November 9, 2022 • 62 mins
Bruce Springsteen joins Questlove Supreme to talk about covering classic Soul and R&B songs for his new album, Only The Strong Survive. The Boss also discusses his approach to creativity, album-making, and putting on one of the best live shows in all of music.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Man? Hello?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
How you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
What? What up? I'm good? How are we? We're good?
Doing good? Right?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you for doing this for us?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Man? Of course? How are we?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We're great? Better? Now? Where you right?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now? To see? I'm at my home. It's my studio. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I couldn't tell what it was the background. I don't know.
It's a hockey rinkor yes, I announced it's a studio.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's a studio.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I got it all right, ladies and gentlemen. This is
Quest Love Supreme. I'm Quest Love where with Team Supreme.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Take a little brother?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
How you doing good?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Good man? Sitting with the vols?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Good, damn good?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hello? How are you?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I am living the American dream? Friend, living the American.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
In sugar Steve?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Yes, how's everybody doing? I've got a couple of bosses
in here in this so I'm going to behave.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I got a few bosses too in here. Shout out
to my boy John Landau. Who's listening? Wait is umbe Bill?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Like? Did he go off for cigarettes and didn't tell us?
Or just that man is working?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Man? I think he's just.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Working on another Tony Award winning production that's coming soon.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think, yes, I know, okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is a quest left supreme,
and I will simply say that our guest today is
one of the great master storytellers. He is one of
the most respected and well loved craftsman of song. He's
(01:49):
literally the embodiment of the working class hero, the everyday American,
you know, representative of the people. And he's basically giving
us the honor today of celebrating with him the release
of his twenty first twenty first album entitled Only the
Strong Survive. And if that idiom is familiar to you
(02:15):
and you're a soul record aficionado, and then you pretty
much know that that classic was pinned by I'm from Philadelphia,
so any chance to pick up Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff
And of course Chicago's owned the iceman Jerry Butler. That's
where that song title derived from. That classic song. And
(02:36):
you know, our guest today has basically been bestowed with
every honor worth having in this field. Over one hundred
and thirty five million LP sold, twenty Grammys.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
He has an Oscar Tony two Golden Globes, shit. All
he needs is to Emmy to get his egot.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I sound like I'm in trouble. My wife just want
one to know she got the Emmy, all right, So
he got all right.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So as a combination, as one, we got egot status.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Here.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
You're also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
and Songwriters Hall of Fame Kennedy Center Honor. You receive
the Presidential Metal Freedom. All this before the ripe old age.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Of twenty one. So everything, yeah, pretty much. Let me
just say, let me just say that I literally my
very first Springsteen show.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I literally saw this man climb the speakers and the
wall of the Apollo Theater to the balcony level and
twenty years my senior. So that means I gotta step
my game up. And gentlemen, please please please please welcome
the one and only the Boss, Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You got my Yes, you have my and you have
my confirmation name. I come from a long line of Fredericks.
That was my dad and my grandfather. We were all Fredericks. Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So first, first of all, you know, congrats on the
new album. I always wanted to know, how do you
determine the pivot or the direction.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Of how an album will go.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Like, I love when artists, you know, they feed their
fan base what their fan base needs and what well,
what their fan base wants, and then sometimes you have
to give them what they need and what they don't expect,
and you're often known, you know, it's it's almost like
a push and pull where we will get that classic
Jersey Springsteen sound, but then you'll do a departure record
(04:56):
like a Nebraska or The Ghost of Tom Joe, that
sort of thing. So for you, what was the sort
of mind state of where you wanted to go for
this album?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, I knew I was done writing for a while,
so that had a lot to do with it. I
made a record with the East Street Band called A
Letter to You, and I hadn't written for the band
in quite a few years. And then I wrote most
of that record in about a week and a half
for two weeks, and we made it in four days.
And it was very Yeah, it was very summational. It
(05:31):
was sort of like this was my story up to
this point, and it just felt like and we made
a film that went with it, and it felt like
after that, I just felt like, well, I'm done. I
don't have anything I feel I want to write about
at the moment, so we're in the middle of COVID.
(05:52):
And also I enjoyed the act of recording. I like
being in the studio, you know, making sounds, and so
basically I started it was like, well, maybe i'll record
some things I haven't written, which I haven't done very much.
I did a sort of an Americana record called Secret
(06:13):
Sessions a while back, but I but I hadn't you know,
I'm usually writing my own material, so this was an instance.
We said, well, I'm going to try and sing some
other things, you know, and so I just started doing that.
I just coming in the studio, taking a song and
seeing what my voice sounded like like like on it.
And I made a record with basically sort of singer
(06:38):
songwriter overtones or some rock overtones, and I put it away.
It was pretty much I recorded all of it. We
didn't mix it, but when I listened back to it,
it wasn't focused enough. So some way or another, I
ended up recording this dude, Frank Wilson's Do I Love You?
And if people know Motown, they know Frank Wilson was
(07:00):
more in the back line of Motown, but he did
sing and perform, and he was a great singer, songwriter
and producer and performer. And so we had this this
cut that was a hit in the northern soul scene
in England, right where they sort of dig up a
lot of unusual motown records and unusual soul records, and
(07:23):
so this was a It was well known in that scene,
but in the States it really wasn't known at all.
And I said, this is an incredible song. So I'm
just gonna see if I can get up in that
vicinity where Frank Wilson was singing and see if I
can sing it, and if we can get a production
that is powerful enough to stand up to, of course
(07:44):
the fab incredible Motown records, you know. So we cut
that and I felt like I touched on or something.
And then we did a few other I think I
did when she was My Girl the four Tops. The
Tops record that they had a big hit after they
left Motown, and I said, oh, that's fun. I had
a little disco thing to it, and and and uh,
(08:07):
I'm kind of in the range of Levi, you know,
of Levi Stubbs. I mean, I can't sing like him,
but I'm in I'm in his.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Range, So yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
I got that gruff baritone, so I can sing those
songs in those keys. And uh so I started to
just you know, I cut two or three soul things
and and and and it felt very focused and fresh
and like I hadn't done it before. And it also
focused on my voice, which is something I haven't given
a lot of focus to. Usually on the records, I'm
(08:37):
I'm focusing on my songwriting, if the lyrics are any good,
if the song's powerful enough, and then my voice is
there in service of that material, of of my songwriting
and of my production, and and it's it's usually I
don't start voice first and think, oh, what's gonna sound
great me singing? But in this case, I got a
chance to say, Okay, I'm gonna just use my voice
(08:59):
as as the measuring stick of where I'm going to go,
and if I can sing something well in this genre,
I'm gonna take a swing at it and have some
fun with it. But it really began as a result
of sort of feeling like I was done writing for
a while and I'd finished sort of what I had
to say with with my band for a moment and
(09:19):
then looking just for something to do to stay active
and engaged, and and and keep the conversation going with
my audience and my fans, and and just have some fun.
