing up to die, three in a bed. Recently, I saw six in a bed, people underneath the bed and just it's a different kind of problem.

This is their moment of need. This is a great royal people, the Africans. They're entrepreneurial people. They are being -- they're being -- it's a perfect storm has come against them of disease and poverty and I just think this is our moment to show what we're about.

You know, as I was saying earlier dangerous time we're living in, this is the moment where we should show the world why we have amassed all this wealth and power that this is the moment for showing what our innovation and technology and pharmaceuticals can do. We can really do this and we can change the world for millions of people who are living in squalor but maybe more importantly in these dangerous times we can change the way those people see us and that might be critical if not more important.

SHRIVER: Larry, can I just follow up on that?

KING: Sure.

SHRIVER: And show you the shoe, which looks like a very modern thing. This cloth is dyed by women in Mali with mud. It's not dye. Converse went down and bought this fabric from these people. They burst into tears when they realized how much fabric Converse was going to buy. These are for sale in shoe stores and in Gap.

And this shows you that people in Africa who are dying of HIV are not just sort of, you know, poverty stricken people who can't do anything. They're artistic people. They've been making this kind of genius stuff for 1,000 years. So, we learned from them and were moved by them, the cleverness.

And someone was asking me the other day, if we had Keith Harring (ph), the great New York painter, design these shoes and I said, "No, these are designed by women in Mali, who have been doing this for 1,000 years." And the people were like, "Whoa, really?" And, yes, there they are.

KING: Other companies involved include Giorgio Armani and Motorola, American Express, Myspace.com in the United Kingdom, Apple, lots more to talk about with the great Bono and Bobby Shriver. They're involved in this extraordinary campaign, Product RED, a groundbreaking initiative designed to bring new money into the global fund and help fight AIDs in Africa; back with Bono and Bobby right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Bono and Bobby Shriver, they're both in New York. This campaign, Bono, started in Great Britain, didn't it? How did it do there?

BONO: Yes, it's just getting going really there. There we have Amex, which is really great. We've got a RED credit card. Let me show it to you. You know, these credit cards usually tell people what you have, you know, whether it's black or gold.

This is -- we like to think this one is about who you are. And we think there's a movement, it's certainly clear in the UK where we call it conscious consumerism, where people are just -- they realize they have power in their pocket, that they can make these giant corporations do what they want by deciding where they're going to purchase.

And it's starting in the UK. It's only actually even in the UK now is -- we're just really getting going and just getting the full stock in and the Gap and Armani and Motorola. It's pretty exciting though.

KING: Bobby, how do we know I buy a pair of shoes, $30, how much of that $30 goes directly to help AIDS in Africa.

SHRIVER: That's a great question, Larry and the answer thank god is 100 percent. We never, that is, our organization never touches that money. It goes directly to the Global Fund, which is a bank in Switzerland that lends money to countries or grants money to countries against very strict criteria.

So people can feel the money is well handled. A very low overhead at the Global Fund and they invest in countries. The first $10 million that we earned in this has now been invested in Rwanda and Swaziland. And they're doing great things, buying the medicine. Two pills a day if you take these two pills, one in the morning and one at night, 40 cents, you stay alive. That's the thing people don't know. That's what we're using the money to buy.

KING: Sorry, Bono, go ahead.

BONO: Sorry, Larry. You're in this building in the Time Warner building we are and there's a canteen. There's people sitting around. While I've been in the canteens in Africa with AIDS activists. Now these are the heroes running up the burning building, these are the firemen running up the burning building.

And to discover that they don't have access to these drugs was a real shock to me. And I was there once when a course of drugs arrived that were for one person. And to hear these noble people come up with reasons why they shouldn't be the person who got the drugs, why somebody else should, you've got two children or you're younger, no, you're older, was a real moment for me.

And I thought, wow, the 21st century, we've got these drugs over here. They cost, thanks to Bill Clinton, they're down as little as 40 cents a day. And here's this -- here's just this huge hemorrhaging of human life. It just -- it's just bewildering really that we're not just getting the drugs to the people. We're trying, as I say, America's in the lead there. But it's still -- we're still losing the battle in the fight against aids. That's one of the reasons why we want to associate with winners, you know, people who are great at getting your attention, these big corporations.

KING: Doesn't Bobby, doesn't the Global Fund aid other things?

