U2 Pays Tribute to Late Tour Manager at LA Concert

Band dedicates the show and the tour to Dennis Sheehan, who’d worked for the band for three decades before dying early Wednesday

U2 concert

Taking the stage about 15 hours after the death of Dennis Sheehan, their tour manager of more than 30 years, the members of U2 turned Wednesday night’s concert at the Forum in Los Angeles into a tribute to the man they called a member of their family.

Sheehan passed away early Wednesday morning in his room at the Sunset Marquis Hotel following the band’s first concert at the Forum on Tuesday night. He had been working for the band since 1983, said Bono after the first few songs in the Forum show.

“Last night we lost a member of our family,” the singer said. “Dennis Sheehan … loved, as we all do, the city of Los Angeles … He came to this city as a young man in the ’70s, working for Led Zeppelin. He always thought that maybe we could be the next Led Zeppelin, which of course is impossible.”

Laughing, Bono told of a birthday party for Sheehan at which the members of U2 showed up dressed as the members of Led Zeppelin. “The biggest problem,” he said, “was that I couldn’t quite fill Robert Plant’s pants. But who could?”

He then added, “A lot of U2 songs were written to fill a void, an absence, a hole in the heart left by a loved one,” and introduced “Iris (Hold Me Close),” a song about his mother.

But the biggest tribute to Sheehan came at the end of the night, before the group’s final song. Bono told of a show they’d performed in Denver in 1983, on the first tour at which Sheehan worked for them. They ended that show with the song “40,” which at most shows caused the crowd to sing the chorus — “How long to sing this song?” — after the band left the stage.

That night, though, Bono said nobody sang — until the band heard a single voice, Sheehan’s, ringing out. “Dennis was the only person singing, but he got the whole crowd to sing along,” he said.

U2 then ended their show with “40” for the first time on this tour, and the first time in years. As the music began, Bono shouted, “We dedicate this song … In fact, we dedicate this night … In fact, we dedicate the whole tour to the memory of Dennis Sheehan.”

As they played the song, the giant video screens showed a montage of still photos and film clips of Sheehan. And yes, the crowd kept singing long after U2 had left the stage.

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