Fans of legendary Irish rock group U2 were pleased to be graced with a brand new album called "Songs of Innocence," which was released for free in its entirety on iTunes for all its customers and subscribers.

U2 front man Bono spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about the personal nature of creating the album.

"We wanted to make a very personal album," Bono told Rolling Stone in the interview.

"Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family," the singer and songwriter continued.

Bono then shared that ''Songs of Innocence," touched the subject of 'firsts' for all the band members.

"The whole album is first journeys -- first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that's hard. But we went there," said Bono.

The singer went on to share the story behind one song entitled 'Iris,' which is about Bono's mother who passed away when he was 14 years old.

"Forty years ago, my mother fell at her own father's funeral, and I never spoke with her again," recalls the singer, who obviously was emotional writing the track.

"Rage always follows grief, and I had a lot of it, and I still have, but I channeled it into music and I still do. I have very few memories of my mother, and I put a few of them in a song called 'Iris," Bono added.