U2 Writes Song with Salman Rushdie

AOL News (1999-01-22)

LONDON (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie has contributed lyrics to a new song by the Irish rock band U2, The Guardian newspaper reported Friday.

Rushdie, who has lived in hiding for nearly a decade since being condemned to death by Iran’s supreme leader for his 1989 book ``The Satanic Verses,’‘ gave U2 lead singer Bono the lyrics taken from his new novel, ``The Ground Beneath
Her Feet,’‘ the newspaper said.

The romantic ballad, also to be called ``The Ground Beneath Her Feet,’‘ will be on U2’s next album, the report said.

``Bono and I have been friends for several years, and I sent him the novel when I’d finished it, and he responded by coming up with this beautiful melody,’‘ the newspaper quoted Rushdie as saying. ``Simple as that, but of course very pleasurable.’‘

Rushdie’s literary agency declined to comment on The Guardian’s report.

The newspaper said U2 hopes to release the single to coincide with the April 13 release of Rushdie’s novel. The lyrics for the song are included in the novel, which tells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice against a rock ‘n’ roll background, it said.

The author’s collaboration with U2 would not be his first: He appeared on stage with the band in London in 1993.

Rushdie was condemned to death in 1989 after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding spiritual leader of the Islamic republic, ruled ``The Satanic Verses’‘ was blasphemous to Islam.

In October, the Iranian government said it was distancing itself from the edict, but hard-liners insist there’s still a price on the author’s head.

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