According to a 2018 biography of Johnny Cash (*), “In one interview, (U2’s lead vocalist) Bono explained that though he had many ‘father figures’ in his life, Johnny Cash was somewhere near the top of the list. ‘I think he was a very godly man, but you had the sense that he had spent his time in the desert,” Bono said.
Bono “had written a song, inspired by the Book of Ecclesiastes, that he said he could only hear Johnny Cash singing...The lyrics describe a man searching for God in a post-apocalyptic world…”
“The minimal, atmospheric pulse of the song -- which was eventually titled ‘The Wanderer,’ and became the final track on U2’s 1993 Zooropa album -- ends with Cash singing ‘I left with nothing, nothing but the thought of you. I went wandering.”