Just have some fun with it. Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So you mentioned something with the when you talked about
the Secret Sessions, which was that you recorded it in
four days.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Now that was a letter to you. I recorded, Yes,
secret Sessions. We actually recorded very quickly also, but but
and and live as was a letter to you.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So I have a question about that process because you know,
currently right now I'm probably in the worst place where
an art can be, which is like I'm on the
ninth year of working on the same album.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I've been there now nine I haven't been nine years,
but I've been years. So I have a little bit
of a feeling where you're coming from.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
But the thing is is that when you when you
turn in an album in four days, well, first I
got to know is that your own accord or is
that John on your shoulders? Like, yo, you got a
weekend to finish this ship?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And then no, no, we never play it like that.
We we always play it like nobody cares how quick
you made that record. The day it came out. If
you rush to make a bad record, why would you
do that? You know, I mean, what a bad record?
That's all? What's it mean to your fans? And yeah,
and your your audience if you if you're hurrying up
(10:55):
and get a bad record out there, why so you
can go on to you know, it just doesn't. It
never made sense to me, and I never did it
right from when I was in my early twenties. If
it took me a year, I took a year. If
it took me a month, that took a month. If
it took me a few days, I made it in
a few days. And I made records all across that
spectrum where it took me years and where it took
(11:18):
me just days to put them out. And it depends
on the album, the record itself. It's quality. When I
feel like I've achieved what I was after, then I
put the record out.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Like at least with me, I feel like at least
need to let it simmer for maybe a month or
so before I feel different about it, Like I'm excited
about it when I you know, when you drive home
and you got bet rough picks in the final mix,
and you're excited and you played a billion times, and
you test it for everyone, and then there have been
(11:47):
times where like maybe two months later.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I don't I don't get those goosebumps anymore.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And then I readjust the song and then do something different.
It doesn't it doesn't scare you to quickly execute something
that fast.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
And well, I listen to my ears, you know, my
ears are telling me it's good. Then I believe them,
you know. And then I have I also have John
is my is my sounding board. So I play something
for him and he'll say yeah, yes, no, He'll give
me his opinion about it. So we've had a forty
five year partnership where we've done that every single record,
(12:28):
you know, for a very long time, you know. And
so we you know, so we have a sort of
a system. And of course I have the band and
and you know, they have their feelings and opinions and
and so I just play it. I play it like that.
And also you have a certain amount of time it
takes just for the record company to get ready to
(12:49):
release it, whether it's two or three months or so.
And if I'm not sure, I'll just sit on it.
If I'm sure, I put it out. And if it's good,
then I'm sure. But if I'm not sure, if I'm
sort of like I'm in the middle, I just sit
on it and I wait. I wait for it to
speak to me. I'm always just listening, listening, listening, listening
(13:09):
for the music to speak to me, to tell me
what it is, what it wants to be, what's the
relationship between my fans and I that the record is
going to inspire or instigate? You know, where is it
going to take our conversation next? So I you know,
I reasonably trust my ears, and if I get it
done in a short period of times, then then it's
(13:31):
all all for the better, you know. But if it
takes time, I'll take.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It, okay.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So you're a band leader of not just these arbitrary
group of musicians, but you know, you're probably one of
the last acts in which your fan base knows every
last band member, almost every solo you know, like, you know,
they have their favorites and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So, as a band leader that has a well loved fan.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Base of people that have mined your musicians, how exactly
does your band get the news.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That you wanna that you want to do a solo flight?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
You know, like even though I guess the first time
you did it was with Nebraska, correct.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yes, you know, and that was by accident, so I
didn't know I was doing it at the time, but
I did. But I mad linking that record.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, But I mean, do you just tell them like
a laid back guys, like I'm I'm gonna do this
one alone or do you have to have a meeting?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And I think this record came up where it was
like we we cut Letter to You, had an incredible time,
probably the best sessions I've ever done with the East
Street Band in the studio. We made it in no time.
We did two songs a day, every day, and we
very very minimal, minimal, minimal overdubs. A guitar solo here,
(14:58):
a guitar solo there. So of course, yeah, all live singing, vocals,
vocals too, everything, everything, everything is cut live in the studio,
singing playing, no overdubs. What was the reasoning behind that,
It's just how it worked out. I was assuming I
was going to re sing the vocals, and then when
(15:20):
I went to re sing them, they weren't as good
as what I cut live, and so I left them.
You know, it was pretty basic you know. So uh
after that, I assumed, well, I'll do something else with
the band, because you know, we had such a great time,
but the music just doesn't work like I have to.
Like I said, I'm not telling I'm listening, you know,
(15:41):
I'm I'm not I'm not telling my talents where to
go or or I'm listening to where they're telling me
they want to go, you know, and and what I
might be good at next. So on this record, I
remember having a little conversation with Steven just see you
know Steve. He said, well, we were gonna, you know,
we're talking about how we were gonna do a covers record.
(16:01):
And then I realized, well, the covers record was a
whole other thing. And it was once again I'm back
into cutting a lot of material and choosing some of it.
Like on the band record Letter to You, I used
everything I cut, but on this on this record, I
cut a lot of material and I choose just some
of it.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
You said you swung a lot of times to figure
out which record you wanted. I was wondering how you
narrowed the process down.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, you know, so this was a record where I
know it was gonna take me a lot of concentrated
studio time, and the guys at this point sort of
we don't go in and spend a year in a
studio like we used to. You know that that's sort
of so. So it ended up being me and my
producer ron An Yellow and our engineer Rob Lubray, and uh,
(16:47):
we kind of just started doing quote of course demos
and then devilones end up being what you end up releasing,
you know. Of course this has happened to me many times.
The band is used to this happening to me at
this point, and it's a give and take a process
that we're used to recording with the band recording some
(17:08):
solo music, you know, and I don't know where it's
going next myself, like I said, I'm listening to find
out also, like the audience is.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I just wanted to know how many songs are on
the floor, like how many didn't make it?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
A lot and probbly on this record there was probably
well there's fifteen on I don't even want to think
how many are how many were off any idea?
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Rob?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Huh say that again? Forty? Yeah? Oh so there was
so there was forty. So in other words, I put
out fifteen and I left forty down. Yeah, so I
you know, trying to find out what is going to
be the best record, you know, or have to make
(17:51):
the most sense to me and my audience, you know.
So that's not unusual. I've made records where I've cut
seventy songs, eighty songs, and you know, they come out
on sets in different places where. But on this particular record,
there were forty songs we left we left in the can.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
So since this album is essentially kind of at least
the spirit of it is a return to the music
that you kind of fell in love with in your childhood, sure,
I guess I'll start with the first question I asked
every guest on the show, even though this is like
the fourth question.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
What was your what was your very first musical memory?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
My first musical memory was Disney Records. What was these
seven snow White and the seven Doors? Wow? Hi ho,
hi hole, it's we go. So my first recollection was
something like that, you know, or you know those little
(18:53):
yellow records that played on seventy eight speed. I don't
know if you guys are old enough to remember these,
Oh no, I remember, yeah, but they were a little
seventy eight, so it's you know, a kid colors, red, yellow, blue,
and they played at seventy eight and they were basically
themes from movies. So that would be my first real
musical memory as a child. But after that, my mother
(19:16):
was young, she had me when I was when she
was in her early twenties. She played the radio. She
had the radio on all time every day, you know,
in the car and in the kitchen, and she listened
to Top forty and so right from a very young age,
I was exposed to like the great music of the
fifties and that sort of was where what kind of
(19:38):
inspired me, you know, And really I'm basically a Top
forty influence musician. That's how I kind of grew up.
