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Bono Compares Billie Eilish to Carole King, Roy Orbison

There are compliments, and then there’s what Bono wrote about pop superstar Billie Eilish. In honor of his 60th birthday on May 10, Bono released a playlist called “60 Songs…

Bono and Billie Eilish
Jason Kempin, Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

There are compliments, and then there's what Bono wrote about pop superstar Billie Eilish.

In honor of his 60th birthday on May 10, Bono released a playlist called "60 Songs That Changed My Life." Along with the playlist itself, Bono is sharing letters to the artists featured on the playlist expressing why that specific song changed him.

Eilish's song "everything i wanted" from her Grammy-award winning album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, was featured on the playlist, and in his letter (the fourth slide in the Instagram post below), Bono compares the young artist to songwriting legends Carole King and Roy Orbison:

"Dear Billie (Finneas too),

My ears long for such empty spaces to wander...to sneak away from the density of digital surfaces with too much information...I step inside your song and it's a black beauty, achingly awesomely vulnerable and terrifying, fearless and worrisome...but you are not worried by all that. You express it so you can own the feeling that nags.

I think of Carole King, I think of Roy Orbison.

But just like them, this never existed before you did. 

Your fan,
Bono"

More letters from Bono will been released gradually and can be read on U2's Instagram.

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Erica Banas is a news blogger who's been covering the rock/classic rock world since 2014. The coolest event she's ever covered in person was the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Sir Paul McCartney inducting Foo Fighters? C'mon now!) She's also well-versed in etiquette and extraordinarily nice. #TransRightsAreHumanRights