Vatican City, May 3, 2016 / 02:31 am
Lead guitarist The Edge from Irish rock band sensation U2 played "the most beautiful parish hall in the world" this weekend – the Sistine Chapel.
The performance, the first-ever rock concert in the historic chapel, was given for about 200 doctors and researchers who attended a conference at the Vatican last week on regenerative medicine. The conference discussed the use of adult stem cells to cure difficult and rare diseases such as cancer.
The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, wore his signature black beanie while he played and sang a cover of Leonard Cohen's "If it be your will," and renditions of U2 songs "Yahweh," "Ordinary love" and "Walk on."
The rock star, who has experienced the effects of cancer in his own life – his father died from cancer last month and his daughter once had leukemia – peppered his performance with references to some technical cancer terms.