And I started there and then I went searching in
blues and folk in a lot of different other places
for influences, but really I started out just listening to
Top forty on the radio.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
That's a little unusual though, because I would think, I mean,
I would consider you maybe like the second generation of
rock and roll. So you're not, I mean, you're not
exactly a greaser. And I know that you in your
teen years. You know, it was the late sixties. But
it's very unusual for me to see not not agreeable,
(20:20):
but at least an amicable musically amicable environment in the household,
because normally, like the music of the kid is rebellious music,
and the parents turn that shit, you know, right, But
you're you're saying that your your parents weren't like that
at all, like, babe, Well, my.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Dad was a bit like that, but my mother, no,
she was a young woman and she was into Uh,
you know, we're Southern Italians, which means we like music,
we can sing, and we can perform. Where that come
where they come from. You know, if you're coming from
(21:03):
Southern Italy where I'm where I'm from only a generation
or two removed, so I'm on that side of my family,
I'm a I'm a new American okay, and you know,
so uh, if you're coming from there, and as the
whole side of my family did, they were all you know,
singers and dancers and and and all of that went on.
(21:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
So since you mentioned it, of those forty songs that
are on the floor, is one of those songs, what's
the song?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
See wiggle waggle Oh.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
No, wiggle wobble Man wiggle wobble. You played a hell
of a version of wiggle wobble on the air that night.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
To this day, I'll say that, you know, I've been
on I've been on The Tonight Show for for you know,
thirteen years, and of course you and I know that.
What's weird because I don't think he does his Springsteen
impression in front of you as much as when you're
not there. But that that wiggle wobble moment during the commercial, Now,
(22:10):
I gotta explain back when I think you were celebrating.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Was it was it darkness that was born?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
It was a box that was the anniversary of Darkness.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, right, And so you know, you, you and Steven
were basically just reminiscing of like the singles and the
forty fives that really bonded you two together. And that
to me, that was the first time that you know,
usually when when a guest mentions a song or that
sort of thing during the segment, the roots basically.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Have like one minute to learn that song, Like I'm
already on YouTube and we're repressed, right.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
So, but that was such a that was such a
moment for Jimmy, Like he still tells, I hear that
I hear that story like once a week for the
last or like literally he only tells that story about
how excited you were about I was.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
I mean, come on, it's not that well known a record,
even though it was a hit man. You guys nailed
it in about sixty seconds. So that for a band leader.
For a band leader, that's impressive. See.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Well, you know, I'm also a kid of hip hop,
in which you have to know songs, you know, as
a producer, and so like Herbie Hancock did a cover
that on one of his one of his albums. So well,
speaking of which, do you remember the first album that
(23:36):
you purchased with your own money? Not like album that's
already in the house, but like I gotta have this,
like first album and first forty.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Five first album, believe it or not. I think I
bought an album of surf rock because I liked the
picture on the cover. There was a guy surfing some
hundred foot wave and and and so it was it
was like a dollar ninety nine or something. It was
really it was a knockoff record and it was really
(24:08):
kind of cheap, and I bought it. It might have
had some dig Dale on it, you know, King of
It might have had some it might have had some
Dick Dale. So I brought that home and that was
my first album. I think after that, really my album
buying began with the British Invasion, I would say, you know,
(24:30):
that was when I started to really, you know, my
album buying began when albums began to sell really, which
really was the mid sixties. You know, when suddenly albums
became the currency of the day and of the moment,
and if you were going to make a name or
for yourself, you know, you were you were putting out
(24:52):
not necessarily concept records, but but full records, records that
were you know, where it wasn't filled with a lot
of fodder, you know. So and plus it was a
time when I started to have to get a little
money of my own because I was playing in the band,
so I had a few bucks and I was able
to purchase a record on my own back in the
(25:12):
in the mid sixties when I was fifteen sixteen years old.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Okay, since we're on records, me and questl are big
record collectors and so forth. As your the records you
bought back then, have they survived today? What does your
record collection look like now, does it include all that
old stuff?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
No, you know, I had my forty fives for a
long time, and they were at my they were at
my mother's house for many many years. I could go
in and visit my little stack of forty fives. And
then at one time I had obviously a huge album collection.
I have no idea where it went, where my socks went.
Wherever my record collection is, that's where all my missing
(25:52):
socks are. So so it's it's somewhere, you know, it's
all gone now now I'm like a lot of people. Hey,
I got my entire record collection from when I was
thirteen to when I was seventy three in my pocket
at all times. You're a streaming guy, I I keep
(26:14):
it with me.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Yes, I had a specific question. Just tell me about
how you met Clarence Clemens and y'all's creative relationship over
the years.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Man, I was looking for a saxophone player because my
roots came out of, you know, out of show bands
which visited the Jersey Shore in the midsummer, because just
Asbury Park was like a cheesy sort of Fort Lauderdale,
and so there was a lot of top forty music.
There were a lot of show bands, and a lot
(26:47):
of our influences came and they were playing a lot
of soul music. So a lot of our influences came out,
came from those places. And so Clarence was in a
band called Little Melvin and the Invaders, and they played
in locally in clubs. I think Gary Townon played bass
with my bass player, and uh, but I was looking
(27:08):
for a saxophonist, and it was hard to find somebody
who was really into blowing rhythm and blue saxophone or
rocks rock and roll saxophone. Uh. And there were a
couple of guys in the area, you know, one guy's
too crazy and other guy's not quite good enough. And
uh uh, So I had sort of I had a
(27:31):
couple of R and B influenced tunes that Clive Davis
got me to write at the last minute before we
put my first record out, because he said I had
nothing that would be played on the radio. So I
went home and I wrote two songs from my first record,
and they were both you know, they were both R
and B influenced, and a song called Spirit the Night
(27:53):
and a song called Blinded by the Light. There on
my first album, and I found Clarence to play on
those two songs. He had been missing in action the
entire album until finally one night he walked into this
place I was playing called the Student Prince in Asbury
Park and he just came from the back of the room,
this big presence, and he walked up to me and
(28:14):
I was just on this little, tiny stage with my guitar.
I said, can I sit in? I said, sure, he
got up, he sat in. It was a stormy night,
there was nobody there in the club, you know, thirty people,
twenty people, And the minute he started playing beside me,
I said, okay, we have some there's some connection going
(28:35):
on here. This is the guy I've been looking for
for a large portion of my life. And maybe he
felt the same way, you know, because we just connected.
