ADAM'S BIO

I went out there in search of experience
To taste and to touch and to feel as much
As a man can before he repents.
- U2 ("The Wanderer")

Born in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, England on March 13, 1960, Adam Clayton went from trying to live on the fringes of society to basking in the glow of its spotlight. When he was 5, his father, Brian, a Royal Air Force pilot, and his mother, Jo, a former air hostess, decided to relocate to Dublin because of Brian's commitment to Aer Lingus. With them, of course, went Adam's sister Sarah Jane (Sindy), while his baby bro, Sebastian, was to be born later there in Ireland.

When Adam turned 8, his parents reluctantly enrolled him in a prep school called Castle Park, the beginnings of a nightmarish educational experience for the little boy. At the boarding school, he was denied all music and TV, and he often suffered the beatings of a gymshoe for his perpetual resistance to the rules. His teachers found his work disappointing and mediocre but Adam always polite and charming. He hated the regimented operation, politics, and sport of Castle Park, so that he was always constantly relieved whenever he got to return to his home on Yellow Walls Road in Malahide. When he returned, he spent his mornings riding his bike to his grandparents' house for breakfast and soaking in the infinite wisdoms of his granddaddy, and the rest of his time wandering along the water and through the woods, listening to music, or reading.

The torture of boarding school would be further amplified when he was sent to St. Columba's College, where he continued to neglect his schoolwork. At the College, Adam became friends with John Lesley, who smuggled in Cream, the Grateful Dead, and CSN&Y into the dorm and played acoustic guitar to the music. In doing so, Lesley, along with the formation of a band at the school, inspired Adam to learn to play. When Lesley proposed starting their own group, Adam realized that music would be his fate - his ultimate mode of rebellion. He convinced his mom to buy him a bass guitar, and in return, he promised to work harder in class. His work did improve but not his behavior. Adam continued to blatantly ignore the rules, specifically the dress code for which he was grounded for at the school. Then, after violating the restriction to the premises, his parents decided to transfer him to Mount Temple to avoid any more trouble.

There he established an equally exotic rep for wearing his fur coat and Arab dresses and for drinking flasks of coffee during class. When Larry Mullen heard that he'd played bass guitar before in another band, he sought Adam out and asked him if he was interested in joining Larry's own. Though he couldn't yet play well enough to be a rock star, Adam certainly looked the part and compensated for his lack of ability with his total dedication to the music and his attempts to master the bass. Once he practically got kicked out of Mount Temple for streaking, all that free time he now had was devoted to booking gigs and finding a manager. Then when journalist Bill Graham referred Paul McGuinness to Adam, the rest became history...the band's history.

While Adam has made his mark in the rock world as one of the greatest bass players of all time, the rock world had made a deeper impression on him than he'd actually wanted. As a member of U2, Adam had taken upon the role of the wild, uninhibited one, not without justification as he posed naked for the Achtung Baby leaflet and carried on numerous sexual affairs with women. Living the life of rock 'n' roll excess, however, would get him arrested for the possession of marijuana and cause him to miss a U2 gig for the first time in their career. Devastated over the breakup of his engagement with Naomi Campbell, Adam seeked the comfort of alcohol and probably drugs and took his mind off her by partying all night long, making him so exhausted that he missed a ZooTV concert. At that point, he realized that his lifestyle had gone too far and committed himself to sobering up. Larry took him under his wing, and together they took lessons to better their respective crafts. Within three weeks after the tour ended, Adam was already sober. (Yay, Adam!!) Since then, Adam's been straight-edge - the way we all love him most.

And as for basking in the spotlight, Adam often now wishes he could renounce many aspects of his fame. While he enjoys the perks of celebrity that allow him financial security, a better chance of helping others, and the chance to meet his idols, it is ULTIMATELY the music that he would just rather be doing. Though he has accepted them as part of his work, Adam would very much like to forgo his responsibilities of photo sessions and press conferences. As for touring, it's something that he does enjoy a lot... until it starts to feel like work (i.e. PopMart). "We work pretty much ten months of the year so when you get to a break - it's usually in the summer or winter, a little like school holidays - all you wanna do is take some time out," says Adam. "Keeping the U2 thing going on requires quite a bit of work." But it's work that your tens of millions of fan will forever be grateful for, Adam. Thanks for it all!!

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Significant Other: currently Susie Smith, who works with Principle Management