Larry Mullen Jr risked paralysis to stay behind the kit

He has already sat in on Carnaval De Luz and surprise gigs, and U2 are rehearsing a new stadium tour — though full two-and-a-half-hour sets remain an open question.

Larry Mullen Jr has spoken in detail about the neck surgery that interrupted his work with U2 and the careful path that has brought him back to the drum stool. In interviews given on 28 and 29 September 2026, the Dublin drummer set out how a congenital fusion in a facet joint — worsened by decades of playing — left him in severe pain after the 2019 Joshua Tree tour. It forced a stark choice between retirement and an operation that carried a risk of paralysis.

Doctors advised him to stop. His family opposed the surgery. He went ahead in Dublin with a neurosurgeon who called him a "national treasure". The procedure succeeded, but his body now works differently. He returned to basics and texted the band when he was ready.

Mullen, 64, has been the foundation of U2 since the band formed in Dublin in 1976. Alongside Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton, he has carried the group from post-punk roots through an anthemic rock language built on Bono's voice and the Edge's chiming, effects-laden guitar. The records began with Boy in 1980 and October the following year, then War and The Unforgettable Fire; the live reputation that followed made the four one of the defining stadium acts of their generation. That same demand — night after night, tour after tour — is what eventually caught up with the drummer.

The long road back to the stool

He has sat in on rehearsals for the new album Carnaval De Luz and taken part in recent surprise gigs, the first live shows since the 2023 surgery. U2 are in rehearsals for a new stadium tour. Mullen said he is unsure about full two-and-a-half-hour stadium sets, but will accept playing an hour if that is what is needed. Bono has spoken of praying for the band's health, and for Mullen's fitness in particular.

In the years around the operation the band's public work leaned on catalogue and reimagining. Songs of Surrender arrived in 2023, a full-length reworking of their songs, with the single Atomic City the same year. Archive and live packages kept coming: the ZOO TV EP drawn from Dublin in 1993, further Virtual Road sets, the Stories Of Surrender EP in 2025, and Days Of Ash in 2026. Against that run of looking back, Mullen's return shifts the centre of gravity towards new material and the next run of dates.

For a group that has kept the same four members at its core for half a century, the drum stool is not replaceable. U2's sound has always rested on the lock between Mullen's timekeeping, Clayton's bass and the Edge's guitar architecture. A shorter set would change the shape of a night without breaking that lock. What the rehearsals settle is how far the body will stretch on any given evening after an operation that could have ended the work altogether.

The news, for now, is that the surgery held, the message went through, and Larry Mullen Jr is back in the room with the band he has driven since 1976.