U2 Receives 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize: ‘You Don’t Talk About the Darkness, You Make the Light Brighter’

Bono and The Edge of U2 accepted the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize on behalf of the band on Tuesday. The award was presented for embodying the legacy of the legendary folk singer. The event was held at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma – and marked the first time Bono and The Edge had been there since a U2 tour stop in 1981 to promote the band’s debut album, Boy.

The 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize celebration was hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center. Preceding the award presentation, Bono and The Edge participated in an onstage conversation about art and activism with producer and musician T Bone Burnett.

“Our favorite protest songs always had a sense of vision, something to aim for. … You don’t talk about the darkness, you make the light brighter,” The Edge said, adding: “I believe music can actually change the mood of the room and actually shift a culture.”

Bono credited Bob Dylan for leading U2 to Guthrie’s music. “Bob Dylan really did bring us to the place where the song was an instrument to open up worlds. And the world of Woody Guthrie, I wouldn’t have entered if not for Bob.”

Bono also alluded to the current challenges confronting America. “America is the greatest song still yet to be written. The poetry is there but it’s still being written… don’t imagine it will continue to be extraordinary on its own, that if you fell asleep and woke up in twenty years, the world would be fairer or freer. It won’t, that’s not the way it works.”

When speaking with Burnett about the songwriting process relative to protest songs, Bono said, “You can’t write a song to order.” He read lyrics to a song that is a work-in-progress, written about the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in July by an Israeli settler.

Bono and The Edge surprised attendees with a six-song performance, including two songs in which they included snippets of Woody Guthrie songs (“Running to Stand Still” with a snippet of “Bound for Glory) and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” with a snippet of “Jesus Christ”). Other U2 songs in their set were “Mothers of the Disappeared,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “One” and “Yahweh.”

Guthrie’s granddaughter Anna Canoni and Woody Guthrie Center director Cady Shaw also spoke at the event. “Woody and U2 have been aligned for decades,” Canoni said. “Whether it is protesting against war and violence, standing up for humanitarian rights, singing about greed, corruption and injustice.”

The event served as a fundraiser to support the Center’s educational programs, public concerts, exhibitions and the legacy of Woody Guthrie. The event was presented by the Harper House Music Foundation.

The Woody Guthrie Prize seeks to recognize artists who reflect Guthrie’s belief that music can be a force for social justice and change. Previous honorees include Tom Morello, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Kris Kristofferson, John Mellencamp, Chuck D, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen and Pussy Riot, as well as groundbreaking TV producer Norman Lear.

Guthrie’s most famous song is “This Land Is Your Land,” which he wrote in February 1940 in response to what he felt was the overplaying of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” on the radio. Guthrie died in 1967 at age 55 from complications of Huntington’s disease. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an early/musical influence in 1988 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2000.

U2, which also includes Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., has won 22 Grammys, more than any other group or duo in history. Their Grammy collection includes two awards for album of the year, two for record of the year and two for song of the year. U2 was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and were recently named Fellows of The Ivors Academy, the highest honor in British songwriting.