Elijah Hewson

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Elijah Hewson
Hewson performing in 2022
Hewson performing in 2022
Background information
Birth nameElijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson
BornKilliney, Ireland
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Years active2012-present
Member ofInhaler

Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson (born 17 August 1999) is an Irish rock musician from Killiney. He is best known for being the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Inhaler, with whom he has released two albums, It Won't Always Be Like This in 2021 and Cuts and Bruises in 2023. He is the son of U2 frontman Bono and activist Ali Hewson.

Life and career[edit]

Early life[edit]

Hewson was born Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson[1] on 17 August 1999 to Bono, the lead singer of U2, and Ali Hewson. 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's first name is a result of the Christianity of his father,[4] while his middle names make reference to Guggi, a member of the Virgin Prunes, and Quincy Jones,[5] 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[6] and Euan Ferguson of The Observer suggesting that he should be ashamed of himself.[7] Growing up, Elijah lived at Temple Hill in Killiney, which his parents had moved into in the late 1980s,[8] and attended Dalkey School Project[9] and St Andrew's College, Dublin.[10] 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.[11]

Inhaler[edit]

Aged thirteen,[12] he took up the guitar after playing the video game Guitar Hero,[13] three years after discovering that his father was famous.[12] While at St Andrew's College, he met Robert Keating and Ryan McMahon,[14] and in late 2012,[15] he formed a band with them and a vocalist under the name "The Collapsible Chairs"; when he was fourteen or fifteen, the band's singer left after his vocals were found to be substandard, leading to Hewson replacing him.[16] They later earned the sobriquet "The Inhalers" after the medical device of the same name due to Hewson's asthma,[17] and adopted the moniker Inhaler in February 2015;[15] around this time, Hewson attended a party with the intention of attracting the attention of Josh Jenkinson,[13] who McMahon had known from primary school[18] and who was a member of another band Hewson thought had split up, enticing him to join the band by playing him a copy of "I Wanna Be Adored" by the Stone Roses.[13]

After graduating with a Leaving Certificate,[19] the band took a year out to play music, with the intention of going to college afterwards if it did not work out.[20] Hewson's parents made a point of not assisting further than necessary;[12] 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". A friend later allowed them to use their couch.[21] 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;[22] in contrast, his father's band's first two albums, Boy and October, had charted at No. 52 and No. 11.[23]

Artistry and personal life[edit]

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],[24] and while reviewing It Won't Always Be Like This, 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".[25] In 2023, it was reported that he was dating Grace Burns, the daughter of Christy Turlington and Edward Burns.[26]

Family tree[edit]

Hewson family tree
Brendan Robert
"Bob" Hewson		Iris
Rankin		Terry
Stewart		Joy Stewart
Norman
Hewson		Paul David
Hewson[27]		Ian
Stewart[28]		Alison Stewart[29]
Jordan
Joy
Hewson		Memphis Eve
Sunny Day
Iris Hewson		Elijah Bob
Patricius Guggi
Q Hewson		John Abraham Hewson

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "BBC News | Entertainment | Unforgettable name for Bono's boy". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  2. ^ "Bono's 4 Children: Everything to Know". Peoplemag. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  3. ^ "Bono's heir raising method of delivery". Independent.ie. 2001-07-20. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  4. ^ "Pro Bono | Comment | The Observer". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  5. ^ "Whatever happened to baby Moon Unit Zappa?". The Independent. 2004-05-16. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  6. ^ "My old man's a rock star, see?". The Independent. 2001-07-03. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  7. ^ "Euan Ferguson on offsprings and mundane names". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  8. ^ Coyle, Colin (2023-12-21). "Mrs Bono has 'right of way' to the beach in property dispute". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  9. ^ Price, Ryan. "Bono's son Eli Hewson wants his band to be as big as U2, but vows to make it without his dad's help". The Irish Post. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  10. ^ "Inhaler: tour dates, new album, latest single and more". Radio X. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  11. ^ "U2 release cover art and single from new album". RTÉ.ie. 1 November 2017. Archived from the original on 1 November 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  12. ^ a b c "Passing the torch: The musical offspring of famous rock stars - National". Global News. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  13. ^ a b c Dork (2020-01-07). "Hype List 2020: Inhaler". Dork. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  14. ^ "Inhaler Are Breaking Big. But They Still Want More". Esquire. 2023-02-17. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  15. ^ a b "Bono's son's band responds in Inhaler name row". BBC News. 2018-05-12. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  16. ^ "Irish rock band Inhaler: 'People assume our band went straight into the big leagues'". The Independent. 2022-07-24. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  17. ^ Ehrlich, Brenna (2020-01-21). "Inhaler: How an Asthmatic Irish Band Went From Talent Shows to Interscope". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  18. ^ "Meet Inhaler: 2020's bright young things". British GQ. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  19. ^ "Inhaler front man says being Bono's son helps - sort of". Irish Post. 2019-06-19.
  20. ^ ""We wanted to get out of school as badly as possible" - Inhaler in conversation". JOE.ie. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  21. ^ McLean, Craig (2023-01-23). "Inhaler: Ireland's best new band on embracing nepo-babyism with style". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  22. ^ "INHALER". Official Charts. 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  23. ^ "U2". Official Charts. 1981-08-08. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  24. ^ "BBC Music Sound Of 2020 longlist revealed". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  25. ^ McCormick, Neil (2021-07-08). "Inhaler: It Won't Always Be Like This, review: youthful exuberance – and an impeccable rock pedigree". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  26. ^ "Meet Christy Turlington's daughter Grace Burns, who's dating Bono's son". South China Morning Post. 2023-09-18. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  27. ^ Cantarelli, Loris (2020-05-25). Bono: La voce degli U2 tra musica, impegno e spiritualità (in Italian). HOEPLI EDITORE. ISBN 978-88-203-9798-2.
  28. ^ "Ali's other Eden". Independent.ie. 2005-03-06. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  29. ^ "Ali Hewson: It's a wonderful life being Mrs Bono". Independent.ie. 2011-08-27. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
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