SHRIVER: Yes, it does. It funds tuberculosis and malaria, which are also giant killers, as you know Larry, of poor people. But we focused our stuff on AIDS because we think that this medicine and the delivery of it is really important.

KING: So product RED, Bobby, is AIDS only, right?

SHRIVER: Yes, sir.

KING: More with Bono and Bobby Shriver on Product RED. It's back next on LARRY KING LIVE, don't go away. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Bono and Bobby Shriver. Why, Bono, did you describe this as punk capitalism?

BONO: Well, there's a bit of punk rock about it because it's really up front and kind of in your face. And it's, you know, we have this thing, I grew up, I'm in a band, and I've had kind of a little -- I'm always looking a little bit sideways at big business and wondering, they're out for profits, blah, blah, blah.

Then you start to realize that there's some very smart people working these corporations and how would we get these really smart people to work for the world's poor? I mean, as well as getting the drugs to the people who really need them, these people now have Steve Jobs working for them, these people now have Trey Laird at Gap, who's just a brilliant marketing genius. These people have all the design team in Motorola.

KING: There was a time, Bono when people who preceded you, rock stars, disdained consumerism, wouldn't go talk to corporate America, didn't like the corporate idea. What changed?

BONO: Well, in my experience, some of the people who were so anti-the man weren't paying their road crew and wouldn't talk to people on the street.

So I don't care about what came before and you know, you should pick interesting enemies because they define you. Your enemies define you. And it's very easy to pick a fight with, you know, corporate America. And corporate America is responsible for a lot of blandness, as you walk down High Street.

But corporate America is also responsible for the iPod or the RED Razr. And so I try to look at things differently from my predecessors and I just want to, you know, I just want a fresh slate. I don't take that baggage. I've been given a great life because the music industry paid U2 very well. We were never ripped off.

So I don't have those stories that I can tell you where you know, we were taken advantage of. They didn't happen. Maybe that's embarrassing. Maybe I should make some up. But we had a great time here in America, U2. I believe in this country. And I believe it's very American to say, you know, that might be a high hill to climb, but it's worth it.

I mean, Bobby's uncle I guess it was, in 1963 said, JFK said, by the end of the decade, we're going to put a man on the moon. Now, they weren't polling, you know, what was upper most in the mind of the United States' electorate. He led and the world followed. And we in Ireland and all over the world looked and went, wow what was that these Americans are crazy. They can put a man on the moon.

And you know, this is -- that's the America I love. And I think we're not asking President Bush or Tony Blair or whoever it is, we're not asking them to put a man on the moon. In fact, we're asking to put mankind back on earth. We can be the generationing that ends extreme poverty. By that, I mean stupid poverty. You know what that is, Larry. There's always going to be poverty, but we don't have to put up with this abuse of our humanity. We really don't. This is the 21st century. This is America. This is LARRY KING LIVE.

KING: Bobby, according to America's research group, 23-to-28 percent of shoppers respond to campaigns that direct a part of the purchasing dollars to a cause. Do you consider that high?

SHRIVER: I consider it a number that's going to grow. And I just want to say, Larry, on the corporate America point, you know, we always considered ourselves as having clients.

So when we're trying to buy this medicine for people, basically, anywhere where people are not wildly unethical, we will go to get the money. I know when Bono first started working in Washington, people felt we shouldn't go see Senator Jesse Helms. They thought we at some certain point shouldn't go see certain other people, but we went to see them anyway because we thought they could help us.

So it's a very nice thing to say you won't deal with people if your client isn't dying, as Bono said, six to a bed. If your clients are dying six to a bed, you'd better go get the money and get them the medicine.

KING: Let me get a break and we'll be back with more of Bono and Bobby Shriver. Product RED, and it started today. Don't go away.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up at the top of the hour on "360," breaking news on the escalating crisis with North Korea. The Pentagon confirmation within the past few hours that radioactivity has been detected around the site. North Korea says it conducted a nuclear test. The story developing right now. We're just starting to see reaction from Washington, as well as around the world. We'll bring you the latest.

And details on another Republican scandal exploding on Capitol Hill today. The White House trying to distance itself from the repercussions. The question is, can they back away far enough before the November elections? All that at the top of the hour on "360" in 15 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Bono, you performed in the New Orleans Superdome two weeks ago. What was that like?

BONO: That was pretty cool. The Edge got us all there and brought Green Day there. And he's got a thing called Music Rising, which is to get cash back into the hands of the musicians who lost their instruments in New Orleans. We had a real time of it. That was pretty amazing.

