A Conversation with Brook W. Flagg

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams / Brook W. Flagg (2026-02-15)

Brook Flagg has written I Go There With You: The U2 Sites of Southern California, from Significant to Sacred, a book about U2 locations in Southern California recently published and available now. Brook has been active in U2 fan groups online for the last 10 years (she’s the admin of the U2 Fans of SoCal community), has written for a few sites, and now has turned her attention to writing a book that looks at U2’s history in Southern California going back to the earliest days of the band’s career.

We have visited a few of the sites listed in the book. Many of the sites covered will be familiar to fans, from the Harmony Motel, to the Joshua Tree itself. The book also covers smaller sites, touches on U2’s history in these locations, and looks at these locations as far more than a travelog. We were interested in knowing not only about the other sites, but were interested in Brook’s own journey in writing this book. We thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce you to Brook if you haven’t met her along the way, and to ask a few questions about this recently published book. We’re going to jump right into things, our questions are in bold, and Brook’s replies are in the non-bolded font. Information on purchasing the book can be found towards the end of this article.

Front Cover of I Go There With You: The U2 Sites of Southern California from Significant to Sacred by Brook W. Flagg

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into U2?

I’m a lifelong writer and music fan who lives in Southern California. Like U2, I’ll turn 50 later this year. I married young, we have two grown daughters, and we’ll celebrate our 30th anniversary in June. That’s who I am, but it’s also a lead-up to the reveal that our first concert together (August 29, 1995) was the Ramones at the Hollywood Palladium. I was 18 and had no idea back then that the Ramones were an early inspiration for U2, but I think it’s a very cool cosmic rhyme (to use Bono’s phraseology) that they played that role in my personal history.

My U2 origin story is kind of all over the place. Growing up, I had ambitions to be a music journalist. I was an MTV kid from the beginning, and although I always liked lots of different artists, I was especially drawn to large, iconic personalities (to throw out a few examples: Madonna, Steven Tyler, Axl Rose). Despite being only 10 years old in March 1987, I easily saw when absorbing the music, videos, and other media for The Joshua Tree that U2’s music (and Bono’s persona) were of that iconic caliber. Thanks to MTV and some other influences, I knew the singles from War and UF well too—and at some point, I figured out that other U2 songs I knew (two standout examples being “I Will Follow” and “Gloria”) were released earlier on Boy and October. So I had a working knowledge of their music—and, I suppose, as much respect for a rock band that a young kid can have. But to be honest, it wasn’t until Achtung that they became anything close to my favorite band. I turned 15 the day after its release (my birthday is November 19). If you recall the way MTV would hype their “world premieres” of major artists’ videos (particularly when it was the first single from a new album), they did that with “The Fly” a few weeks before the album release, and I remember being mesmerized by it. This was not the stoic U2 I was used to seeing and hearing; I understood the way they had dreamed it all up again, just like a more seasoned fan would, and it stirred something in me. Pretty soon, I never looked back. Another moment of honesty, though: I was unable to see ZooTV live, due to parental restrictions of the time. So my first U2 show was Popmart: April 28, 1997, San Diego. I was 20, pregnant with my first child, and so thrilled to finally see them in person after loving them for several years by that time. After that, the only thing I was missing was having “U2 friends” to share that love with. So I’m really grateful to have that now (and it only took 20 years!). In 2016, I founded the Facebook community U2 Fans of SoCal with the hope of helping myself and others form connections with fans who live in the region, and that’s worked out wonderfully for the most part. Before that, I was a writer at Zoo Station Radio (U2Radio.com), and I still occasionally write pieces there. So through those endeavors, I found a way to satisfy my lifelong interest in music journalism.

Now you’ve written a book about U2 sites throughout Southern California. Have you visited all of the locations? How did you research the sites?

I have been to most of the sites in the book. Almost all of them are still operable, but a few aren’t, so I haven’t been to those. But I have been to 90% of the sites, and you’ll see the photos of that in the book. There’s a lot of artwork that includes personal photos (kind of like a travelogue), plus collages that include original flyers and other media. I did all those myself. The research was conducted in many ways; wherever there was published information about U2’s connection to any of these sites, I found it and put it in the book. I also conducted interviews and collected anecdotes. Readers can see all my source citations in the footnotes, and I would love for them to check out the sources of the stories they’re most interested in, because it can give them a much richer experience with the book.

How did you pick out the sites you included in the book?

