Singer comments for the first time on the criticism of U2's deal with Apple.

Bono was a guest on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 2 show yesterday, where he defended U2 from criticism surrounding the non-traditional release of the band's latest album 'Songs of Innocence'.

Commenting on the free giveaway of the album, which saw 500 million iTunes users receive the album directly into their digital libraries, Bono said: "That's always been the way. It was the same on our first album. That was kind of why we got into a band, to stir things up and annoy people. That's the whole punk rock thing...the only thing that could have gone wrong would have been being ignored."

He continued: "If you're a songwriter, if you're in a band, that's all you can ask for. Whether they take them to their heart is something else."

Whiley also asked Bono about the iTunes tool which had been rolled out by Apple to enable users to delete the album from their collections in one swift click.

"Oh for God's sakes... Really and truly, we get that people might want to delete it but nobody has deleted more U2 songs in the last five years than U2!"

More: 'Songs of Innocence' reviewed

(via NME)