Twenty years after Live Aid raised $160 million for African famine relief, Irish rocker Bob Geldof, 52, is organizing its sequel: the Live 8 concerts on July 2. PEOPLE'S Pete Norman talked to Geldof, who was given an honorary knighthood in 1986, about putting on a four-continent show.

Ready?

I'm in the organization continuum. I don't sleep. I'm sweating now. It is utterly vast. You're talking about 1,000 artists on four continents and the organization around them, which is absolutely huge in each city. Basically it is me on my cell, borrowing offices, moving around—the tap dance around.

You initially opposed doing it. Why?

I'm loath to mess with Live Aid. It was a perfect day.... [And] the world has changed utterly since then. Twenty years ago there were no cell phones; the common form of business communication was telexes. The original shock of being connected with everyone on the planet is what made it work.

What changed your mind?

Bono thought it could work. We argued strenuously. We are really old friends, for 27 years. We talk very bluntly with each other. It's corny, but we are like brothers. He's not King Rock to me. I listen and he listens in turn.

What is Live 8's message?

Fifty percent of Africans are under 15 and [have] AIDS, or no jobs and go to bed hungry. Get on the ONE Campaign Web site [www.one.org]. Call the President. To do nothing is intolerable.

And then will you take a break?

I go with the kids [Fifi Trixibelle, 21, Peaches, 16, and Pixie, 14, with ex-wife Paula Yates, and Tiger Lily, 8, whom he has had custody of since the deaths of her parents, Yates and INXS singer Michael Hutchence] every year to the Balearic Islands. They love it, but it's not really relaxing because you have to do the whole family thing.

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Live 8
JULY 2, 2005

4 CONTINENTS NORTH AMERICA EUROPE AFRICA ASIA

10 CITIES LONDON PHILADELPHIA PARIS BERLIN ROME TORONTO TOKYO JOHANNESBURG MOSCOW BODELVA, ENGLAND

1,000 ARTISTS including: DESTINY'S CHILD DAVE MATTHEWS BAND ALICIA KEYS U2 MADONNA PAUL MCCARTNEY JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE BLACK EYED PEAS COLDPLAY MARIAH CAREY TIM MCGRAW FAITH HILL BON JOVI REM SNOOP DOGG STING ELTON JOHN STEVIE WONDER GREEN DAY SHAKIRA JOSS STONE GOOD CHARLOTTE

Geldof Looks Back: What It Was Like the First Time
On the morning of Live Aid I walked down to get to Wembley Stadium. It was a hot day and every window was open and on every radio I could hear, "It's two hours to Live Aid." I was so frightened. What if no one shows up? There were no contracts...Then I stood on the stage and boosh! I got the romance of it, that someone in Vladivostok and in Bogotá at that moment was watching. Suddenly it struck me that every person I ever met was watching. [It] made me stop dead in the middle of the song, for 20 or 30 seconds...Afterwards there were huge traffic jams. I spent hours trying to find a taxi. I had to hitchhike a lift, but [the driver] wouldn't take me all the way home to Chelsea. He dumped me [six miles away] and said, "Sorry, mate. I'm off. See you, Bob."