This is going to be a long answer. The process was an evolution. What started out as a book with just a few categories of sites expanded into something far more comprehensive as I got more inspired—and that inspiration would strike again and again until I had eight sections, each of which was comprised of multiple sites.

Here’s an example of the process at work. About a year in (I had written chapters for probably 10 sites at that point), I realized how critical it was to add Glen Helen Regional Park, the site of the ‘83 US Festival during the War tour. The site is in San Bernardino, and that happens to be where I’m from, so there’s a personal attachment to it. But the US Festival was actually a major milestone for U2; it was their first American festival, and there wouldn’t be another one for 34 years (Bonnaroo, 2017). So it was really important to include the US Festival, and I realized that because it was in San Bernardino, I would need to create a new category the site could fit into. That’s why I called Section I of the book “Early Sites of Significance,” and I started adding other early sites to that section. I was already going to cover U2’s first California performance at Reseda Country Club, of course—so that site got moved from what eventually became Section IV, “Sites of Significance in Los Angeles,” and into the new section for the early sites. Pretty soon, I realized I should continue the story with their second California show, which was the very next day at Woodstock Concert Theatre in Anaheim. For those who don’t know, Anaheim isn’t in Los Angeles; it’s in Orange County. So I had a moment where I suddenly “understood the assignment” was to tell the entire story of U2’s connection to Southern California from the beginning. It begins at Reseda Country Club on March 15, 1981—a show that got them their first Los Angeles Times review (and a glowing one at that, as Bono recalled it fondly in his memoir). Then the next chapter in the story happens the very next night, March 16, with them playing a very different show in Anaheim. There’s an attendance mystery surrounding that show; it’s been called the most baffling crowd size discrepancy in U2 history, and we solve that mystery in the book (it’s a simple explanation, but still kind of mindblowing). In that same chapter, we learn that the whole band went to Disneyland together the next day (and we verify it with Bono’s own words, when he confirmed it 24 years later during another visit to Anaheim). Later in the book, we discover the band’s emotional trip to Zuma Beach (the very one referenced in the song “California” from SOI) was likely the day after Disneyland, or perhaps the day before Reseda. In any case, it was that week—and the point is, U2 saw a lot of Southern California in the first week they spent here in March 1981. I’m giving away several spoilers here, but I’m really proud of the way I wove this into a story of how U2 discovered Southern California, a region they would continue to hold dear over the decades as it accompanied them on the road from innocence to experience. I really believe it served as an important backdrop in their journey. Once I decided I’d covered enough sites to tell this story as it deserved to be told, I had about 30 sites. Maybe I could have pulled out another 10 to come up with U2’s magic number of 40, but that would’ve easily added on another year to the project!

I was committed to writing about sites that would pique the interest of even the most devoted, knowledgeable fans; I wanted to make sure everyone would learn something new. Hopefully, I accomplished that. A few examples: the Long Beach pub where Bono poured a pint of Guinness after his 2013 TED Talk, the Death Valley saloon where the band played pool before continuing on their fabled journey across the Mojave, and where fans can go to see the titles of two U2 records permanently embedded in an LA sidewalk. Hopefully, those examples are intriguing!

You break things into sites of significance vs sacred sites. Can you explain how you sorted things?

I start the book with an introduction that describes it this way: “Some of these sites remain quiet corners of the Golden State that still hum with the energy of the band’s presence; they are sacred, hallowed grounds that played essential roles in specific chapters of U2’s story. This book refers to them as Sacred Sites. Other places are simpler, yet significant enough to be stops along the way—fun destinations where fans can go to say, ‘U2 was here, and so was I.’ This book refers to them as Sites of Significance.”

Here’s an example of how that plays out in the book. There are two Sacred Sites of The Joshua Tree: 1) the actual tree that U2 and their caravan discovered in the Mojave on December 15, 1986, and 2) Zabriskie Point, the front album cover site, which they almost certainly visited the same day because of proximity. Those two sites are sacred, and not just because they’re instantly recognized as the cover art of U2‘s most critically acclaimed record. They’re also sacred because Anton Corbijn had a vision to portray these four young men as pilgrims discovering a new world—strangers in a strange land. Those images have a mythical quality, and U2 fans around the world have embraced that symbolism. For many fans, it’s a spiritual experience to visit those two sites. If you were to ask any fan who has journeyed to the tree, placed their sneakered foot on the “Have You Found What You’re Looking For” plaque that’s permanently fixed to the ground, and placed a scribbled note proclaiming their devotion to U2 in the metal suitcase that’s propped up against the tree’s disintegrating trunk, they would likely confirm that the tree is indeed a sacred site to them. So I considered it a high bar for a site to be sacred, and that’s why there are only three of them in the book.

