I suggest to Buck that it's better U2 has those ambitions than to leave the field to Bon Jovi.

"Yes," Buck says. "I like ambitious people. I like people that see a goal that they want to obtain and work toward it. Our goals are just different."

Buck doesn't know it yet, but he's about to be roped into a very non-R.E.M. moment. Principle's Suzanne Doyle calls Buck's room and in­forms him that tonight at the U2 show he is going to be presenting a Q magazine award to U2 and accepting on behalf of R.E.M. a Q magazine award from U2. Peter tries to weasel out of it; he says, "You're not going to make me do it onstage, are you?" No, no, he's told, they'll do it all in the dressing room, with photos for the magazine and filmed acceptance speeches to be played at the awards dinner in London.

So Buck is shepherded into a backstage room decorated with potted palms and he and U2 take turns presenting each other with the same trophy (the magazine only sent one) while Bono goes in and out of the Fly character and everyone keeps laughing and asking the cameraman to stop the tape and start again.

As a reward to Buck for his efforts, Bono insists he come with U2 to the heavyweight boxing championship fight the next night between champ Evander Holyfield and younger challenger Riddick Bowe. Buck's never been to a boxing match and figures he'll go along for the ride. U2 is hoping for an experience as exciting as seeing Sugar Ray Leonard five years earlier. They're not going to get it.

At the arena Bono and Buck get into an Alphonse and Gaston argument over who's going to take the better seat. Bono insists that Buck take the up-front seats with Edge and Larry; Bono's still got a good view from a few sections up. Buck says no, no, people want to see U2 walk in together. Bono says, "Look, I'll walk with you guys down to the

[106]

front, then I'm going back to the other seat—I don't want to be in front." Buck gets a little dose of the treatment U2 gains by being on all those album covers and videos as they walk down among the Hollywood VIP's and everyone says hello. Jack Nicholson looks up and says, "Hi, boys!" "Hi, Jack!" (Nicholson started coming to U2 concerts on the Joshua Tree tour and he and Bono have hung out in Hollywood and in France. Bono is most impressed by Nicholson's remaining in perfect Jack character even in a foreign language. He does a great impression of the actor saying, with his famous inflections, "Pardoney moi, Garson. Havey vous french fries?")

Bono greets his fellow royals and then leaves Edge, Larry, and Buck down front. Buck turns to his left and introduces himself to the man sitting next to him, who turns out to be Sugar Ray Leonard himself. As the fight begins, Leonard offers Buck a running commentary, explaining every strategy and how each point is scored. This, Peter figures, is the way to see your first boxing match.

In the second round the twenty-five-year-old Bowe slams into thirty-year-old Holyfield with a low blow that the champ thinks is illegal. Holyfield turns to catch the rets attention and Bowe sucker punches him. Holyfield flies into a rage and abandons all strategy, pounding into the younger man with blows that sound like cannons to the musicians. The fight's turned ugly. Buck closes his eyes. Larry feels his temper rise as a famous goon behind him—Sylvester Stallone—howls, "Break his fuckin' nose!" like the school bully's weasel sidekick. Buck hears Bruce Willis baying "Kill him!" and mutters that he'd like to see Willis and Stallone beating each other bloody for the amusement of millionaires, This is nothing like the Leonard fight that seemed so scientific, so graceful. This is two heavyweights trying to blast each other's heads in with blows that would kill whole genres of rock musicians.

They call these seats "the red circle," because if you're rich enough to sit here you get sprayed with blood. "To hear the fists going into the faces," Larry says, "to see the cuts opening over the eyes and the blood pouring into the fighters' eyes, is disturbing."

At the end of the fight there is a new champion: Riddick Bowe in a unanimous decision after what the New York Times calls, "One of his­tory's best heavyweight brawls." Larry, Edge, and Buck are disillusioned with the sweet science and swear off boxing. Bono, who was further

 [107]

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