Larry Mullen Jr, the U2 drummer, has revealed that he cannot count or add numbers because he suffers from dyscalculia — a learning difficulty that affects numeracy.
The acclaimed musician compared “counting bars” of music to “climbing Everest” as he revealed his diagnosis for the first time in an interview with Times Radio.
Dyscalculia is a learning disability affecting a person’s capacity to learn skills like telling the time or reading music. People with dyscalculia find it difficult to comprehend arithmetic.
Mullen, 63, said: “I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged.
“And I realised recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a sub-version of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.”
Mullen said that this difficulty explained the “pained” look on his face while drumming — which has been noted by concerned fans of U2, one of the world’s most influential rock bands. Mullen founded U2 with singer Bono, guitarist the Edge and bassist Adam Clayton while they were at school in Dublin.
“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘you look pained’. I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” Mullen said. “I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.”
Mullen said that after years of struggling to understand numbers, he has recently been diagnosed with dyscalculia. It is the first time he has spoken publicly about the way in which his “counting challenges” have had an impact on his education and career.
Mullen revealed his struggle to add and count while talking about a new feature documentary Left Behind, which tells the story of five mothers determined to establish the first state school in New York City for children with dyslexia.
The drummer, whose son is dyslexic, produced and wrote music for the film, which premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in October. He said at the launch: “Making the music through the eyes of my dyslexic son felt personal and visceral.”
About 6 per cent of the UK’s population suffers from dyscalculia, according to the Dyscalculia Network, whose ambassador is Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
The Murder on the Dancefloor singer has two sons who were diagnosed with the learning difficulty by an education psychologist while at primary school.
But the organisation warned that millions more people across the country were likely to unknowingly have dyscalculia — with one sufferer explaining how numbers look like “a foreign language”.
Listen to the Times Radio interview with Larry Mullen Jr on Friday December 13 at 7.45pm
