Five questions with U2's Bono
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- When not working on his day job -- lead singer of Irish rock band U2 -- Bono uses his celebrity status to fight for human rights, Third World debt relief and AIDS funding.
He's lobbied both the Clinton and Bush administrations to pay attention to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and continues to return to Capitol Hill, crossing party lines to bring attention and funding to the issue. On Tuesday, he took his AIDS lobbying campaign to the Democratic National Convention, where he answered five questions for CNN.com.
CNN: You're here to talk about AIDS, what are you telling the delegates and the candidates?
BONO: I've just been saying to them that there is a real opportunity for America here -- as there is for Europe -- but especially so for America to redescribe itself in the way it responds to the AIDS emergency because it's a winnable war. There will be tangible benefits.
CNN: What type of benefits?
BONO: It will help solve some of America's own problems because it's now a security issue -- the way we are perceived in the West. We have great pharmaceuticals. They are great advertisements for us, for our ingenuity, for our creativity, for our technology. There is an opportunity here for us. It sounds like the wrong word when you're talking about six and a half thousand Africans dying every day -- which is an obscenity -- but it is an opportunity for us to do something great with this prosperity that we have and this power that we hold.
CNN: Have you met John Kerry and John Edwards?
BONO: Sure, sure, I have spent a lot of time with John Kerry. I haven't met John Edwards.
CNN: What do you think about Kerry?
BONO: He's very well briefed on these issues. In 1999 he was the first guy, along with Sen. Bill Frist from Tennessee, to bring in the Global AIDS bill. He was banging the drum a long time ago. He knows what he's all about.
CNN: When is the new album coming out?
BONO: November.