And so we just met Rainy Knight Asbury Park, and
after that he came to the studio and sat in
on those two cuts, and then you know, we eventually
joined the band.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I love how you just casually mentioned mind to buy
the Light, like that's not a staple.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
It's like, yeah, you know, I had a song called
when Dove's Crow.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I don't know if you guys heard of right, right, right, No,
But I personally wanted to know, like I know, the
story of at least how the blues had an effect.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Across the pond.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
You know, for a lot of your contemporaries that were
part of the British invasion. You know, these bluesmen are
now finding second when second life over touring in Europe
during the Army basis and whatnot. And of course, like
teenage Stones, teenage Beatles see this and then suddenly the
British invasion music is in foregmed. But you know, I
(29:45):
don't think I've ever had an interaction with someone, you know,
on American soil on how what music affected them. So
for me, it's I always wanted to know.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
For your for your uh.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Formative years, at least what effect did uh Movetown and
Soul and James Brown and all of these, all these
songs by like black artists have on you in Jersey
at the time, Like was it controversial to have or
was it you know, because you know you're also coming
(30:26):
of age in the civil rights period as.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Well, right right, you know, And well here's how it
went on your bi monthly dance at the high school,
right you go, everybody's in their corners of the room. Right.
You got the raw Ras, the college bound kids over here,
you got your your black kids over here, you got
your leather greasers over here there over there, you know,
(30:52):
And so U du Opkis play, the greasers come out
and they got their girls and they're on the floor.
You get surf music are some of the top forty
early beatles. You get the raw Rose come out on
the floor. You know. But when Motown played, everybody came out,
everybody dance. It was the miracle of that music. It
(31:14):
remains a miracle of that music to this day. Everybody danced,
you know. So and our job at the times, we're
top forty cover band, just like everybody else. You know,
we're not necessarily playing all the top forty. We're playing
a lot of blues, and we're playing a lot of
soul music and things that we're just picking up from
our albums also, but we're also playing a reasonable amount
(31:36):
of top forty music just to get gig book that
your high school dances. When they would call you to
book you, they would say, can you play soul man?
Can you play satisfaction? Then if you can't play those songs,
you're not gonna get the gig. You know, somebody else
who can play them is gonna get them get it.
And so, you know, every week you learned a two
(31:59):
or evolving door of two or three new things, depending
on what hit that week, and whether it was black
white music or white music. You just learned what was hitting,
you know. And of course you know, so Motown was had.
I mean, Holland does your Holland and they had incredible
you know, so so uh uh it was. It was
(32:21):
kind of basically like that it it. You didn't even
give that much thought to it at the time. You
just played what was hitting and uh and but through
doing that, you learn how Holland does your Holland. You
learned Lenen Lennon and McCartney a gamble and huff. You
had to learn the songs, that's it. You learned their structure,
(32:42):
you learn their chord structure, you learn their production techniques.
You learned you know, and and so uh one of
the greatest times we had on making this record was
we had to produce them all again. We had to
and and I didn't try to make them different. I
tried to make them the same, you know. I was
(33:03):
sticking to the original string parts, the original horn parts,
the original vocal parts. You know, really we changed obviously
you get a chance for a greater sound quality today
and my singer, and that was all we really did differently.
I wasn't interested in reinventing the wheel. That was kind
of perfect as it was, you know. So, so learning
(33:24):
your craft came through studying and learning week after week
after week all of these songs. The best bands to
this day are bands that that maybe began as cover
bands almost because you had to learn all different kinds
of music. Everybody's different writing techniques, everybody's different production techniques.
(33:46):
And we had so much fun making this record because
we were just remaking that. We got to remake those
records and going in and do a big string section
with a you know, players from the New York Philharmonica
and washing them play uh uh, only the strong survive
or or or or or some someday we'll be together,
(34:08):
you know. So it was just a tremendous, tremendously good
time just relearning that those incredible records. Again, did you.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Track and mix your entire album in your home studio?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
All right, I gotta know what kind of board are
you using because even with the mixing of the album,
it hints towards one could say, a vintage sound to it.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
What are we working on most of the time, Rob,
this SSL? Yeah, on our SSL board.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Really I thought it.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Was okay, you thought what I thought?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It was a need?
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, I was gonna say that, but I've worked on
many needs. But this is an SSL you know. So uh.
But the guys were really good at getting good sounds,
you know, and and getting authentic sounds. And the whole
record is it's just us three guys in the studio. Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Can I ask a question.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I'm curious because I know that in the process usually
when people do cover songs, there's no contact between the
initial writers or artists or anything. But this is you.
This is Bruce Springsteen doing covers of Motown, gamble Huff
and everything. So I'm curious if And shout out to
Deanna Williams who kind of put this in perspective in
the sense of this being a beautiful homage because also
all these writers are receiving the royalties from this, you know,
(35:31):
this project, which is a beautiful thing. But yet, but
has there been any contact did they know, like ahead
of time that you were doing anything.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
No one knew ahead of time, because I'm afraid of
telling anybody what I'm doing because I'll record something and
then i'll throw it out a month or two later
and it doesn't happen, you know. So I don't like
to tell anybody I've received a little connection with Gambling huff.
So I'm gonna I haven't met them, but I'm going
to meet them because they they they heard the kind
(35:58):
of record I was making, and some of their and
their influence of courses is well on it, you know.
So it's it's no, it's mostly it's just just three
guys in a room, you know.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
I was I was curious to know, Bruce. You worked
with Jimmy Ivien very early in his career as a producer.
Were there any lessons that you kind of learned from
him that you carried either into this record or any
of your other records that you produced.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
No, Jimmy learned all those lessons from me.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Yeah, say that, say that.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Man, not just me, John. And then Jimmy was a sponge.
He's a sponge for learning. He always was. He was
just one of the smartest, one of the quietest, quietly smartest,
guys in the room is Jimmy Iven. You know, it's
still my great, great friend. And uh, but when Jimmy started,
(36:57):
you have understand when I walked in to do my
first session at the Record Plan, all Jimmy was doing
was pushing pushing the start and stop button and putting
the tape on it off. He wasn't engineering or producing
any records. He hadn't done that yet.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Is it shocking to you to see, like, hell, he's
now like a supermogal or you know this guy that
one's like got your coffee and whatever, like and now he's.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Like it's it's totally shocking, and it's remained shocking to
all of us to this day. You know, Is that
okay Jimmy? I mean he's doing what he made what right, Right,
He's got what There's a lot of that that goes on.
(37:43):
But but Jimmy was just a super talented guy, you
know he was and he was a brave thinker, you know. Uh,
his partnership with Dre incredible, you know, and uh, you
know he was just h he was just a smart
young guy, you know. And and so I walked in
one night and he went from the uh pressing the
(38:04):
start and stop button on the tape deck to uh
sitting at the board, and I said, John, what's he
doing at the board man, you know? And John says, well,
he says he can do it, so and and that
was it. Jimmy Ivean ends up engineering Born to Run.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Did you like his mixing?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah, yeah, I liked Jimmy. Jimmy's technique was very simple.
He mixed until you like the way it sounded, you know,
And that's right. He mixes and he just mixes until
you like the way it sounds. And and he just
figured it out, you know. So uh you know. But
(38:45):
but so Jimmy, we were all really beginners together, you know,
honestly we we we and he like the first time
he was at that board, I walked in, I said,
wasn't this guy like overre just can he do it?