KING: Did you go down when Katrina, right after Katrina happened? BONO: No, I did not.

KING: What did you make of what you saw then this time?

BONO: You know, I saw a city, you know, rebuilding. I saw a city still angry at the bureaucracy that stops them really finishing that build. But also saw people really determined to come through, and that was inspiring.

KING: Bobby, what does the -- does the Foley scandal give you pause? You're always interested in politics with the family you're in.

SHRIVER: I -- I'm more interested, Larry, as you know in trying to do the right thing and start stuff up. I feel badly for everybody involved in a bad thing like that. So you know, I -- I'm interested in getting stuff done.

As you know, the Shrivers, my dad ran for president later in his life. But really we were always about trying to start stuff, the Peace Corps, Head Start, Special Olympics, you know and the RED campaign. You know, we're the starters of the family.

And so I feel bad for anybody involved in that thing and I hope that more good people will come into politics. I mean, the fact that people don't feel that they can go into elective office and make a difference is a concern to our country. We need the best people in public office. There's a lot at stake. They're the lives of these people in Africa at stake in public office, education in our country is at stake.

We're graduating 75,000 engineers in the United States this year and they're graduating two million in China. Of our 75,000, 40,000 are foreign born. So you know, if America's going to be what America was in the 20th century, if we're going to be that in the 21st century, we've got to get busy and we need leadership in public office and good people.

KING: How is your dad?

SHRIVER: He's cheerful. He has Alzheimer's. It's a struggle. But, the good news is that he's very cheerful. He and my mom still live in Potomac, Maryland, right outside of DC and my mom is still harassing my brother, who's running the Special Olympics and calls me up every day and says, you ought to get onto yourself, Bobby. Have you called that guy I told to you call yesterday? I mean, why didn't you do this? You ought to tell Bono, he should talk about that. And give me his number. I'm going to call him right now and give him some suggestions.

KING: How is your mom, by the way? We had a scare about her, didn't way?

SHRIVER: We did, yes, she did have a scare. She was out at Maria's conference and she hurt her knee. Last year when she was out there she had a stroke. I'll tell you a funny Oprah story. She had a thing about a year and a half ago and I drove her up to the hospital in Boston, checked her in there, and it was on the news there she was very sick.

And somehow or another, Oprah saw this. I don't know if I told you this and phoned me, found me in the Holiday Inn there. The phone rang at 1:00 in the morning. And she said, how are you doing? She goes, how's it going? I said, oh, how did you found me here? She goes, well I heard she was in this hospital and there are three hotels within a mile and I called you here and how are you doing?

And I said, well, she's da, da, da. Oprah said to me, I'm not asking you about how she's doing. She's going to live forever. I'm asking you how you're doing.

BONO: Well that's for sure.

KING: Bono...

SHRIVER: She's going to live forever.

KING: Bono, how did you and Bobby come together?

BONO: Well, you -- Eunice. I mean, this is really -- his mother is my favorite woman in the world outside of my family. You know, she is a real inspiration to me and I called her, I said, we're trying to doing this drop the debt campaign there in 1998, I think it was. I said will you help me? She said, you know, you should call Bobby. And I did, and I'm very glad I did.

But that whole family put their shoulder to the door on these issues. It's great to have these ideas. You know, I'm an artistic person. I'm a creative person. But if they're not executed, they don't amount to anything. And so I'm very proud to be on your show with my partner here, Bobby.

KING: We'll be back with our closing moments with Bono and Bobby Shriver right after these messages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Bono and Bobby Shriver and our moments that are left, a couple of other things we'll be covering. Again, Product RED started today. It started in Gap stores. You could be in shopping malls all over America, look for product RED's products sold in various outlets. And when you do, all of that goes to fight AIDS in Africa.

Bobby, I told you this off the air and I'll say it on, I saw a movie today that's a remarkable movie called "Bobby" about your uncle, the late Robert Kennedy. It's the last day of his life, starts at 7:00 in the morning at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and goes up to his untimely death late at night. Emilio Estevez wrote it and directed it. A whole bunch of stars in it. Have you seen it?

SHRIVER: Have I not. KING: You will be enthralled. You'll walk out of there with a tear in your eye and at the same time, proud of your family and of this country. It's an extraordinary movie. You knew about it, right, of course?

