Bruce Springsteen, welcome
to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you very much. (laughs)
It is truly an honor to have you here
because you are not just an artist.
You are not just a successful artist
but, in many ways, people would say
that you write the story of America in your music.
You've been extremely successful doing it.
I mean, 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes,
-a Tony Award, an Oscar. -(chuckles)
At this stage of your life,
what do you think Bruce Springsteen
is still trying to tell people through his music?
(chuckles)
Just trying to keep going. (laughing)
At 71...
I'm just trying to make it to the next record
and the next show, you know?
But, uh, I don't know.
I guess if someone was interested
in sort of...
a little bit of cataloging
the history of the United States
since, say, 1970
and its postindu... postindustrial period,
uh, in music,
uh, looking for music
that dealt with some of the issues
that have occurred over the past 40 or 50 years,
you know, there's... they could do worse
than go and dig into some of my stuff,
I suppose, you know?
So, if I've been good for anything,
maybe-maybe I've been good for that a little bit.
And then the rest of the time, I'm just trying to entertain you
and help you do your wash and your-your laundry
and vacuum your floor
and dance a little bit in the kitchen.
And, uh, uh, you know,
uh, we're-we're here to soothe your soul
through troubled times a little bit if we can,
and-and that's how I look at my job.
One thing that-that makes your job so interesting--
or rather the execution of your job--
is that it feels like you're talking about everybody's lives,
everybody's society, what you see going on.
I mean, you've written music
about police brutality many, many years ago
that, if someone played that song today,
they'd go like, "Oh, you wrote it about now."
But when you... when you look at those themes,
I've always wanted to know, like, what do you think
you're trying to get across to the listener?
What do you think the music is trying to achieve?
Is it just to shine a light on the subject,
or is it to also infuse a little bit of your politics
and-and what you experience in and around the world?
I suppose it's a little bit of both.
You know, it's the way you see things
and-and how you're experiencing them,
and I-I...
There's a part of me that says if you were interested
in knowing what it was like
to be a citizen of the United States
between 1970 and 2020,
like I said, you know, you-you...
That-that may be in my work a little bit.
Uh, a lot of the times, you're just written...
You just write what moves you, what...
And-and then, but, also, it...
You-you write what you are able to write about
because very often...
I don't... I don't operate from the conceptual...
from a conceptual place first.
I operate sort of internally first,
and then... and then it becomes outward.
So, a song, say, like "American Skin"
that I wrote in 1998
about the Amadou Diallo shooting,
uh, is... can feel current today,
you know, but it was just something at the time
I remember I was thinking we were coming to New York.
I wanted to have a new piece of music,
and that was, uh...
That had recently occurred,
and-and I was just able to write about it.
So-so I did, you know.
I didn't... I didn't think it was going to be,
uh, particularly controversial at the time.
It ended up being a little more so than I thought.
But, uh, but that's kind of how I approach things.
The political aspect in my music is more...
is-is through implication.
-Mm-hmm. -I try to write good....
I try to write
good, three-dimensional character studies
where I bring, uh, lives to life,
you know, and create...
and create, uh,
breathing, living human beings
that you-you'll recognize in my music,
and then I kind of let the politics
speak for itself, you know?
Uh, of course, some of your own comes through, but I really...
I-I-I wouldn't cons...
I don't consider myself a topical songwriter.
I don't consider myself a political songwriter.
If anything, at this... at this late age,
I-I would say I'm, uh, I'm a little more...
I've been saying I'm a little bit more
of a spiritual songwriter in that that's, uh,
what's sort of been driving my...
some of my most recent work.
So, uh, uh, that's-that's basically
the way I look at my job and-and what I do.
I think that's one of the more fascinating things about you,
is that you-you always refer to it as a job.
You know, even-even in the documentary,
I-I loved how you've reunited the E Street Band.
Here you are, you know,
50 years from the inception of this idea,
and you guys are jamming.
And you play for a very long time.
And-and I love that you say to the... you say to the guys.
You're like, "Guys, we... This is our job.
We have a job to do."
