1988 GRAMMY AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES

BEST ROCK PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP -- JOSHUA TREE

Edge: Well, uh, we seem to have lost our bass player. He went to the loo a couple of minutes ago and he's still in the back. Oh, Adam, this way. Here he comes. I don't know about you, but I'm still recovering after Whitney Houston. Um. Ok. I have a bit of a list here I want to read out. It's just a few people we thought we should thank. Um, I've got to be careful of this list 'cos it's got the lad's votes and, uh, stuff on the back. Ok. Uh, first I'd like to thank our lawyer and friend, Owen Epstein, who couldn't be with you, us tonight. Um, thanks go to Paul McGuinness our manager for the loan of yet another suit, uh, our management team in New York and Dublin, Ellen and Anne Louise, Island Records, Atlantic Records and WEA, Frank Barcelona and Premier Talent, everybody in college radio (I don't know where we'd be without them). I'd also like to thank, uh, I'd like to thank Jack Healey and Amnesty International for all their work, Desmond Tutu for his courage, Martin Luther King. I'd like to thank, uh, Bob Dylan for "Tangled Up In Blue," Flannery O'Connor, Jimi Hendrix, Walt Disney, John the Baptist, George Best, Gregory Peck, James T. Kirk, Morris Pratt, Dr. Ruth, Fawn Hall, Batman and Robin, Lucky the Dog, Pee Wee Herman, the YMCA, Eddie the Eagle, sumo wrestlers around the world, and, of course, Ronald Reagan.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR -- JOSHUA TREE

Bono: Well, this is all very Celtic. We appreciate it. It's actually, um, really is hard, um, carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, and, uh, saving the whale, and, uh, organizing summits between world leaders and that sort of thing. But, we enjoy our work. And, um, uh, it's hard when there's fifty million people or so watching not to take the opportunity to talk about things like South Africa and what's happening there and remarkable people like Bishop Tutu and what they have to put up with. But, tonight is maybe not the night for me to do that, so I, uh, instead just, uh, I'd like to talk about the music, uh, as we set out to make music, soul music. Uh, that's what U2 wanted to make. It was soul music. It's not about being black or white, or the instruments you play, or whether you use a drum machine or not. It's a, it's a decision to reveal or conceal. And, uh, without it, uh, people like Prince would be nothing more than a brilliant song-and-dance man that he is, but he's much more than that. People like Bruce Springsteen would be nothing more than a, he would be nothing more than a great storyteller, but he's much more than that. Um, without it, U2 would probably be getting better reviews in the Village Voice, but, um, that, that's a joke. Sometimes they don't understand. Uh, without it, U2 certainly wouldn't be here and we are here and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than New York City tonight. Thank you. And, I'd also like to thank Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno without which we couldn't have made that record. Thank you very much. And, um... (cut to commercial)