Bono and The Edge accept Woody Guthrie Prize with surprise performance

U2 was honored with the Woody Guthrie Prize Tuesday at a ceremony in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center.

Bono and The Edge were on hand to accept the award, named after the late folk icon, which recognizes “a recipient who embodies the spirit of Woody Guthrie’s social consciousness and musical legacy.” The event was held at Cain’s Ballroom, a venue U2 headlined in 1981 on their Boy tour.

The pair took part in a conversation about art and activism, with Bono crediting Bob Dylan with introducing him to Guthrie. He noted that Dylan “really did bring us to the place where the song was an instrument to open up worlds.”

“Our favorite protest songs always had a sense of vision, something to aim for … you don’t talk about the darkness, you make the light brighter,” The Edge added. “I believe music can actually change the mood of the room and actually shift a culture.”

The rockers also treated the audience to a surprise performance of six songs: “Running to Stand Still,” which included a bit of Guthrie’s “Bound for Glory”; “Mothers of the Disappeared”; “Sunday Bloody Sunday”; “One”; “Pride (In The Name of Love),” which also featured a bit of Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ”; and “Yahweh.”

Bono also gave fans a preview of what’s on the way for U2, sharing lyrics to a song he’s working on about the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land who was killed in July by an Israeli settler.

The lyrics include: “One father shot/ three children crying/ if there is no law/ is there no crime/ if there is no hope/ what’s there to rhyme/ history is written/ one life at a time/ ONE LIFE AT A TIME.”

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