Local Writer Tackles Rock Royalty

When Westfield author John Luerssen's new book about the mega-rock band U2 is published this month, it will be the culmination of an interest that was sparked by a classmate from Roosevelt intermediate School in the early 1980s.

A buddy of Luerssen's stuffed a cassette of the Irish quartet into a stereo that had been blaring the popular rock of the day, bands like Journey and Rush, to around 100 8^th grade boys in the school's choir room.  Luerssen remembers being struck by the U2's passionate, soaring rock anthems.

"All of the sudden this new sound came out of the speakers," said Luerssen, 42. "I went to my friend and asked him about this band and he told me how he got turned on to them by his Irish cousins."

Luerssen's sister bought U2's next album, "War," when it came out in March of 1983 and he was hooked. Then last year Backbeat Books, a subsidiary of the music book publishing house, Hal Leonard Corporation, approached Luerssen and asked him to compile a list of bands he would like to write about. Luerssen put U2 on his list. Backbeat jumped at the idea.

Luerssen began doing research for the book, titled U2 FAQ, last November. He interviewed far-flung band historians, poured over old interviews and uncovered dozens of rare, early handbills, many of which appear in the book.

One of the challenges of writing about a band as much publicized and revered as U2 is finding new and different stories to tell. Luerssen said he found plenty that are sure to please even hardcore U2 fans — as well as rock fans who have grown weary of the band's esoteric musical experiments or the unrelenting megalomania of the group's lead singer, Bono.

Luerssen says his own regard for the band never stopped him from the in-depth reporting that separates this book from the fawning hero worship generally associated with other rock biographies. He says that he had the most fun dissecting the band's evolution, including Bono's missteps as a venture capitalist, drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s prickly personality and the toll that bassist Adam Clayton's old party habits took on the band, particularly in the group's early days when they were more interested in studying the Bible than living the rock-star life. 

"The book is written from the standpoint of someone who isn't afraid to criticize U2," Luerssen said. "U2 is always put on a pedestal, so it's kind of fun to look at some of the funnier things that they've done."

But U2 junkies will get their music fix, too.  Luerssen writes that one of the band's greatest hits, "With or Without You," was an afterthought. The bandmates were lukewarm about the song, but one days, as lead guitarist, The Edge, was experimenting with a new guitar, Gavin Friday, a longtime friend of Bono's,  exclaimed that the sound he heard fit the troubled track. With Friday's urging, the band finished the song and put it on their 1987 hit album, "The Joshua Tree."

"It salvaged the song and it became their big, global, breakthrough hit," Luerssen said.

A supervisor at Con Edison for nearly two decades and a father of three, Luerssen has been a freelance music writer for many magazines, including "American Songwriter,"  for which he wrote cover stories about Iggy Pop, Death Cab for Cutie and The Killers. He also authored a book about the rock band Weezer. That book was released only in the U.S., while the U2 book will be featured in bookstores around the world, he says.

"It's exciting to know that you can walk into any major bookstore and this book will be there," he says. "It's a great feeling."