As modern rock sages go, few equal the breadth (and ego) of U2’s Bono. So it’s nice to see when he’s not preaching about world debt, Catholicism or the bird-like qualities of Evan Rachel Wood’s singing voice, the Irish singer takes time to share his years of experience to a new generation of rock stars.

Such was the case at a recent party in New York when a rather inebriated Bono took drummer Dominic Howard from 360 Tour openers Muse aside for “a drunken chat about things.”

“We were just nattering on about music,” Howard tells Spinner. “He had a go at passing on his wisdom, though it was mostly a pat on the back, I think.

“There are a lot of similarities between our band and theirs,” Howard continues. “They took a long time to get to the big stuff in America, as well — ‘Joshua Tree’ was their fifth album. They spent years making albums and getting bigger and bigger and learning their craft before they got to the big stadium stuff and we talked about how that was the right way to go about that.”

Bono and “Special Friends” After listening intently to the elder Irish statesman, Howard eventually worked up the courage to tell the vocalist that, while he had been a fan for several years, he had never attended a U2 concert until his band began their tour with the rock behemoths at New York’s Giants Stadium.

“I told him my first time seeing his band was in New York and how I thought it was a great show. I could see that despite they’re on their 12th album or whatever they’re still enjoying it, still on top of their game. We just talked about how I was very impressed, genuinely, and he was saying similar things. He told me that if you stay together and keep on making music you can achieve what you want to achieve. You know, just wisdom.”