U2 will be honored with the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize during an Oct. 21 ceremony at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Ok., and group members Bono and the Edge will be on hand to accept. The award is given annually to artists who “best exemplify Guthrie’s spirit and work by speaking for the less fortunate through music, film, literature, dance or other art forms and serving as a positive force for social change.”
“U2 embodies the mission of the Woody Guthrie Prize, using music to confront injustice and inspire action,” says Woody Guthrie Center senior director Cady Shaw. “By presenting the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize to U2, we honor a legacy of music that continues to challenge who we are and connect us the world over.”
U2 haven’t set foot in Cain’s Ballroom since performing there on April 4, 1981. The band returned to Tulsa again in 1983 and 2018 and is looking “forward to legally buying their own pints this time around,” per a statement.
Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. join past Guthrie Prize recipients including Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen and 2024 honoree Tom Morello, who previously told SPIN that Guthrie “is a North Star to guide one’s point of view in dealing with the music industry, dealing with a readiness to always be available, to stand up for the oppressed and to lace your music with not just purpose, but humanity. Woody Guthrie’s children’s songs are as beautiful and as impactful as his songs about immigrant rights and his anti-fascist songs. He’s one of the greatest artists of all time, and for them to think of me is a great honor.”
U2 have been off the road since wrapping its inaugural Sphere residency in Las Vegas in May 2024. Bono told Jimmy Kimmel in May that work was underway on the follow-up to 2017’s Songs of Experience, and described the sound as “four men who feel like their lives depend on it. And I remind them, they do. And you know, nobody needs a new U2 album, unless it’s an extraordinary one, and I’m feeling very strong about it.”
Expect “songs for the kitchen, songs for the speedway, the garage — just for every part of your life. Songs to make up to, songs to break up to. U2 makes a very unique sound when we play together, and I think, yeah, the sound of a room is what we’re going for.”
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