You know? But obviously he could.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
You know, oftentimes I'll say that, you know, most artists,
and I'm one.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Of those, like I'm so.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Uber obsessed with writers that you know, this is basically
my chance to play journalists. But you know, oftentimes artists
really aren't aware of their critical claim and you know,
of course the main narrative of your journey into rock
(39:29):
stardom was definitely through a connection of you know, our pal.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
John Landau, who's your manager.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Landau course famously, you know, wrote for Prime, Rolling Stone,
and you know, all these publications, and you know, he's
definitely the one of the first generation critical thinking journalists
out there. And of course he famously wrote that, you know,
he saw the future of rock and roll back when
you first saw you play. I don't know, Boston whatever,
but he saw the future of rock and roll. And
(39:58):
his name is Bruce Springsteen. I always wanted to know, like, okay,
So from my side of the fence, those words in
print could be super crippling to an artist. I've known
artists that are, you know, twenty seven years, twenty eight
years in the game, and they might have three records
(40:19):
out I know artists that have.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Given up after their first record.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
For you, at the time when literally the entire world
is declaring that you're going to pick up this this betime,
this betime, that's sort of like the remnant leftover of
the folk movement and the singer songwriter movement and the
rock movement and whatnot. Was that any pressure in you
(40:46):
or were you just shrugging it off like, oh, okay,
that's cool.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Now as a twenty five year old kid, So I
felt tremendous pressure, you know. But I felt two things,
you know, I think good artists always feel in the
same way. One and they go, I am a complete phony.
Two they go, I am the greatest thing you've ever seen.
And they believe both things right now, Believing that they're
(41:10):
a complete phony keeps them working, right, It keeps you
chasing your craft and trying to get better and keep
you working after it, you know, and thinking you're the
greatest thing you ever said. Well, you need you gotta
have some of that swagger, man, if you're gonna make it,
And no matter how humble you're gonna fake it, you're
gonna need some of that swagger to make to get
(41:32):
yourself through, you know. So. Uh but at the time,
I felt tremendous pressure around it, and it shook my world.
And uh, you know, I just hunkered down, sat in
and we just played night after night after night after
night after night after night. We played our hearts out
and the best we could for year after year after
(41:53):
year after year. At the end of the day, I
was gonna let the work speak for itself, you know,
come and see me, come and listen to me, check
my songs. And that's pretty much. That was my approach
to it. But there was a lot of pressure at
the time, and I went through a lot of you know,
mental anguish about it.
Speaker 6 (42:13):
One question I had man was regarding one of my
favorite records you did as a song you wrote for
the wrestler Micky Roy. He talked to me about like,
when you're writing for film, do you get a copy
of the film that they show it to you beforehand?
Do they sing you notes? How do you approach writing
songs for film?
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Well? It varies, you know. Jonathan Demi called me in
one time and said he was making a film I
was dealing with the AIDS crisis, and he was looking
for a song. So I didn't see the film. I
think I saw a few minutes of its opening because
that's where he was looking for a song for Wow.
So I spent a couple of days and I ended
(42:55):
up writing and recording the song Streets of Philadelphia. That
was one approach to the other approach. I just sometimes
somebody will send me a small piece of film and
they'll say this is the ambiance of the movie, or
this is where we're thinking of a song coming in.
And and in Mickey's case, Mickey Rourke, you know, i'd
been friends with him for quite a while, and he said, man,
(43:17):
this is this is a big movie for me, and
and and do you think you'd have anything that might work?
You know? So I said, okay, what is this a
guy about? This is a song about a guy whose
the whole thing is living with pain, you know, living
with pain. That that that's how uh, that's how he
processes his life. And so with that in mind, I
(43:42):
just sat down and I think I wrote the song
pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
That's what's up now.
Speaker 6 (43:48):
That song it f hit the movie perfectly, man, like
you did a great job.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
It really spoke to the character.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Wait was was that song nominated for an Oscar or there?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Could you?
Speaker 1 (44:02):
All right? I'm only asking what happened to be honest
with you, because I won a Golden Globe for it, right, okay, right,
I want to go and Mickey won the Golden Globe
for acting, you know, so I.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Had my thoughts on why Mickey, you know, when when
Mickey Rooke gave his speech at the Golden globes about
his dog dying and everything. I knew instantly that was
going to freak out the Academy, and thus no, I
still say that Mickey Rooke should have won that award,
but I know how the Academy thinks. They're like, he
(44:34):
ain't making a full of us on our stage. We're
going to give that to the swamp pinn.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But I I was wondering, okay, but.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
I wanted to know why because they only have three
songs in the category, and I was like, what the
fuck is Bruce's song?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
And why is that? Did you how many writers.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Were I was told something at the time that if
the song wasn't within the body of the movie, it
couldn't be nominated if it was just in the credit.
I mean I I got told some sort of thing
like that. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.
All I know is it didn't get nominated, So I
thought you were.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Showing for that, So okay, there's I don't know, if
you read the friendship of you and Little Steven, to
me is like, you know, one one for the history
books and the relationship that you two have with each
other and the way that he you know, when his
book came out. It was one of my favorite rock
(45:31):
memoirs ever because he's almost a poet in describing, like,
especially the early days where you guys were playing these
teen clubs like the Halloah, yeah, so can you. Because
the thing is we don't necessarily have that today. But
what were the teen First of all, were these teen
(45:54):
night clubs at night or were they like afternoon things
where you guys would play these night clubs with teenage them.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
That's what it was. Here was the shocking thing, and
it remains to me shocking to this day is that
that doesn't exist anymore. Right, But there's there's kind of
a reason. And if you think about it, like nineteen
sixty six, Pallablue on TV, Shindig on TV. You know,
American band stipt Worthy. You know, there's all sorts of
Soul Train, you know it's coming in, There's all sorts
(46:21):
of different music shows on and but at that time,
if you wanted to hire a rock and roll band,
you had to hire children. Teenagers really yeah, yeah, teenagers
are who played rock and roll. There wasn't the forty
year old men playing rock and roll in nineteen sixty six. Ah, right,
(46:45):
It was just fourteen year old men, not forty. Now,
you want to hire a rock and roll band, you
got to hire fifty year old men, you know. But
at that time, at that time, you know, you, it
was it was you. It was youth oriented. And so
there were all of these clubs that were on either
(47:07):
two or three nights a week. Sometimes it certainly open
on the weekends. And they were for teenagers only. Really,
there weren't even people in their twenties in them, and
there was no booz served. But there were rock bands playing,
you know, there were local rock bands and sometimes national
acts where you honed your craft night after night. You know,
I played, and Stephen and I both played, and who
(47:30):
knows how many of these places, but they were all
over the shore, probably all over the country at that time,
you know. But what people forget is rock and roll
bands were teenagers in those days, and and and there
weren't there was no such thing as like I say,
the fourty or fifty year old played rock music, you know.
But but what shocks me now is that sort of
(47:54):
venue no longer exists. These were places where everybody made
their bones. Everybody, you know, everybody played, You played five
hours a night you played five sets. You know, you
played fifteen minutes on and ten minutes off for five
sets in a row. And you did this, you know,
weekend after week after week after week after week. And so,
(48:17):
you know, Steve and I were craftsmen. You know, we're
old school craftsmen, like shoemakers, you know, or like seamstresses
or or you know, we're we're we're we're those kinds
of guys. You know. We we learned our craft bit
by bit, piece by piece, song by song, and and
(48:39):
and basically that's how we perform on stage two this day.
