U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. Diagnosed With Dyscalculia, Impacting His Drumming

Larry Mullen Jr. has been diagnosed with dyscalculia, a form of dyslexia that impacts his work.

The U2 drummer recently explained that “counting bars is like climbing Everest” as he opened up for the first time about the diagnosis that makes it difficult to count or add numbers, something that has long affected him without knowing the root.

“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged,” he explained on Times Radio. “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.”

Having co-founded U2 in 1976 with Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton, Mullen noted that his struggle with the learning disability has long taken a toll.

“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘you look pained,’” he said. “I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars. I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.”

Mullen, whose son is also dyslexic, appears in the upcoming documentary Left Behind from writer Karen Sim and director Anna Wild Toomey, which follows five mothers attempting to establish the first public school for children with dyslexia in New York City.