Bono And The Christian Right

Ed Bradley Profiles U2 And Its Activist Frontman

(CBS) 
But along the way, they found another calling: getting help to the starving, troubled continent of Africa. The band did their part at the 1985 Live Aid concert.

Bono continued on, behind the scenes and in front of news cameras, to lobby world leaders to action.

Bono once said, "I'm available to be used, but I'm not a cheap date." And he stands by that quote. "No, I'm not a cheap date. I'm in the checks business. You know, and not just people signing the checks, but people cashing them. And I'm ready to spend my, whatever you want to call it, the currency of my celebrity, if that’s what it takes to get there."

He gets a lot of credit for lobbying President Bush, who he has met several times. Today, the Bush administration contributes to one of his biggest causes, AIDS medication for Africa.

"People openly laughed in my face when I suggested that this administration would distribute antiretroviral drugs to Africa," Bono remembers. "They said, 'You are out of your tiny mind.' There's 200,000 Africans now who owe their lives to America."

How does he get support for his projects? "It was probably that it would be really wrong beating a sort of left-wing drum, taking the usual bleeding-heart-liberal line," says Bono.

Instead, he enlisted the ruling right of American politics.

"Particularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency. I was saying, 'This is the leprosy that we read about in the New Testament, you know. Christ hung out with the lepers. But you're ignoring the AIDS emergency,'" says Bono. "How can you? And, you know, they said, 'Well, you're right, actually. We have been. And we're sorry. We'll get involved.' And they did."

His proudest achievement may have been helping convince the G8 industrial nations to sign an agreement that will forgive more than $40 billion in loans to Third World countries, 18 of them so far.

"And these countries, instead of paying that money servicing old debts, can spend it on health, education and infrastructure in the countries. It's an amazing achievement," says Bono.

But for all his success as an activist, Bono remains a rock star at the core.

He and the rest of the band members have vacation homes in the South of France, the epicenter of celebrity lifestyle.

How did he end up in the South of Frances, as opposed to Italy or Spain?

"There's been, always been, an Irish/French thing going back to what's called the Flight of Earls. And in the 19th century. So, they're very tolerant of loud Irish people here, as you can see," says Bono laughing. "As you can see I like to keep a low profile," he adds.

Fact is, Bono's celebrity profile could hardly be bigger. Rock star sunglasses aside, he dispenses with it as much as possible.

Bono doesn't travel with security and doesn't have a posse. "I've always, you know, our thing, and being in U2, is like, how do you be, but not have to have all that b******t that goes with being famous and so, answer number one, live in Ireland. Ok? That helped," says Bono.

Bono also jokes about keeping his low profile in the South of France. "Why live in France? Because the French are so snobbish…. The French are so into themselves that they don't even notice you."