The East Street Band is a band filled full of craftsmen,
guys who came up, you know, learning their craft from
first how to put it on the two and four
and uh so that's that's different. Today we have a
kid in his bedroom. Two months later, he's got the
(49:01):
biggest hit in the United States. He's on the radio.
He may have never played a gig in his life.
You know, there's something cool about that, and that's sort
of it. It being there available to all is a
wonderful thing, you know, And it was totally out of
any type of you couldn't even record yourself in nineteen
sixty six unless people didn't have studios or they didn't
(49:25):
have tape players.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
I was gonna ask, do you feel as though you're
the father or the yes? And I know like Todd
Rundren and slid Stone and Stevie Wonder were all like whatever,
the bedroom musician or whatever. But the kind of legacy
that is the Nebraska record, even though you said it
was an accident and you were just right, you know,
(49:47):
just putting some songs down on tape, But do you
sometimes credit yourself with the Nebraska album being like the
really one of the first early examples of that type
of lo fi home recording.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Yeah, yeah, it just you know, I can't claim any
credit for it because I wasn't planning on doing anything
that was unusual at the time. I was simply trying
to hear if I had any any good songs to
record with the E Street Band when we went in
the studio, and I was sick of wasting all my
money with endless hours of studio time throwing out forty songs,
(50:23):
leaving them on the floor, and so I said, well,
I'm gonna find out if I have some good songs
that I'm gonna go in and record those songs. But
of course, the minute you hit the start button, things happen,
and things happen that aren't gonna happen again. They're only
happening right now in this particular moment in time. So
(50:44):
I'm in my bedroom and I just sent my guitar
tick out to get a little four track TX cassette player,
which you know, previous to that, all I had was
my boombox to record the rehearsals on. You know, we're
recording rehearsals on the boombox. And so I sat down
and I started to play off these songs, and you know,
(51:04):
I played a certain and then suddenly I went to
record it with the band. Didn't sound as good. I
went to record it by myself in the studio. Didn't
sounded better, but was worse. And suddenly I realized that
the little cassette I had in my pocket, that was
my album.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
You know who talked you into so you yourself said
the cassette this is this is the final album.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
This is all debated, but if you read Steves books,
Steve says he said it was. If you read it,
I'm sure thinks he said it was. And I think
I think it was my credit, That's right. I think
it was my idea. But who knows.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
You know, the promise of a rock god is is
coming in the seventies, and you know, I mean you
delivered with these records, you know, the River and Born
to Run and and and Darkness. But do you often
find and especially with how Born in the USA was received,
(52:00):
do you often find that sometimes you might have a
fan that's more in love with the idea of Bruce
Springsteen than the actual Bruce Springsteen. I mean, I know
that you've had many a situation where like this particular
unsavory political figure wants to use Born in the USA
(52:22):
sure fully missing the fact that the song has nothing
to do with type of patriotism. So you know, when
this album comes out, are you at all aware or
are you even in the mind space of knowing that
you're about to go to like god levels that Born
(52:45):
to Run wasn't taking you yet? Like before Born in
the USA, did you just think like, okay, well I'll
just coast out and do whatever, or was there still
hunger in you to grab the brass ring?
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Yeah, that's that's been that's never gone away, you know,
and started when I was a young kid, and I
always tell people more than rich, more than good looking,
more than I wanted to be great. I wanted to
make great music. I wanted to inspire people the way
(53:20):
that I felt inspired. And if I could do that,
that's my life's work, you know. I once just want
to inspire you with with what I created in my music,
the way that I was inspired by the people who
touched my heart and my soul and my life with
their music. That's really what I like doing. You know,
everything else great. You know, you want like to throw
(53:41):
the money at me back dynamite, you know, that's all
fabulous too, But uh, I just love. I love doing
what I'm doing, and I love I still love pursuing
that golden Ring. It takes a lot of different shapes
as life. As life goes on, you know, sometimes it's
in Nebraska, or it's it Born in the US, or
it's The Rising or something else or some other record, you.
Speaker 6 (54:04):
Know, speaking speaking of Born in the USA, what were
your thoughts on Band in the USA?
Speaker 1 (54:09):
By two? Me what they asked me about this, and
I forgot that. Yes, come on, they asked me about it,
and I said, sure, go ahead, you know, wait.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
The reason the reason why I asked you that question
about were you trying to grab the brass ring or
did it.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Just happen and it.
Speaker 3 (54:34):
Occurred, you know, without your planning, is because I ought
so this this one. Of course, you know, I'm one
of the twelve million. This is the first Springsteen Now'm
I ever owned, and I always wanted to know. So,
you know, there's six singles from this record, but for me,
I always wanted to know why the monster ones were
always just at the end of side too, Like in
(54:58):
my mind, like Glory Day Dancing in the Dark. Yeah,
even my hometown closes it like that's buried at the
end of side to it. Normally, the way that albums
are structured, it's like your heavy hitters are first, and
you're okay, I'll let you write your song or whatever.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
Like right, that will be the Landaus to the Landau
theory is heavy hitters come first usually. You know. My
theory is, I'm looking for a narrative in the record.
I'm I'm taking the intellectual I'm taking the intellectual point
of view. I know John John in this instance is
taking the gut, is using his gut to make his judgments.
(55:38):
And I'm going the other way. I'm thinking, like, well,
what's kind of what am I trying to say? How
am I saying? What's song? I knew my hometown was
going to close it. I knew Born in the USA
was going to open it and everything else, but I
don't know how it ended up where it was. It
just did. Just man, it just.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
Always to this day, like I just I've never seeing
an album.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
I'm I'm a guy that that obsessed over sequencing and.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Songs and oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's important.
Speaker 3 (56:06):
I've just never seen an album built that way that
it's such a staple of yours. But it's almost like whatever,
just thow a song where I always wanted to know why,
Like your heavy hitters were like way buried at the
end of the the album, but.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
I probably didn't know they were heavy hitters. I just
thought they were another it was another cut, you know.
I mean, I knew when I wrote I knew when
I wrote Dancing in the Dark that that sounded like
what I thought was a hit for me, you know,
And I don't you know, in which I do not
have many other records I've cut where I said, oh yeah,
that's gonna be a top forty I'm generally not a
top forty hit artist. I'm more of an album artist,
(56:44):
you know. But I knew when I cut that, when
I said, well, if I was ever to have a hit,
it would sound like it's gonna be that one. Yeah, yeah,
that's right. And so it's sort of that's a song
that's just sustained for the John Legend does a version
of it. Sounds like Gershwin incredible. He does a beautiful
(57:05):
version of it, you know. And uh, but I'm so,
but why the thing ended up at the bottom of
the second side, I really don't know. It doesn't make
any sense.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
Lastly, I'm gonna ask you.
