Three hitchhikers changed rock. (Well, two of them, anyway.)
[This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]
Hitchhiking can be dangerous for both the Good Samaritan driver and the person on the side of the road with their thumb out.
Just dig into the history of serial killers. Ted Bundy, Edmund Klemper, Donald Gaskins, Ivan Milat, and the still unknown Santa Rosa killer are just a few examples of murderers who preyed on people who just wanted a ride.
Those horrible stories overshadow the countless times when giving a stranger a ride turned out not only to be a kind gesture but a life-altering event in a good way. Here are three examples from the annals of rock history,
How Bono’s hitchhiker encounter saved U2
At 5:20 p.m. on July 13, 1985, U2 stepped on the stage at Wembley Stadium to perform at Live Aid. They were still a medium-sized band at the time — their Joshua Tree breakthrough was still two years in the future — so they knew a powerful performance in front of over a billion people would do wonders for their career.
Every act had about 20 minutes, so U2 carefully chose three songs. They’d start with Sunday Bloody Sunday, move into Bad, and then finish with a rousing rendition of Pride (In the Name of Love), their biggest single to that point.
Things started well enough, but during Bad, Bono noticed a woman in the crowd named Melanie Hills. According to Bono, she seemed to be in some distress. (That’s disputed; it’s more likely that Bono was trying something for the cameras.)
Great article. It’s funny to think how integral hitchhiking used to be, and how it is mostly frowned upon now (for pretty obvious reasons). A few years ago I actually listened to an audio book by John Waters called Carsick where he hitchhiked across America with the intention of writing a book about his encounters. I wonder if the incident with the band was related since the book came out in 2014?