The Edge

Biography

The Edge was born to Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans. When he was a year old, his family moved to Malahide in County Dublin where The Edge attended St. Andrew's National School. The Edge received piano and guitar lessons and often performed with his brother Dik Evans before they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen, Jr. at their school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School, seeking musicians to form a band. This band would go through several incarnations before emerging as U2 in March 1978 (Dik Evans left the band just before the name change). U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their debut album, Boy, was released in 1980. In 1982, The Edge came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he was persuaded to stay. During this period, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved. Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that was to become "Sunday Bloody Sunday." The Edge married his secondary school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983. The couple had three daughters together: Hollie, in 1984, Arran, in 1985, and Blue Angel, in 1989. The Edge and O'Sullivan separated in 1990 but could not divorce due to Irish law; divorce was legalized in 1995 and the couple legally divorced in 1996. During U2's groundbreaking Zoo TV Tour, The Edge met Morleigh Steinberg, a professional dancer and choreographer employed by the band. The couple began dating in 1993, and had their daughter, Sian, in 1997, and a son, Levi, in 1999. Steinberg and The Edge were married on 22 June 2002. The Edge's hair started thinning in his early twenties, and as a result, he has worn hats or caps on stage, in photo shoots, and on album covers since The Joshua Tree album and tour. From the period of The Joshua Tree up until Achtung Baby and early Zoo TV, he had very long hair.[7][8] He now wears a toque at all times in public, and even wore one at his wedding to Steinberg in 2002. He has since made very few public appearances without a hat or cap, such as during the 1995 "Pavarotti and Friends" concert where he performed "Miss Sarajevo" and "One" with Bono. This cap has become part of his distinctive "look". He has also been distinguished by wearing shirts with numbers during the Elevation Tour, and by a cowboy hat and handlebar mustache during the PopMart Tour. He is currently focusing his humanitarian efforts on Music Rising, a charity that provides musical instruments to those who lost instruments in Hurricane Katrina.