U2’s The Edge addresses breakup speculation over Larry Mullen Jr. missing Vegas residency

Many U2 fans were up in arms when the band announced they were going on with their Las Vegas residency at the MSG Sphere without drummer Larry Mullen Jr. But while some suggest this will lead to the end of the band, guitarist The Edge insists that’s not the case.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Edge assures fans that “no one is more disappointed than us that Larry won’t be joining us in Vegas.” Larry will be out so he can recover from surgery, and Edge says there’s a good reason why they couldn’t wait for him. The shows were originally supposed to happen in 2021, before the COVID-19 pandemic screwed everything up.

“We made a commitment,” he says. “In the history of U2, you can count the shows we’ve missed on the fingers of one hand.”

And it’s not just fans who aren’t happy about Larry’s absence. “The people who are going to miss Larry the most, I think, will be Bono, Adam (Clayton) and myself,” Edge says. “It’ll be strange to turn around and not see him behind us after all these years. But the shows will be amazing.”

And if that wasn’t enough to convince fans that U2 isn’t ending, Edge offers, “We all know that we shine brighter by being in proximity to each other.” He added, “That’s why it’s going to be very difficult to break up U2 – simply because it works so well for us all.”