SHRIVER: I did indeed. I've actually spoken to Emilio about it once or twice, so I did know about it. And so I'm thrilled that you like it as much as you do, Larry.

And I hope just going back to my comment a moment ago, I know there are a lot of Robert Kennedys out in the United States now and I hope more of them run for office. I hope they don't get discouraged by the Foley scandal. We need that quality person. People want to vote for people like that. That's the saddest thing to me. People say to me it's so sad that this happened or that happened. And then they say and the saddest thing is I've never had a chance to vote for someone like that in my life.

So we need people, men and women in our country to run for office, to take part in the political process, to talk about AIDS in Africa, to understand what the issues are facing our country in the 21st century. They're big issues, critical importance. We need the smart and gutsy people like uncle Bobby. He was a tough customer, and he got tough stuff done. And that's what we need.

KING: Bono, how long is U2 going to be around? How long are you going to keep on, keeping on?

BONO: You know, that's where I want to be. I don't want to be here on Larry King talking about these issues. I want to be at home in a rehearsal room playing with this band that I've grown up with and writing songs no one's ever heard before, but are going to get out on the radio.

This is the biggest thrill in my life, and you know, I don't come on your shows talking about myself or promoting U2 or anyone's shows. I'm here because these issues are important. But they -- I wish somebody else was doing this stuff, and I want to be with my band. I'm actually sick of not being in U2. You know, it's a thrill to serve the world's poor, and an honor. But my actual gift is I wake up in the morning with melodies in my head and then I sing them. That's what I want to be doing and so I'm going to be with U2 as long as they'll have me in the band.

KING: I think they'll have you awhile.

BONO: Thank you.

KING: And Bono, I salute you and I thank you every much. And Bobby, you guys do great work. Anything we can do to help, just ask.

BONO: Go to the Gap, Larry, and buy these shoes. I want to see them next time I see you in Beverly Hills with these shoes on. All the CNN people want to see you talking on this RED Motorola phone.

KING: I'll be there tomorrow. Thank you Bono, thank you Bobby. Product RED, it began today, look for it everywhere. Bobby Shriver and Bono. "A.C. 360" is next. Thanks for joining us and good night.

