Larry Mullen Jr.

Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr. (/ˈmʌlən/; born 31 October 1961) is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band U2. A member of the band since its inception, he has recorded 15 studio albums with U2. Mullen's distinctive, almost military drumming style developed from his playing martial beats in childhood marching bands.

Mullen was born in Dublin, where he attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School. In 1976, he co-founded U2 after posting a message on the school's notice board in search of musicians. Mullen has worked on numerous side projects during his career. In 1990, he produced the Ireland national football team's song "Put 'Em Under Pressure" for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. In 1996, he worked with U2 bandmate Adam Clayton on a dance re-recording of the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has also collaborated with musicians such as Maria McKee, Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, and Alice Cooper. Mullen has sporadically acted in films, most notably in Man on the Train (2011) and A Thousand Times Good Night (2013).

Mullen has received 22 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked Mullen the 96th-greatest drummer of all time.

Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr., the middle child and only son of Laurence Joseph Mullen Sr. and Maureen (née Boyd) Mullen, was born on 31 October 1961 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland, and lived there, on Rosemount Avenue, until his twenties. His father was a civil servant and his mother a homemaker. He has an elder sister, Cecilia, and had a younger sister, Mary, who died in 1973. He attended the School of Music in Chatham Row to learn piano at the age of eight and then began drumming in 1971 at the age of 9, under the instruction of Irish drummer Joe Bonnie. After Bonnie's death, his daughter Monica took over for him, but Mullen gave up the lessons and started playing by himself.

Before founding U2, Mullen joined a Dublin marching band called the Artane Boys Band at the suggestion of his father. Mullen said that the band focused more on learning to read sheet music, whereas he wanted to spend more time playing the drums. He was asked by the band to cut his shoulder-length hair, and despite acquiescing and cutting a few inches off, he was asked to shorten it further. Mullen refused and quit the band after just three weeks.

Mullen used the money he had saved and with his father's help bought a drum kit, made by a Japanese toy company, which his sister Cecilia's friend was selling. He set up the kit in his bedroom and his parents allotted him certain times to practice. His father then got him into the Post Office Workers Band, which played orchestral melodies with percussion, along with marching band standards. Mullen spent approximately two years in the Post Office Workers Band, overlapping with his time in U2. He attended Scoil Colmcille, Marlborough Street, Dublin. He took the exams for Chanel College and St. Paul's, two Catholic schools his father wanted his son to attend. After the accidental death of Larry's younger sister in 1973, his father gave up the idea of pushing his son into those schools and sent Larry to Mount Temple Comprehensive School, the first interdenominational school in Ireland. His mother died in a car accident in November 1978.

Mullen's father suggested that he place a notice on the Mount Temple bulletin board, saying something to the effect of "drummer seeks musicians to form band". U2 was founded on 25 September 1976 in Mullen's kitchen in Artane. Attending the first meeting were Mullen, Paul "Bono" Hewson, David "The Edge" Evans and his brother Dik, Adam Clayton, and Mullen's friends Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin. Mullen later described it as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." McCormick and Martin soon left, and the group settled on the name "Feedback" because it was one of the few technical terms they knew. The band later changed their name to "The Hype", and again to "U2" for a 1978 talent contest in Limerick, Ireland, that they entered and won as a four-piece. Days after the competition, the band's reduction to a four-piece lineup became permanent after they parted ways with Dik.

During the recording of the album Pop in 1996, Mullen suffered from severe back problems. Recording was delayed due to surgery. When he left the hospital, he arrived back in the studio to find the rest of the band experimenting more than ever with electronic drum machines, something driven largely by the Edge's interest in dance and hip-hop music, and, given his weakness after the operation, he relented, allowing The Edge to continue using drum machines, which contributed heavily to the album's electronic feel.