You just talked about two sacred sites. What’s the third?

I call Zuma Beach “The Sacred Site of the Coast” because it shows up repeatedly in U2 history—but there’s an elusiveness there, a mysticism. Thanks to Bono’s public comments, we know a small part of the meaning behind this otherwise mysterious “California” lyric: “The weight that drags your heart down, that’s what took me where I need to be, which is here, out on Zuma, watching you cry like a baby.” In 2015 while performing at the Roxy in West Hollywood (another site in the book), Bono shared the anecdote that the band went to Zuma during their first trip to California, which we already know was the third week of March 1981. He said they tried to find Brian Wilson’s house because Wilson, the tortured genius and creative force of the Beach Boys, “had the music of the spheres and a piano in a sandpit.” That’s some incredible lore that illustrates how innocent the four members of U2 were then; they were barely wrapping up their teens visiting California for the first time, yet they were hoping to knock on Brian Wilson’s door and get an invitation inside. It’s sweet and pure, and that’s what makes it sacred. In addition, Zuma Beach is a truly beautiful stretch of the coast, one where whales and dolphins can be spotted emerging from the ocean daily. So if someone in U2 was indeed crying like a baby there, those could have easily been tears of joy. On top of all that, they’ve returned to that beach many times. I have in the book an exclusive interview with Neal Preston, who photographed their next trip to Zuma four years later in ‘85. I also explain other times the full band has returned to Zuma in more recent U2 eras, and why they did.

So other than those three, the rest are sites of significance?

Yes. Sites of significance can be really fun places to visit because of their connection to U2 history. Many fans have told me of their affection for sites that are part of their personal histories. And when it comes to “The Joshua Tree Sites of Significance,” those are especially important for fans who want to re-create the band’s journey across the Mojave.

Can fans re-create the entire journey?

Just about. The book has the essential information, and it’s the only way to get it all in one place. I also include a couple of extra stops that can assist and enhance the trip.

How did you compile that info?

In addition to the info based on my personal experiences navigating that journey with friends (multiple times), I curated nearly all the published information on The Joshua Tree journey from the band and their associates over the decades (not just print interviews, but everything from televised interviews long forgotten, to obscure podcast conversations not everyone knows of, and even some “Wait, did he just say that?” comments heard from Bono onstage, among other sources).

I also included essential safety information, which is so important when traveling through the desert. I did not include the lengthy GPS coordinates for the tree, and I explain why in the book. But I made it clear how fans can safely obtain those directions. I also have one very helpful hint hidden in an image. It’s hiding in plain sight on the title page of that chapter.

How long ago did you start work on the book? How long were you writing?

I conceived of the book idea after my first trip to Death Valley in 2021. We saw the sacred site of Zabriskie Point and two sites of significance (I won’t spoil what those are, but I want fans to know that in this book, they will see some unexpected sites for The Joshua Tree they might not know about). There were seven of us on that trip, all “U2 sisters” (I know a lot of women in the fan community refer to their U2 friends this way, and so do we). In the couple of years before that, we had been to the tree twice—that hallowed ground that is the ultimate sacred site. Then in late 2022, “Sites of Significance in Los Angeles” started coming together as we visited some of those; at the same time, I plunged further into the research for the early sites. By early 2023, I was writing consistently and reaching out to people for interviews and/or anecdotes. I was focused on getting very specific types of anecdotes; for instance, I only wanted firsthand experiences for “Early Sites” because it’s important to preserve those early shows in U2 history. All over the world, fans have their memories of the first time U2 played where they live—so I wanted to give Southern California fans a resource for learning about those first times they played here. And for the ones who were actually at those shows, I wanted to document their memories so those moments can live on in U2 history. So I talked to someone about working at the Woodstock Concert Theatre in Anaheim as a young kid, and having to go home to get his mom’s iron so he could iron and starch Bono’s shirt. I asked others to describe how they felt seeing Bono use a Jacob’s ladder to ascend to the top of the scaffolding at the US Festival; I also connect that brazen stunt to another much more recent moment in U2 history (people really seem to like it)! And I listened to what others recalled about the moment Bono jumped off the balcony at the LA Sports Arena (a huge turning point for him and the band; it was the ultimate example of what he often calls “viewing my body as an inconvenience”). These were stories that I wanted fans all over to know.

