U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is unsure he can play a full show after neck surgery. Doctors advised him to retire as drumming aggravated a congenital neck condition; he resumed playing three or four months later and said, “If I can play for an hour, that’s enough.”
By the 2019 leg of U2’s Joshua Tree tour, Mullen said his pain had become impossible to ignore and nightly treatment after performances was making his condition worse. He stopped playing by the COVID-19 pandemic because he was too sore. He said the surgery carried risks and his family opposed it, but he wanted to play again.
Mullen initially signed up for U2’s 2022 Sphere residency, but said his physiotherapist later told him he would not make it through rehearsals; U2 went ahead without him. Guitarist The Edge said the band’s 16th album, Carnaval De Luz, due Nov. 13, would not have been made without Mullen’s return.