Speaker 3 (57:20):
You know you did You did a You did a
string of dates at Massive Square Garden and I got
to witness about five of them. Wow, And each show was,
you know, your your typical gargantu Win three and a
half hour fair whatnot. All the songs were different orders.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
It's almost like.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
A new show every night. How how how are you
able to to to.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
All that text, all those core changes, all those arrangements,
And you know, at one point I decided, I think
on the third night, I decided I'm just gonna walk
in the stadium and watch the audience watch you, and
I'm singing everything verbatim, so it wasn't even like you
were missing a step or missing a lyric or anything.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
How much pressure is it in putting those shows together,
in those songs, and how to even crap your show?
Speaker 1 (58:12):
Well, two years, my band will have been together for
fifty years. Okay, So we've got a lot of history
and we've got a lot of experience, all right. And
on the last tour, we played two hundred songs, two hundred,
two hundred different songs. You know, we'll pull things out
of the audience or or you know, I'll just my
(58:35):
thing is on. Usually once the tour gets rolling, the
show is regularly different on a night to night basis,
you know, And I'll you know, I'll get with the guys.
I'll send notes into the guys before showtime. I'll say,
refresh yourself on this one from that album, this one
from that album, this one from that album, because we
(58:56):
might play it tonight. So the guys will have, you know,
hopefully they'll have an hour or half hour to prepare
themselves a little bit, and then we rehearsed in the afternoon. Also,
we don't just play three and a half hours at night.
We're we're there in the afternoon and I've we'll do
we have done two hour sound checks just just trying
to learn something new or or you know, the sound
(59:16):
checks can go from ten minutes to two hours. You know.
But it's it's just because it's fun, you know, it's
just all it's just it's still all just fun, playing,
playing surprising that audience here and there is is just
it's fun to do. It's wonderful, you know, it's wonderful.
I look what am I doing. I'm standing looking in
(59:38):
your face all night long every night. I'm watching how
you're responding to what I'm doing, and then I'm responding
to you. So there's this huge circle of energy going on.
I'm You're watching me, I'm watching you, You're watching me,
and then I'm watching you. And this is going on
all night long with the with the beautiful faces in
(01:00:01):
front of you. And it remains an honor to play
for our audience. And that's the way that I approach it,
and that's what I insist from the band on a
nightly basis. As you come out, your name is on
the line every single night. I don't care how long
you've been doing it. Right, your name is on the
line that night. You have an opportunity to impact somebody's
(01:00:21):
somebody's life tonight, I don't care how long you've been
doing it.
Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
And it's somebody's first time seeing you.
Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
There could be someone's first time seeing you that night.
Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
It's somebody's first time. That's right. Every night is somebody's
first night. I want to play like it's my first night.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Yeah, So that's that's a mic drop right there. I'll
say to our audience.
Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
That you know, if there's ever a show or a
comfort zone that you have to leave and see someone
that you've never seen before or someone outside of your zone,
I absolutely twelvey twelve million percent record men that you
see a Springsteen show because literally the show like you perform,
(01:01:06):
like your life depends on it. And I've seen you
at least in the last ten years.
Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I've seen you about fifteen times and like.
Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Each each And I'm the guy that doesn't know everything
by heart, like I'm I I've learned stuff backwards.
Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
I know well enough to now say, yes, I'm a
Springsteam fan.
Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
But even at the time when you know when I
first saw you, like I only know a few albums
and a few cuts, but yeah, I highly recommend. It's
an education just to watch someone that passionate about their
craft service.
Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
A bunch of fans in the audience, which you.
Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Know, And I'm going to shows now and I'm not
trying to be the old guy that's just like a man,
I'm not not connecting anymore like I used to. But yeah,
for me, you know, you're You're one of the last
Mohicans left. So I highly recommend it, and I thank
you for doing this with us.
Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Thank you, Thanks, thank you, Thanks guys, thank.
Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
You, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Man On behalf of us, fan Tikolo and Sugar Steve
and Unpaid Bill.
Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
This is Questlove and we will see your next go
round of.
Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
West Love Supreme.
Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
And thank you Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
All right.
Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Man? Hello?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
How you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
What? What up? I'm good? How are we? We're good?
Doing good? Right?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you for doing this for us?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Man? Of course? How are we?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We're great? Better? Now? Where you right?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now? To see? I'm at my home. It's my studio. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I couldn't tell what it was the background. I don't know.
It's a hockey rinkor yes, I announced it's a studio.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's a studio.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I got it all right, ladies and gentlemen. This is
Quest Love Supreme. I'm Quest Love where with Team Supreme.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Take a little brother?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
How you doing good?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Good man? Sitting with the vols?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Good, damn good?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hello? How are you?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I am living the American dream? Friend, living the American.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
In sugar Steve?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Yes, how's everybody doing? I've got a couple of bosses
in here in this so I'm going to behave.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I got a few bosses too in here. Shout out
to my boy John Landau. Who's listening? Wait is umbe Bill?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Like? Did he go off for cigarettes and didn't tell us?
Or just that man is working?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Man? I think he's just.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Working on another Tony Award winning production that's coming soon.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think, yes, I know, okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is a quest left supreme,
and I will simply say that our guest today is
one of the great master storytellers. He is one of
the most respected and well loved craftsman of song. He's
(01:49):
literally the embodiment of the working class hero, the everyday American,
you know, representative of the people. And he's basically giving
us the honor today of celebrating with him the release
of his twenty first twenty first album entitled Only the
Strong Survive. And if that idiom is familiar to you
(02:15):
and you're a soul record aficionado, and then you pretty
much know that that classic was pinned by I'm from Philadelphia,
so any chance to pick up Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff
And of course Chicago's owned the iceman Jerry Butler. That's
where that song title derived from. That classic song. And
(02:36):
you know, our guest today has basically been bestowed with
every honor worth having in this field. Over one hundred
and thirty five million LP sold, twenty Grammys.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
He has an Oscar Tony two Golden Globes, shit. All
he needs is to Emmy to get his egot.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I sound like I'm in trouble. My wife just want
one to know she got the Emmy, all right, So
he got all right.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So as a combination, as one, we got egot status.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Here.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
You're also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
and Songwriters Hall of Fame Kennedy Center Honor. You receive
the Presidential Metal Freedom. All this before the ripe old age.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Of twenty one. So everything, yeah, pretty much. Let me
just say, let me just say that I literally my
very first Springsteen show.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I literally saw this man climb the speakers and the
wall of the Apollo Theater to the balcony level and
twenty years my senior. So that means I gotta step
my game up. And gentlemen, please please please please welcome
the one and only the Boss, Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You got my Yes, you have my and you have
my confirmation name. I come from a long line of Fredericks.
That was my dad and my grandfather. We were all Fredericks. Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So first, first of all, you know, congrats on the
new album. I always wanted to know, how do you
determine the pivot or the direction.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Of how an album will go.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Like, I love when artists, you know, they feed their
fan base what their fan base needs and what well,
what their fan base wants, and then sometimes you have
to give them what they need and what they don't expect,
and you're often known, you know, it's it's almost like
a push and pull where we will get that classic
Jersey Springsteen sound, but then you'll do a departure record
(04:56):
like a Nebraska or The Ghost of Tom Joe, that
sort of thing. So for you, what was the sort
of mind state of where you wanted to go for
this album?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, I knew I was done writing for a while,
so that had a lot to do with it. I
made a record with the East Street Band called A
Letter to You, and I hadn't written for the band
in quite a few years. And then I wrote most
of that record in about a week and a half
for two weeks, and we made it in four days.
