Find out what Bono says to his kids about life and love

U2 had planned to release its 14th studio album, Songs of Experience, in late 2016. But the world had changed so much in the months since recording the album they decided to postpone and rework the effort.

Unlike their latest release Songs of Innocence, which focused on the band’s youth in 1970s Ireland, Songs of Experience is a collection of letters written by Bono to the people closest to him.

In an interview for Written In My Soul on VOLUME, Bill Flanagan asks Bono about imparting wisdom onto his four children based on his own life learning.

Bono explained that his writing process began by asking himself what he would say to his children if he could only say one final thing.

“I came up with the phrase, ‘Love is bigger than anything in its way.’ And I mean it,” he said. “And that is not an airy-fairy, flowers-in-the-hair version of love. I mean that most of the songs in the album are details of emotional landscapes rather than physical landscapes.”

He continued: “I mean the thing that experience has taught me, above all else, is the primacy of fun and frolics and devilment and mischief and joy as a defiant act against our mortality, and that brings us back to rock ‘n’ roll. That’s where U2 came from.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bono talks about the writing process behind Songs of Experience, the people and events in his life that inspired those songs, as well as candid discussions about his family and charity work.

Written In My Soul with Bill Flanagan airs Wednesdays at 7 pm ET on VOLUME (Ch. 106).  Hear his interview with Bono all month long. See schedule below (all times Eastern):

WEDNESDAY 10/18 – 7PM & 11PM
SATURDAY 10/21 – 10PM
SUNDAY 10/22 – 3AM
WEDNESDAY 10/25 – 6AM, 7PM & 11PM
SATURDAY 10/28 – 10PM
SUNDAY 10/29 – 3AM & 12PM
WEDNESDAY 11/1 – 6AM, 7PM & 11PM
SATURDAY 11/4 – 10PM
SUNDAY 11/5 – 3AM
WEDNESDAY 11/8 – 6AM, 7PM & 11PM
SATURDAY 11/11 – 10PM
SUNDAY 11/12 – 3AM & 12PM
WEDNESDAY 11/15 – 6AM