Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson (born 17 August 1999) is an Irish rock musician. Born to U2 frontman Bono and activist Ali Hewson in Dublin, he grew up in Killiney and featured on the cover of U2's Songs of Experience in 2017. He formed Inhaler in late 2012 with two friends from St Andrew's College, Dublin, with a fourth member joining later, and released the albums It Won't Always Be Like This (2021) and Cuts and Bruises (2023) as part of the band. His unusual name, for which his father received odium in the press, is a result of Bono's Christianity and incorporates the names of Guggi and Quincy Jones.
Life and career
Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson[1] was born in Dublin on 17 August 1999 to Bono, the lead singer of U2, and Ali Hewson, an activist. He has two older sisters, Jordan Joy Hewson and Memphis Eve Sunny Day Iris Hewson,[2] and a younger brother, John Abraham Hewson.[3] Elijah was raised Catholic and lived at Temple Hill in Killiney, which his parents had moved into in the late 1980s.[4] He attended Dalkey School Project[5] and St Andrew's College, Dublin.[6]
At age 13,[7] he took up the guitar after playing the video game Guitar Hero,[8] three years after discovering that his father was famous.[7] In late 2012,[9] while at St Andrew's College, he met Robert Keating and Ryan McMahon[10] and formed a band with them and a vocalist under the name "The Collapsible Chairs". He became the band's lead singer when he was fourteen or fifteen after the band's original singer left after his vocals were found to be substandard.[11] They later earned the sobriquet "The Inhalers" after the medical device of the same name due to Hewson's asthma[12] and adopted the moniker Inhaler in February 2015.[9] Around this time, Josh Jenkinson joined the band after Hewson played him "I Wanna Be Adored" by The Stone Roses at a party.[8]
In December 2017, a photograph taken by Anton Corbijn of Elijah holding hands with Sian Evans, the daughter of U2's the Edge, appeared on the cover of Songs of Experience, U2's fourteenth album.[13] After graduating with a Leaving Certificate,[14] Inhaler took a year out to play music with the intention of going to college afterwards if they were not successful.[15] Hewson's parents made a point of not assisting further than necessary;[7] in an interview with Craig McLean of the Evening Standard in January 2023, he noted that after his Airbnb was cancelled on the band's first trip to London and he asked his mother to provide a hotel, he found himself instructed to sleep "on a park bench".[16] A friend later allowed them to use their couch.[17] Inhaler later had a No. 1 album on the UK Albums Chart with It Won't Always Be Like This in 2021 and a No. 2 album with Cuts & Bruises in 2023;[18] in contrast, his father's band's first two albums, Boy and October, had charted at No. 52 and No. 11.[19]
Artistry and personal life
Hewson takes inspiration from grunge, having been obsessed with the genre as a child.[20] Reviewing Inhaler in December 2019, BBC Culture remarked that Hewson's voice was "like you've got back in time, 40 years to witness [U2]'s first faltering steps in a sweaty, smoky Dublin club" [sic],[21] and while reviewing It Won't Always Be Like This for The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick found Hewson's "raw tone" reminiscent of Bono's, but with "a loose, understated fluidity to his melodies that is very pop contemporary".[22]
Hewson's first name is a result of the Christianity of his father.[23] His other middle names make reference to Guggi, a member of the Virgin Prunes, and Quincy Jones,[24] a long-time friend of his father. Bono's naming decision, which took him a week to make and two further weeks to announce,[1] earned him ordure in the press, with John Walsh of The Independent wondering what he was thinking[25] and Euan Ferguson of The Observer suggesting that he should be ashamed of himself.[26] In 2023, it was reported that Elijah was dating Grace Burns, the daughter of Christy Turlington and Edward Burns.[27]
