"I'm gonna wake you up..." Bono sang, his voice cracking slightly with genuine emotion. "I'm gonna wake you up, black dog!"
As Michael’s recorded voice pleaded to slide away, Bono closed his eyes and began to improvise a response. His voice climbed into that famous, passionate register, cutting through the dark atmosphere of the track like a searchlight.
When the session was over, Bono sat at the mixing desk with Andy Gill. They began to weave the two vocal tracks together. Michael Hutchence feat Bono - Slideaway (NEW)
But it was incomplete. It lacked a counterpoint. It needed a voice that could answer Michael from across the void.
For hours, Bono poured himself into the microphone. He shouted, he whispered, and he wailed. He added lines about streetlights, about the heavy rain of London, and about the blinding lights of the stage that could so easily blind the person standing center stage. "I'm gonna wake you up
Michael Hutchence had been gone for two years. The shockwaves of his sudden passing in a Sydney hotel room in 1997 had settled into a dull, permanent ache for those who loved him. He left behind a vault of unfinished solo work—songs that captured a man trying to shed the skin of the leather-clad INXS rock god to reveal something raw, electronic, and deeply personal.
Bono didn’t hesitate. Michael hadn't just been a peer; he had been a brother in arms. They were two of the biggest frontmen on the planet in the 1980s and 90s, bonded by the unique, isolating experience of standing at the center of a hurricane. They had shared late nights, philosophical debates, laughter, and the relentless pressure of the spotlight. When Michael died, a piece of that era died with him. When the session was over, Bono sat at
It was a direct reference to the "black dog" of depression that Michael had fought so hard against. In the studio, the engineers got chills. It wasn't a polished pop duet; it was an active rescue mission happening across time. Bono was reaching back into the past, trying to pull his friend out of the dark.