I wrote an average of 10 sites per year. This was my passion project, and I wanted to stay passionate about it rather than view it as an obligation. So I didn’t force myself to write when I wasn’t inspired. When I was inspired, the words came easily. In November 2025, after two to three years of following that process, it was finally ready to publish.

Do you have a favourite site of all the locations? Do you have a favourite write-up in the book?

For a favorite site to visit, it has to be the tree. I’m not sure anything comes close.

The chapter I’m most proud of writing is the US Festival. I wasn’t there, and I’m a little younger than most of the fans who were. But I’ve studied U2’s US Festival set over and over (it lives on via YouTube; everyone should watch it!), so I knew it backwards and forwards. In that chapter, I make the case for how critical this festival was for U2 as a lead-up to their American breakthrough just six days later at Red Rocks, which of course is the one everyone knows about. But I wanted people to know and appreciate the importance of this performance, too. When they circled back to play the LA Sports Arena three weeks later (their first time headlining an arena anywhere in the world—another milestone!), Bono referenced their US Festival performance to the crowd: “A few weeks ago, we played in a large field about 50 miles from here.” I think it’s fascinating that he understood the geography on some level.

What was your favourite piece of information you learned about any of the locations?

For the Zuma Beach chapter, I interviewed Neal Preston, the renowned rock photographer famous for his work with Led Zeppelin and Queen, among others. But he also shot U2’s famed Time magazine cover in ‘87—and two years before that in ‘85, he shot them at Zuma Beach. When I discovered his photo of the full band posing in front of Point Dume, the beautiful rock formation at the southernmost tip of Zuma, I started chasing down the mystery of that shoot, and it took a good two years. Although the photo occasionally shows up online and it hangs on the grounds of the Sunset Marquis hotel, the story of why U2 did that shoot (with Neal Preston specifically) was nowhere to be found. Eventually, I was able to connect with Neal—and finally, over a late-night phone interview in October 2025, I got him to tell me the whole story. There’s a teaser!

One of the best things about doing a project like this is the support from the fan community. Have you been enjoying having the book out and starting to hear back on what fans think about it all?

The support from the fan community has been truly incredible. I wasn’t sure how a book that was solely about U2’s connection to one specific region of the U.S. would resonate with fans elsewhere in the U.S., much less other countries. But I’ve heard from fans all over the U.S.—plus Canada, the U.K., and yes, even Ireland—that they’re reading the book and love what they’re learning from it. That’s been a delightful surprise.

You’ve done some events promoting the book. Any coming up that you can share with us?

So far, I’ve done one author event: a presentation and signing at Book Soup, the coolest bookstore in LA on the legendary Sunset Strip. It’s actually a site of significance in the book, which is why it was so important to do an event there. As for why it’s a site of significance, I’ll not spoil that—but there are multiple U2 connections to that bookstore, going back to the 80s and continuing through the present day. It was such a fun event, and we maxed out capacity; the room was filled with U2 fans from near and far (even a couple who came from other states!). Everyone used their book to follow along as I read passages, and I was able to play audio (bootlegged and otherwise) from some of the shows that are mentioned in the book. People said that really brought the stories to life. When I told everyone we were climbing in a time machine and going back to 1981—and the next voice they heard was Bono’s at 20 years old, shutting down young hecklers in the Reseda Country Club—the energy in the room was pretty palpable. I would love to give more fans that experience, so I won’t rule out anything in the future. But as of right now, there’s nothing scheduled.

How can people best support you and purchase the book?

I’ll give you a few methods. You can get the book on Amazon here; that’s the fastest and easiest way. If someone would prefer a signed copy, we can work that out; it will just take a little longer. You can email me brookwf@gmail.com to arrange that (although if we’re connected on social media, feel free to just message me). And if you’re in a country where an Amazon purchase isn’t possible, please reach out and I will send you an alternate way to order.

Before you go, we always go back to our site name and try to ask “What’s your favourite U2 song?”

My favorite U2 song from age 18—then, now, forever—is “Bad.”

We’d like to take the opportunity to thank Brook for taking the time to share these thoughts with us. Her book just arrived here at U2Songs.Com and we’re busy plowing through and making some notes for future travel plans – including a few sites we had not considered before. If you’d like to hear Brook discuss the book at a recent book launch at Book Soup, you can hear her talk about the US Festival appearance on YouTube here.