Danielle Haim has recalled how she texted Bono to ask him to guest on Haim‘s 2019 single ‘Summer Girl’.

The song – which later featured as a bonus track on the trio’s 2020 album ‘Women in Music Pt. III’ – is the subject of the latest episode of Song Exploder, which features Haim’s lead vocalist/guitarist, Haim bassist/vocalist Este Haim, regular Haim producer Ariel Rechtshaid and ‘Summer Girl”s co-producer and co-writer Rostam.

Danielle and Rostam recalled in the episode how they approached Bono with the offer to sing on ‘Summer Girl’, with the former reaching out to the U2 frontman via text message with the invitation to collaborate vocals on the song’s closing line “and I can see the angels coming down / Like a wave that’s crashing on the ground”.

“In my head, I was like: ‘That’s such a Bono line, I can just picture Bono… Maybe we should ask him if he would sing that section of the song?’” Rostam said about the origin of the Bono idea (you can listen to this part of the episode at the 14-minute mark below).

“And Danielle was kind of like: ‘Well, you know I know him… when I lost my voice in Ireland, he sent me this care package – it was the sweetest thing – and he recommended a doctor.’”

Danielle then picked up the tale, recalling: “So I had [Bono’s] number, and they were like: ‘You’ve got to text Bono!’ I was like: ‘What the fuck are you talking about? I’m not gonna text Bono’.

“I think we then got really super-drunk and [Rostam] finally convinced me to send it [the text]. So I sent Bono the song, and he was so nice. He was like: ‘This is great, let me see where I fit in.’ My mind was exploding.”

The collaboration ultimately didn’t materialise, however, with Danielle explaining that Bono pulled out due to illness.

“Finally he texted me back and was like: ‘You know what: I’m so sick, I’m so sorry – unless you want a blown horn on this song; my voice is just so shot. I don’t think I can come up with anything in time,’” she said. “And that was that!”

Last month saw the release of Toro Y Moi’s remix of Haim’s ‘3am’, which followed on from the producer’s recent re-working of Caroline Polachek‘s ‘Hit Me Where It Hurts’ with Deftones frontman Chino Moreno.