U2 Postpones Tonight Show Residency After Bono's Cycling Injury

"We're one man down," the band announces

By Zach Johnson Nov 17, 2014 12:30 PMTags
U2, Oscars ShowA.M.P.A.S./Michael Yada

The show will go on, with or without U2.

The Irish rockers have been forced to postpone their weeklong residency on NBC's The Tonight Show, which was set to kick off Monday and run through Friday. "It looks like we will have to do our Tonight Show residency another time—we're one man down," read a message on the group's website, signed by band members Adam Clayton, The Edge and Larry Mullen, Jr. "[Lead singer] Bono has injured his arm in a cycling spill in Central Park and requires some surgery to repair it. We're sure he'll make a full recovery soon, so we'll be back! Much thanks to Jimmy Fallon and everyone at the show for their understanding."

Bono and his band had just arrived in New York from London, where they recorded a star-studded remake of the '80s hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money to help fight Ebola in Africa.

U2 was Fallon's first musical guest in February 2014. Last week, the host asked viewers to submit videos of themselves lip-syncing "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," the lead single off the band's album, Songs of Innocence. A compilation of the videos would have been incorporated into one of the live performances.

There's no official word yet as to when U2 will reschedule or who will take their place. Coincidentally, Metallica is also kicking off a weeklong residency on Craig Ferguson's The Late Late Show Monday night.

Bono seems particularly unlucky as of late. Last week, a hatch blew out on his private plane, forcing an emergency landing. The plane landed safely in Berlin, where U2 was scheduled to perform at the BAMBI Awards. "There was a kind of bang," Bono recalled on the red carpet, according to NBC News. "We thought we'd hit turbulence—maybe the wheel landing gear was coming down or something—but it was 25 minutes. The real relief was that the particular design meant that the plane did not decompress."

"The worry is where is the door, where are those bags?" the "Vertigo" singer said. "You know, there may be a few cows or sheep in the German countryside with a very sore head. We trust that nobody was hurt because we would have heard by now and that was actually our first concern, cause we were fine."

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