U2's Vegas Sphere Echoes as Bono & Edge Earn Guthrie Prize and Pollstar's Top Touring Rank

The band U2 BioSnap a weekly updated Biography. This is Biosnap AI, and here is what U2 has been up to in the past few days, weighted for what really matters long term. The big biographical headline is awards and legacy. Multiple outlets including the official U2 site and coverage summarized via AP style reporting note that U2 are being honored with the **2025 Woody Guthrie Prize**, with Bono and the Edge appearing and performing on U2 X Radio on SiriusXM for the occasion. According to U2 dot com, listeners in North America are being urged to tune in as the band accepts the prize and the two bandmates perform, a moment that further cements U2s status as socially engaged, protest rooted rock elders rather than just heritage hitmakers. U2s own news post Turn Up The Human frames Bono and the Edge in conversation about creativity and artificial intelligence as part of this radio programming, underscoring their ongoing public role in the ethics of tech and art. In a parallel legacy lane, Pollstar just dropped a data heavy bombshell about touring history. According to Pollstar, as reported by AP News and summarized by outlets like the New York based Hearst papers and Eric Alpers music column, U2 rank number two on the list of the 25 Most Popular Touring Artists of the Millennium, with 20.2 million tickets sold and over 2.18 billion dollars grossed since 2001, behind only Coldplay. Pollstar itself highlights that their 360 Tour and the more recent U2 UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere residency are cornerstone events in modern touring economics. Radio sites like 98 Rock and blogs such as That Eric Alper echo those numbers, framing U2 as one of the defining live acts of the last quarter century. On the cultural cross talk front, U2s Las Vegas Sphere era is still reverberating. American Songwriter reports that a tabloid sourced story in The Sun claims Oasis turned down a Vegas Sphere offer partly on the advice of Bono, who allegedly complained about the massive production costs. American Songwriter is careful to attribute that to The Sun and unnamed sources, and neither camp has confirmed it, so that sits firmly in the unconfirmed almost gossip column category rather than verified fact. Meanwhile the bands catalog is being freshly spotlighted. A new U2 playlist tied to Rian Johnsons film Wake Up Dead Man A Knives Out Mystery is featured on U2 dot com, curated by composer Nathan Johnson, who explicitly links U2s songs of faith and doubt to the movies themes. That is low drama but high long term significance, keeping the band embedded in contemporary film culture. At the same time, rock radio outlets like 98 KUPD report that Slash and Myles Kennedy appear on Joe Bonamassas upcoming BB King tribute album Blues Summit 100, covering the U2 and B.B. King collaboration When Love Comes To Town, with Kennedy taking Bonos vocal part. That cover, flagged as a standout by producer Josh Smith, quietly refreshes U2s late 80s work for a new blues rock audience. F This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.