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Rock star Bono used to be targeted by bullies for supporting the wrong football team, when he was a kid.

The U2 frontman was picked on by bullies while growing up in Dublin, revealed his best friend Guggi.

Irish artist Guggi – real name Derek Rowan – grew up on the same Dublin road - Cedarwood Road - as Bono, real name Paul Hewson .

“Myself and Bono, we weren’t like the other kids in the street and we knew we weren’t,” Guggi revealed.

“I was seen as an oddball, a freak. We didn’t know what to say when they would want us to name our favorite football players because we didn’t know any names.

"We could get beaten up for supporting the wrong team or not supporting anybody.”

As children, they bonded over a shared love of punk rock, mischief making and Jesus.

Guggi’s father was a member of the Christian Brethren faith who encouraged his son and Bono to explore religion.

“Bono came to his faith through my dad. And I came to faith through my dad,” Guggi told the told Religion News Service.

“My dad would send us to the YMCA where they had something called the ‘boys department’ where boys went — not boys and girls, just boys — and the boy’s department went on a camp every year. It was called camping, but it was more like sleeping bags on the rec room floor.

“We slept in tents maybe a couple of times, but it was mostly school halls, church halls, that kind of thing, and yeah, myself and Bono went there every summer.”

(Image: X01164)

During the recording of U2’s seminal Joshua Tree album in 1985, Bono summoned Guggi and Gavin to their local pub, known as The Gravediggers, to ask a favour.

“He said, ‘Look, I want to paint. We’re putting this album together, we’re making this record, but I need to get away from that,’” Guggi recalled. “Bono always loved painting, and we painted together as children, as teenagers.”

Bono set aside a room in the large manor house where the band was recording the famous album and asked Guggi to fill it with art supplies, which he did.

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