And everyone's talking about a job, and it's work.
You guys are having a great time,
but it's like you're working.
It's like, "We're working. We're getting the chords.
We're doing the thing."
Why do you think you work so hard?
It may seem like an obvious question,
but why do you think you work so hard and play for so long
to make the songs what they are?
I just like to do it, you know?
It's the way that I've, uh... (chuckles)
The way that I've enjoyed doing my job
since I was a very, very young-young man.
You know, when I was 18 or 19,
I was used to playing five hours a night in a bar.
So, I was very used to that kind of playing
very early in my... in my work life,
and I al-also felt
I was...
desperate to communicate,
and-and I just as...
Starting from when I was young, I felt there was a lot
I wanted to talk to you about right now.
And I don't know what tomorrow brings,
but I know that, this evening,
we're all here and we're in this room.
So I'm interested in making the most of my opportunity
to speak to you tonight.
And that drove me more than anything else.
It's something I've just always enjoyed...
I've enjoyed doing. When I come offstage,
I feel a...
release and a catharsis
that occurs through that kind of work.
And I don't think, uh, uh...
A-And that's what's-- that's just what's driven me, you know?
And so it's really-- it's really what drives you
and-and how you approach your job.
And-and I always approached it as...
as this very, sort of, I would say, joyous work.
You know, I've gotten a tremendous amount of joy
out of it.
Uh, we're serious when we--
when we get on-- when we g-get on the stage
or when we come in the studio.
Um... so there's not exactly what I would call...
-(laughs): a party atmosphere, I suppose. -(laughs)
You know? But it's a work atmosphere,
where there's an enormous amount of happiness and joy
in simply-- in simply what we're accomplishing.
For a long time, your music has been the catharsis.
You-you have seen people who have felt unseen.
You have spoken about towns that are forgotten in time.
You've spoken about industries and places and people
that-that seem to have been completely forgotten.
And yet, at the same time,
you have as big a following on the coast.
You-you cross, you know, all walks of life.
I-I wonder if you ever sit and ask yourself
why you think you do so well
with such a broad swath of people?
Well, I would say,
first and foremost,
I'm a good storyteller.
You know?
And people like stories.
And they like stories that connect
to their inner geography.
Your inner geography
may or may not have to do with anything you've experienced
or not experienced.
It's simply the geography of your emotional life.
And I believe I've...
I've done well at speaking to that, you know?
And our largest audience is in Europe.
We have-- Two-thirds of our--
of-of our audience exists in Europe now.
Much, much-- much, much bigger than the United States.
And... uh, so, why is that?
I think I'm a good storyteller, you know?
And I think, in Europe,
people are very interested in America
and American myth and-and what's going on over here.
And, uh, those are the stories I've told
since I-- since I was a young man.
And... But, really, I believe what's at the heart of it
is-is people like your music,
they like the way it sounds, they like the way you sing,
and they like the stories you tell.
You tell stories
that some people cannot tell for themselves, you know?
I'm... I-I always loved listening to your music,
because I felt like it took me on a journey
through what people refer to as the heartland of America.
What I've also been intrigued by in your music is
how people oftentimes miss the meaning of your music,
misconstrue your music,
or have a completely different understanding
of what the music is.
So-so, for-for instance,
a great example is, like, "Born in the USA."
-(laughs) You know? Like, people play it in-in a way that the--
When you listen to the lyrics, you're like,
"This doesn't seem like how people are dancing."
Like, people are like, "Yeah!
"This is a song about let's take over the world!
I'm born in the USA!"
-(laughs) -And-and your song seems to be more like--
It's like-- it's like you're questioning
this-this whole idea of what America's doing
in the Vietnam War.
And-and, again, it can translate to what's happening today.
W-- Do you-- How do you feel about that,
when people are playing your song for, like,
-the opposite reason that you wrote the song for? -(laughs)
Well, in this particular case...
(chuckles) This is my cross to bear,
so I try to bear it with a smile.
But, uh... (laughs)
But I think what the issue is
is that, uh...
the key to some of my music
is you need to be able to hold two contradictory ideas
in your mind at the same time,
which is sort of the measure...
a bit of a measure of adulthood.
So you need to be able to deal with the fact
that a song can be both prideful and critical.
And that idea
is very essential to a lot of my music,
because that's how I feel, you know?
I'm proud of my country.
I-I've-I've had a-an amazing life
and gotten the best out of it through living here,
but there's a lot to continue to be critical about.
So both of those things are going into my music.
It's a bit up to the listener to listen well,
if you want to get the whole picture.
But to do so, you've really got to be able to hold the idea
"pride and criticalness can go hand in hand."
Let's talk about being critical then.
You came out in an interview recently and said, um,
if Trump wins a second term,
you'll move to Australia.
-I-I... (chuckles) -(laughing)
I don't think that's true, right?
It just didn't feel like that's something you would do.
Well, I don't think I'm gonna go there,
but I'm not sure yet.
(laughing)
So-so, we'll see.
But, uh, you know, I'll be glad to see him go.
I think he's gonna lose,
and I'll be glad to see that happen.
We've got-- we've got a new album from Bruce Springsteen.
We've got a documentary.
We've got so many pieces of material
that we can enjoy of yours right now.
You've got new music that's just come out.
You've got a few tracks that you've...
previously unreleased tracks from, you know,
decades and decades ago that you--
that you've remade for today.
It feels like you've always been sure about yourself.
It feels like you're prolific because you know
that you have something to say.
But I wonder, when you create,
do you still have doubt sometimes?
Well, a-any good artist,
uh, wrestles with their insecurities.
It's your insecurities that move you forward.
If you were simply...
comfortable with...
completely comfortable with who you are
and what you're doing and where you've gone,
I-I don't know if you would have the fire in you to move forward.
It's your doubts and your questions
and your searching for new and different answers
that move you forward in your work.
So I would describe myself,
do I have more...
artistic secur-security than I had when I was 23?
In some ways. But I don't believe
that that necessarily had anything to do
with the quality of the music that I was writing.
I can look back and say, when I was 25,
I made this record, Born to Run,
and it's as good as any record I've ever made.
I made it-- wrote-wrote it when I was 24 years old.
I've got songs on this album that I wrote
when I was 22 years old,
before I made any rec--
before we recorded any-any music.
And there was three of them that ended up on this record.
So-so, those things,
I don't necessarily influence
the quality of your artistic output.
Uh, but I do believe
that-that your-your doubts and questions
and insecurities do move your work forward,
do keep you questioning,
do keep you searching,
and that's at the key of artistic, uh, uh, progression.
My final question to you is, as someone who was born to run,
-someone who's always been on the road, -(laughs)
someone who has performed thousands of concerts
all around the globe,
what have you been doing during the pandemic?
I am born to sit still. (laughs)
At the moment, so... I'm doing what everybody else is doing.
You know, I mean, um, we-we stay inside a lot.
Uh, you know, we have a few friends that we're careful
we see, we're socially distancing, you know, we're...
And, uh, lucky-luckily enough I have a studio at my home,
which we're, I'm in right now.
And I've had a variety of projects to keep me busy.
I had the film, I had the album,
which we started po-- pre-pandemic.
Uh, and I have a radio show that I do bi-weekly basically,
which I've enjoyed doing and it's allowed me
to continue the conversation with my audience
during this strange and, uh, uh...
during these strange times.
But, you know, meanwhile, I've been lucky, like I say,
that I can work at home, that, uh...
Uh, of course, I'm extremely fortunate
that I don't have some of the, the worries that, that, that,
that, uh, other folks have and that, uh, uh, as far
as getting though tomorrow or the next day,
or next year, you know, but, uh,
our circumstances have sort of been, uh,
uh, you know... I got, you know, my fami--
I'm lucky enough to have my family here, so...
And it's, uh-- we've just been holding on like everybody else.
Well, I appreciate you, um, it's been a wonderful journey for me
going through your body of music, getting ready
for this interview, so, uh, uh, you've got a brand-new fan.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for joining us on the show.
Thanks, Trevor.