Bono Wants His Pants Back

"They sound like trivial items, they're really not. They are important items to the group and we take them seriously," Bono, foregoing his usual black leather jacket for a snappy suit and tie, told the Dublin Circuit Civil Court. The 44-year-old singer said the band's lawsuit was triggered by Cashman's attempts to auction the items in 2002. The band put the kibosh on the auction and went to court seeking return of the goods. Cashman retaliated with a defamation of character lawsuit.

"You may have wealth and power, but when someone is trying to push us around...at a certain point you have to say, 'Stop right there,' " Bono said. He also denied the band was trying to persecute Cashman because of a tell-all she published last year, Inside the Zoo with U2: My Life with the World's Biggest Rock Band. While Cashman has insisted the band gave her the items as mementos, Bono said it wasn't the band's policy. "The stylists would never have asked for them and the band would never have given them," he told the court. Even though the road crew grew to dislike Cashman ("Almost every single person on the tour wanted her off the tour," he said), Bono said he thought she had a good eye and tried to keep her on. She eventually left after a protracted contract renegotiation. Particularly irksome for Bono was Cashman's attempts to sell his cowboy hat, which he deemed iconic and fit for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "It would be like the Edge giving one of his guitars away. It is not something which will happen," he said.