When Gibson introduced its futuristic Explorer model a half-century ago, few could have imagined the long-term impact it would have on rock music ― or the spectacular fortunes of a young Irish musician who made it his guitar of choice after falling in love with it while visiting a New York City guitar shop as a teenager. “Everyone just loved the sound of it,” Dave Evans, aka U2’s the Edge, says of introducing the uniquely shaped instrument to his fledgling U2 bandmates. “It became like a signature look, because no one else [in our circle] was playing Explorers at that point, and it became one of the things we were famous for.”
In this revealing interview, the Edge lovingly talks about the history of his trademark Explorer, its key role in developing the U2 sound and how it survived a broken neck during a melee at a concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, only to help carry he and his band all the way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
See part two of Edge’s revealing interview here.