Bono says Obama once found him passed out in the Lincoln Bedroom
Bono says he once was discovered passed out in the Lincoln Bedroom by then-President Obama after an allergic reaction led him to wander the White House.
The U2 frontman recalls the trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in his just-released memoir “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.”
Bono, who was born Paul Hewson, said he and his wife, Ali Hewson, had one — or possibly two — glasses of wine during their dinner with the 44th president, as Obama drank cocktails.
The only problem, according to the “Mysterious Ways” singer, was that he suffers from an allergy to salicylic acid, which is found in wine. An allergic reaction then led to the snoozing snafu that was about to play out.
“As I started to fall asleep, I excused myself, and what happened next is a little blurry, but, according to Ali, it took about 10 minutes before the leader of the free world asked her, ‘Bono’s been gone awhile. Is he OK?’ ” Bono wrote in the book, according to People magazine.
Obama then embarked on a mission to hunt down the missing rock star. The then-commander in chief headed to the Lincoln Bedroom after remembering that Bono had been curious about the Gettysburg Address.
“Good instinct,” wrote Bono.
“They walked into the Lincoln Bedroom, and there I was, out cold, head in the bosom of Abraham Lincoln, on his very bed. ‘Falling asleep in the comfort of our freedoms,’ as I spun it afterward.”
Obama, Bono said, won’t let him forget his Lincoln Bedroom catnap.
“[Obama] thinks Ali made this up to cover for me,” Bono wrote of his allergy.
“He tells people he can drink me under the table. Rubbish,” Bono said of Obama.
“But he does make a strong martini.”
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