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Turning now to a story we've been talking about all morning, Bono, and his mission to help fight poverty and AIDS in Africa. We're going to have my exclusive interview with Bono in just a moment, but first a look at his work and legacy, too.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): He's the frontman for one of the world's great rock bands. And the pointman for the Global Aid for Africa Campaign. Bono's interest in Africa dates back to the mid- '80s, and the Band Aid and Live Aid projects, all efforts to raise money and awareness of famine in Africa. Bono wanted to know more and wanted to help. He went to Africa and spent six eye-opening weeks working at an orphanage in Ethiopia. Since then, he's been tireless in his efforts to end poverty in Africa. He founded the group DATA, which stands for debt, AIDS, trade, Africa.
BONO, SINGER/ACTIVIST: I don't think what's happening in Africa, with AIDS in particular and just the poverty and despair there, is a cause. I think it's an emergency. And lots of people have causes, and I have. But 69,000 people die ever day -- not a cause, an emergency.
S. O'BRIEN: Last July, Bono and Bob Geldof staged Live 8, billed as the biggest rock concert ever with a powerful message for the world's most powerful leaders. Days after Live 8, members of the G8, the world's eight most industrialized countries, responded. They pledged to cancel the debt of the 18 poorest African nations, and to increase aid by $50 billion by 2010.Bono is the only person to be nominated for a Grammy, an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize.
S. O'BRIEN (on camera): It's been almost a year since those G8 promises. So what is the status? Bono joins us from Monaco this morning. It's nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.DATA said it was going to...
BONO: Thanks. Thanks for having us on.
S. O'BRIEN: It's our pleasure.DATA said it would have this report to serve as a report card, but also a road map for the next years coming. So let's start with the report card part of it. Would you say it's been successful, it gets a stellar grade, or would you say that the G8's commitments get a failing grade at this point so far?
BONO: Well, there's good news and bad news, the DATA report shows. There's a couple of high grades to be given. Maybe we should start with those. I mean, just in the United States, you should be very proud that you have a truly historic AIDS initiative. It was an unfathomable, even a few years ago, to imagine that you could get, I think it's probably 600,000 people on anti-retroviral drugs in an 18-month period. On motorcycles and on bicycles, those drugs got out there, and I think you should be very proud about that.Though, that said, Congress in the last months have tried to block the president's request for his AIDS money for next year, and that, that's bewildering. You know, I was just in Africa a few weeks ago, and there's kids following me around like I'm a hero. They think I'm American. I don't explain where Ireland is. And I'm saying, you know, the reason she's following me around is because her mother, her father, her sister, her brother, all HIV-positive, all going to die, but these drugs are on their way from America.
S. O'BRIEN: What you're talking about...
BONO: And she thinks I'm a hero. The idea of going back to that kid and saying actually, the Congress cut the budget, sorry about that, is just obscene.
S. O'BRIEN: You're talking about this $3 billion that they're debating right now, and Congress is sort of saying, well, no, more like $600 million is what we're thinking about, which is a, you know, massive percentage cut there. Is the crux of the problem that the leaders of the G8 can pledge all they want, but at the end of the day, if you don't have public support and if you don't have congressional support, and then, frankly, if you don't have the president willing to put political capital on the line and push it through, it's just not going to happen.
BONO: Soledad, you're exactly right. And I think the cavalry here are going to turn out to be the American people. They're organizing in ways that are very inspiring, across the political spectrum, you know. There's two -- I think it's maybe 2.2 million Americans have joined the one campaign recently, one.org, because they're serious about this. They're soccer moms. They're student activists. They're NASCAR dads. They're hip-hop stars. I mean, it's not just rock stars and policy wonks that are on this. And I think it says something deep about the way Americans feel about America right now, which is, they do not like to see their flag disrespected in far- off places around the world. They're very proud of this AIDS initiative. They want to put kids in schools, because they know that Democracy is being taught in those schools.I was in a school in Abuja with Gordon Brown, the finance minister, the chancellor of (INAUDIBLE), the U.K. And next door to where we were sitting, there was a class being taught in Nigeria about democracy, complicated questions that the kids could easily answer.A thousand miles from there in northern Nigeria, there are madrassas where children are being taught to hate us.So I think that it's a missed opportunity not to keep the promises made in the G8 and get more kids to school. Because of the debt cancellation movement -- that's another thing I want to give a good mark on, debt cancellation. They did follow through on that, and when I was recently in Africa, 15 million more kids were going to school, because of the drop-the-debt movement. And all the people that got out on the streets there should, you know, should give themselves a high five. That was really something.But there's 40 million more African children that want to go to school who can't, and in these dangerous times it might be just smart to get them to school.So, unless we keep track of these promises and fulfill them, they won't go to school. So that's the kind of yin and yang of this DATA report.
S. O'BRIEN: There is a theory, Bono, as I'm sure you've heard before, that people will say, listen, what Africa really needs is something that money can't buy. Africa needs political growth and socioeconomic growth. And by -- sometimes by giving large chunks of money, what you really do is fund brutal dictators, who often, as we know from Africa's history, steal the money, take the money, and it never gets to the people who really, really need it. How do you make sure that doesn't happen?
BONO: That used to be true. The Cold War was fought on the African continent, and we in the West propped up some very dangerous dictators by giving them loans and throwing aid at them, because they were not communists. And we can't then point to the waste of those resources as just their fault.Anyway, that era is over. Now we only increase aid to countries where we can see that they're tackling corruption, where there's a clear and transparent process. If there's not, we pull out. In Ethiopia, things were looking great for a while, and then we couldn't see where the money was going, people pulled out. In Uganda, the Global Fund, this extraordinary organization that gets AIDS drugs to people and fights TB and malaria, they pulled out of Uganda because they couldn't see the -- where the money was going.It's a new era of aid, and I think Americans will become much more generous when they know that the money is being spent well. And I can assure you, with the Millennium Challenge corporation supported in Congress, that's what will happen.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's look ahead in the little time I have left with you. You say it's a report card and a road map. You point to a lot of nations that are behind, that aren't really on track to meet their goals, the U.S. included. What has to happen to make sure that in 2010 we're meeting that goal? What has to happen next?
BONO: I think the dawning of on the body politick that this strategic value in dealing with Africa's problems. It's a 40 percent Muslim country. A country like Nigeria is a big oil-producing country. And it would be awful to see Nigeria get into trouble. I think then just at the grassroots level, as we get into the 2008 election, I think politicians will be wise to pay attention to this movement, because it will be five million by then. And you know, that's like -- that's real political muscle.(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: If you want more information on Bono's campaign to help fight poverty, go to data.org, or one.org