U2’s Bono Thanks Paul McCartney As The Band Opens Las Vegas’s The Sphere

After years of anticipation, Las Vegas’s newest music venue has finally opened to much fanfare. U2 became the first musical act to perform at the MSG Sphere in Sin City, and during the venue’s inaugural concert, the band’s frontman made sure to thank one superstar who was in the crowd to celebrate the night.

During U2’s debut show of their Las Vegas residency at the MSG Sphere, Bono spoke to the audience in between songs, calling out one of the greatest rockers who has ever lived who happened to be there—Paul McCartney.

As the group performed their song “Desire,” U2 included a bit of The Beatles’s single “Love Me Do.” When the song moment concluded, Bono spoke up, saying, "Macca is in the house tonight. Paul McCartney is here.” The mere mention of the former Beatle was enough to elicit applause from the audience. The singer added a bit of a joke to his introduction, saying, “Just know that we love you, and we've stolen a lot of your songs."

Bono continued with his humorous touch, suggesting to the 18,000 people in attendance at the special concert that the MSG Sphere may have been conceived to solve an audio problems that The Beatles faced when they performed at Shea Stadium in 1965. The singer-songwriter recounted how nobody could hear the band decades ago as they played the massive venue, not even themselves. He quipped, "Well, the Sphere's here–can you hear us?"

The rocker made the connection that without that audio blunder decades prior, the MSG Sphere may never have been constructed. Whether that’s entirely true or not is up for debate, but it was still a nice gesture from Bono to honor McCartney and talk him up.

The MSG Sphere is officially open for business after years of development, construction and marketing and a price tag of $2 billion. U2 is introducing the world to the venue with a 25-night residency. The group is taking this opportunity to play iconic album Achtung Baby in its entirety.