Article "How U2's masterful New Orleans performances for NFL almost never happened"

I learned stuff I never knew about it.

How U2's masterful New Orleans performances for NFL almost never happened - Yahoo! Sports

"The NFL never planned to have a great opening show for the Saints' return to the dome in 2006. Then The Edge got involved. After Hurricane Katrina, U2's guitarist helped form Music Rising – a foundation whose purpose was to buy new instruments for musicians in New Orleans who had lost them in the storm. It was The Edge who approached David Saltz, producer of the league's season-opening shows, with an idea for a guitar chain to string across the field as a promotion for Music Rising. Saltz went back to Coplin with a single pitch: "This could be big."

As summer came to an end, a flurry of phone calls went around. The Edge convinced Green Day to join. Then after Green Day said yes, The Edge went back to the rest of the members of U2, who also agreed. The Edge went to the league and asked to play a 25-year-old song called "The Saints Are Coming," from an obscure Scottish punk band called The Skids. Suddenly Coplin realized he was essentially being given a show bigger than most halftimes performances without even asking for one.

"Everything we were talking about was better than what we had planned," says Collins, who is now at the NHL. "Once the league realized this could be a beautiful moment, it just took off."