Story highlights The singer didn't offer specifics

He said it helped inspire the band's latest album

(CNN) Don't expect Bono to share details of his near-death experience.

The U2 frontman and activist talked to Rolling Stone magazine in a story that published Wednesday but declined to go into specifics of how he almost died.

In a chat with the magazine's co-founder Jann Wenner, the singer initially said he didn't even want to discuss it at all.

"It's just a thing that . . . people have these extinction events in their lives; it could be psychological or it could be physical," Bono said. "And, yes, it was physical for me, but I think I have spared myself all that soap opera."

By "soap opera" the rocker apparently means all the attention his health scare would get if it became public.

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