In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum This might have been a little simplistic, but that's where I was coming from, from 'Bullet the Blue Sky.' You asked, I told you.In the howling wind comes a stinging rain So you go into a church, a liberation theology church, and you'd see the flight from Egypt would be painted and portrayed, instead of pharaoh, it'd be like Ronald Reagan. I was interested in the time in liberation theology, which is people were reinterpreting the scriptures to their own specific situations. I had a non-violent, as a student of non-violence, I had that, I was having a violent reaction to what I was witnessing. I had not a sophisticated understanding of what was going down. And he in my head at the time was Ronald Reagan. this guy comes up to me, his face red like a rose on a thorn bush, like all the colors of a royal flush, and he's peeling off those dollar bills, slapping them down, paying for the war. I was not a communist, but I felt it was wrong, so I used the language of the scripture to describe the situation: in the howling wind comes a stinging rain see it driving nails into souls on the tree of pain from the firefly, a red orange glow, see the faces of fear running scared in the valley below, bullet the blue sky a locust wind comes a rattle and hum Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome. It did bother me that this was being sanctioned by religious people and brutalizing of this movement, this communist movement. I did actually, I was walking the same trip, I did see a memorable piece of graffiti, it said, 'fuck Jesus.' And I went, 'oh, that's a bit strong, is it?' They said: 'No! That's just Jesus, he lives around the corner.' It upset me as a person who read the scriptures to think that Christians in America were supporting this kind of thing, this kind of proxy war because of these communists. I knew their lives were being in danger or being lost close to us. I really don't think we were in any danger. I remember the smell of… I supposed being near a war zone. In the hillside across the way, they were bombing, fire bombing these villages, to get the paramilitaries out of there. I don't think they had any dark intentions.

There were just soldiers playing with us really. I've been shot at a few times as it happens. It's very unromantic, it's like spitting. The sound of gunfire is out in the open – you're not in closed streets. There was some shots fired over our heads and things like that. I don't think it was that dangerous where we were. We went out into the hills and maybe that was irresponsible, I don't know, because we're in the middle of a war zone. We strapped my feelings to the song 'Bullet the Blue Sky.' I've been there it was an American movement that were… wonderful people who were offering solace to refugees from the war in El Salvador.

When I explained to Edge what I've been through in El Salvador, he was able to – with a nod to Jimi Hendrix actually – try and put some of that fear and loathing into his guitar solo. They have an ability to express inexpressible thoughts. But I'm blessed because I'm part of the U2 group and they're really good. That words, perhaps if I was a better writer, maybe I could just write journalism. I see things that are very hard to explain. I just want to go, I just want to see for myself. That's why I ended up in central America during the problems there in El Salvador and even in Nicaragua. That's why I ended up during the famine in Ethiopia. I always want to go and see things for myself.

Spoken part of bullet the blue sky live