- Bono said he one time fell asleep in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House.
- Bono said he was drinking wine, which is is allergic to, with former President Barack Obama.
Bono said he once fell asleep in the White House's Lincoln Bedroom after having drinks with former President Barack Obama.
In his new memoir "Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story," Bono detailed a visit to Obama's White House alongside his wife, Ali Hewson. Bono wrote that toward the end of Obama's time in the White House, he and then-First Lady Michelle Obama frequently invited friends over for dinner and drinks. One night, Obama asked Bono and Hewson to join.
Bono said he opted for wine over cocktails at the event, despite his known allergy to salicylates and salicylic acid, which is found in wine.
"If I'd stuck to the cocktails, all would have been well, but I allowed myself a glass of wine with the meal," Bono recalled. "Or was it two?"
He wrote that if he drinks wine, he typically takes an antihistamine to counteract the allergic reaction, but if he doesn't, "I can go right out. Sound asleep. Wherever."
Bono wrote that he started to feel sleepy, so he excused himself from the dinner table. Within ten minutes, Obama was worried about him and asked Hewson where he went.
"Bono's been gone a while. Is he okay?" Obama asked Hewson, Bono wrote.
When Hewson assured the then-president he was fine and he probably just went "for a sleep," Obama was confused, Bono wrote.
"What do you mean? He's gone for a sleep? Where?" Obama asked.
Bono wrote that Hewson explained that the rock star usually finds a car to sleep in, but she was unsure where he would have been then. She again assured Obama that Bono was fine and he would only be gone for about ten minutes.
Hewson then got up from the table to look for her husband with Obama following closely behind.
"I have to see this. Where could he be?" Obama asked, then remembering an earlier moment, said, "He was asking me earlier about Lincoln's speech, the Gettysburg Address."
The pair walked into the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House and found Bono "out cold, head in the bosom of Abraham Lincoln, on his very bed," Bono wrote.
Bono said he was woken up by the former president himself and tried to laugh off the mishap as hard as Obama and Hewson were.
"He doesn't for a minute believe I have this allergy," Bono wrote of Obama. "He thinks Ali made this up to cover for me. He tells people he can drink me under the table. Rubbish. But he does make a strong martini."