During the nearly five decades Larry Mullen Jr. has served as the drummer for U2, he has been keeping time for one of the biggest bands in the world. As it turns out, the percussionist has done it while battling a learning disability called dyscalculia.
In a recent interview with Times Radio, Mullen Jr. opened up about his recent diagnosis with dyscalculia for the first time. Sometimes known as “math dyslexia,” the learning disability makes it difficult to learn or comprehend concepts in arithmetic like algebra and understanding whether one amount is greater than another. In turn, this impacts skills like reading music.
“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers,” Mullen Jr. said. “I’m numerically challenged. And I realized recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a sub-version of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.”
Continuing, the musician said dyscalculia explains the “pained” look on his face while playing drums, which has long been noticed by U2 fans. “I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” he said. “I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.”
According to a 2019 study, 3% to 7% of all children, adolescents, and adults suffer from dyscalculia. When diagnosed as a child, there are treatment plans to make learning math easier, but it seems like Mullen Jr. had to navigate the disability himself until now.
As the Times notes, “Murder on the Dance Floor” singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor has two sons who were diagnosed with dyscalculia and serves as an ambassador to the UK’s Dyscalculia Network.
Elsewhere in the interview, the U2 member said he was “excited to get back in some capacity” after being forced to sit out of their Sphere residency to recover from surgery.
This could include a 2026 tour and new music, which The Edge recently teased as “some crazy kind of sci-fi Irish folk music” made with Brian Eno.
U2 recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb with a reissue titled How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb.