U2’s The Edge Recalls His First Magic Mushroom Trip

As the iconic band U2 honors the 30th anniversary of its album The Joshua Tree, guitarist The Edge recalled his first time taking magic mushrooms.

The band joined Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio to discuss the album, and Bono recalled the past as “high times,” but quickly clarified that “there were no drugs.”

Lowe then asked if any of the songs on The Joshua Tree were inspired by taking magic mushrooms, which prompted The Edge to share his experience.

“Well, this was a bit later, but I had one funny moment with the mushrooms. This was a metaphysical experiment, you understand? It was very spiritual,” he said. He recalled being offered psilocybin during a party and decided to indulge because he hadn’t tried it before.

“I took a few, waited 40 minutes, nothing happened,” he said. “So I doubled, trebled down. It’s even worse because I actually went to bed.

“So I’m in the middle of a dark room watching firework displays that are happening in my imagination. Then I started to understand the secrets of the universe. I had this moment of insight and I was thinking to myself ‘I will never remember these tomorrow, I have to record these insights.’ So I crawled across the floor, which took me about 25 minutes and got to my recording walkman, got back to my bed, hit play and then the red light came on so I spent another 25 minutes looking at the red light.”

He said that he recorded both sides of a tape before falling asleep, and forgot about it for most of the next day.

“I finally realized, ‘Oh my god, I made a recording of the secrets of the universe. I better go listen to what that was,’” he said. “So I went up and it was still on record and the batteries are all worn down. So I put new batteries in and turn the tape over and hit play.”

However, no secrets were to be revealed. “All I could hear was [muffled voice] 'cause I’d been talking into the battery compartment,” The Edge recalled. “Lost! Not a single audible word. Just think, the secrets of the universe were that close.”

Watch the full interview below: