U2.com interviewed the LA singer Maria McKee, known for her belting hit single ‘Show Me Heaven’. But she also fronted Lone Justice, the celebrated US band which supported U2 on the Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree tours.
U2.com: It must have been exciting in the 1980s, when Lone Justice and U2 were on the rise.
I don’t often think about Lone Justice, because I’ve lived so many lives since then. But my relationship with U2 is always present. I’m close to Bono and Ali, and I forged a whole decade of living in Ireland. It’s my second home.
U2.com: How did you come to support U2 in the first place?
Jimmy Iovine was producing and beginning to manage us, and he was also working with U2 on... was it Under A Blood Red Sky? Bono had seen us on TV and he liked the spiritual expression and the music, and he loved my voice, so he told Jimmy that he wanted us to open for U2 when they started the North American leg of the tour.
We toured off and on with them for several years; we were like family.
U2.com: What made it like family?
I connect with Bono and Ali on a lot of levels: spiritually, musically. Bono is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and I can be quite spontaneous, as well. So there was a lot of creative humour and chemistry.
But when you look back, you see that the stars lined up in a way that made everything flow very magically. It wasn’t just the band; I remember coming to Dublin for the first time and it seemed like Paris in the Twenties; there was so much going on.
U2.com: That was in the late 1980s?
Yes, and into the 1990s. Nothing but good times, every single day. Whether it was hanging out playing music, or going to a party that would last for days, or running around the country herding sheep and then going for pints... We had so much fun.
U2.com: And you sometimes shared the stage with U2 when you toured?
Yeah. Bono would suddenly say to Dennis, the stage manager, 'Go get Maria!' - in the middle of '40', or 'People Get Ready', maybe. I’d be somewhere backstage and Dennis would arrive, red in the face, and he’d be like, 'Maria, Maria, Bono wants you on stage,now!' and so we’d have to run and run - we were playing those big arenas - and by the time I got to the stage I’d be out of breath.
And sometimes, when Lone Justice were playing Sweet Jane, Bono would just appear on stage...
U2.com: Never a dull moment?
No. Once, U2 were playing three nights in Dublin at the RDS. I’d been to the first gig, but didn’t go the next night. I was getting ready for bed, and was in the bath, when the phone rang: 'Bono wants you now!' So I had to get out of the tub and into the taxi and head straight to the venue and run up onto the stage.
That night was fun; he introduced me as his second wife.
U2.com: Were you escaping from something by going to Dublin?
I was partly escaping the music business and getting away from the pressures. I’d made a solo album, but people in America were so into Lone Justice. The solo album was received OK, but people said they missed the band.
When I came here, people in Europe were going bananas for it. Journalists were bringing me flowers, and the gigs were like church. People were hushed. Hushed.
I played this gig in Dublin at Mother Redcaps, and it was like, legendary. Everybody was there: the U2 boys, all the Hothouse Flowers, some of the Waterboys. REM were in town and some of them came. People were lined up round the block. It was a magical night, and I thought, 'I’m staying!'
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