And it was very Yeah, it was very summational. It
(05:31):
was sort of like this was my story up to
this point, and it just felt like and we made
a film that went with it, and it felt like
after that, I just felt like, well, I'm done. I
don't have anything I feel I want to write about
at the moment, so we're in the middle of COVID.
(05:52):
And also I enjoyed the act of recording. I like
being in the studio, you know, making sounds, and so
basically I started it was like, well, maybe i'll record
some things I haven't written, which I haven't done very much.
I did a sort of an Americana record called Secret
(06:13):
Sessions a while back, but I but I hadn't you know,
I'm usually writing my own material, so this was an instance.
We said, well, I'm going to try and sing some
other things, you know, and so I just started doing that.
I just coming in the studio, taking a song and
seeing what my voice sounded like like like on it.
And I made a record with basically sort of singer
(06:38):
songwriter overtones or some rock overtones, and I put it away.
It was pretty much I recorded all of it. We
didn't mix it, but when I listened back to it,
it wasn't focused enough. So some way or another, I
ended up recording this dude, Frank Wilson's Do I Love You?
And if people know Motown, they know Frank Wilson was
(07:00):
more in the back line of Motown, but he did
sing and perform, and he was a great singer, songwriter
and producer and performer. And so we had this this
cut that was a hit in the northern soul scene
in England, right where they sort of dig up a
lot of unusual motown records and unusual soul records, and
(07:23):
so this was a It was well known in that scene,
but in the States it really wasn't known at all.
And I said, this is an incredible song. So I'm
just gonna see if I can get up in that
vicinity where Frank Wilson was singing and see if I
can sing it, and if we can get a production
that is powerful enough to stand up to, of course
(07:44):
the fab incredible Motown records, you know. So we cut
that and I felt like I touched on or something.
And then we did a few other I think I
did when she was My Girl the four Tops. The
Tops record that they had a big hit after they
left Motown, and I said, oh, that's fun. I had
a little disco thing to it, and and and uh,
(08:07):
I'm kind of in the range of Levi, you know,
of Levi Stubbs. I mean, I can't sing like him,
but I'm in I'm in his.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Range, So yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
I got that gruff baritone, so I can sing those
songs in those keys. And uh so I started to
just you know, I cut two or three soul things
and and and and it felt very focused and fresh
and like I hadn't done it before. And it also
focused on my voice, which is something I haven't given
a lot of focus to. Usually on the records, I'm
(08:37):
I'm focusing on my songwriting, if the lyrics are any good,
if the song's powerful enough, and then my voice is
there in service of that material, of of my songwriting
and of my production, and and it's it's usually I
don't start voice first and think, oh, what's gonna sound
great me singing? But in this case, I got a
chance to say, Okay, I'm gonna just use my voice
(08:59):
as as the measuring stick of where I'm going to go,
and if I can sing something well in this genre,
I'm gonna take a swing at it and have some
fun with it. But it really began as a result
of sort of feeling like I was done writing for
a while and I'd finished sort of what I had
to say with with my band for a moment and
(09:19):
then looking just for something to do to stay active
and engaged, and and and keep the conversation going with
my audience and my fans, and and just have some fun.
Just have some fun with it. Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So you mentioned something with the when you talked about
the Secret Sessions, which was that you recorded it in
four days.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Now that was a letter to you. I recorded, Yes,
secret Sessions. We actually recorded very quickly also, but but
and and live as was a letter to you.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So I have a question about that process because you know,
currently right now I'm probably in the worst place where
an art can be, which is like I'm on the
ninth year of working on the same album.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I've been there now nine I haven't been nine years,
but I've been years. So I have a little bit
of a feeling where you're coming from.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
But the thing is is that when you when you
turn in an album in four days, well, first I
got to know is that your own accord or is
that John on your shoulders? Like, yo, you got a
weekend to finish this ship?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And then no, no, we never play it like that.
We we always play it like nobody cares how quick
you made that record. The day it came out. If
you rush to make a bad record, why would you
do that? You know, I mean, what a bad record?
That's all? What's it mean to your fans? And yeah,
and your your audience if you if you're hurrying up
(10:55):
and get a bad record out there, why so you
can go on to you know, it just doesn't. It
never made sense to me, and I never did it
right from when I was in my early twenties. If
it took me a year, I took a year. If
it took me a month, that took a month. If
it took me a few days, I made it in
a few days. And I made records all across that
spectrum where it took me years and where it took
(11:18):
me just days to put them out. And it depends
on the album, the record itself. It's quality. When I
feel like I've achieved what I was after, then I
put the record out.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Like at least with me, I feel like at least
need to let it simmer for maybe a month or
so before I feel different about it, Like I'm excited
about it when I you know, when you drive home
and you got bet rough picks in the final mix,
and you're excited and you played a billion times, and
you test it for everyone, and then there have been
(11:47):
times where like maybe two months later.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I don't I don't get those goosebumps anymore.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And then I readjust the song and then do something different.
It doesn't it doesn't scare you to quickly execute something
that fast.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
And well, I listen to my ears, you know, my
ears are telling me it's good. Then I believe them,
you know. And then I have I also have John
is my is my sounding board. So I play something
for him and he'll say yeah, yes, no, He'll give
me his opinion about it. So we've had a forty
five year partnership where we've done that every single record,
(12:28):
you know, for a very long time, you know. And
so we you know, so we have a sort of
a system. And of course I have the band and
and you know, they have their feelings and opinions and
and so I just play it. I play it like that.
And also you have a certain amount of time it
takes just for the record company to get ready to
(12:49):
release it, whether it's two or three months or so.
And if I'm not sure, I'll just sit on it.
If I'm sure, I put it out. And if it's good,
then I'm sure. But if I'm not sure, if I'm
sort of like I'm in the middle, I just sit
on it and I wait. I wait for it to
speak to me. I'm always just listening, listening, listening, listening
(13:09):
for the music to speak to me, to tell me
what it is, what it wants to be, what's the
relationship between my fans and I that the record is
going to inspire or instigate? You know, where is it
going to take our conversation next? So I you know,
I reasonably trust my ears, and if I get it
done in a short period of times, then then it's
(13:31):
all all for the better, you know. But if it
takes time, I'll take.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It, okay.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So you're a band leader of not just these arbitrary
group of musicians, but you know, you're probably one of
the last acts in which your fan base knows every
last band member, almost every solo you know, like, you know,
they have their favorites and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So, as a band leader that has a well loved fan.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Base of people that have mined your musicians, how exactly
does your band get the news.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That you wanna that you want to do a solo flight?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
You know, like even though I guess the first time
you did it was with Nebraska, correct.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yes, you know, and that was by accident, so I
didn't know I was doing it at the time, but
I did. But I mad linking that record.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, But I mean, do you just tell them like
a laid back guys, like I'm I'm gonna do this
one alone or do you have to have a meeting?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And I think this record came up where it was
like we we cut Letter to You, had an incredible time,
probably the best sessions I've ever done with the East
Street Band in the studio. We made it in no time.
We did two songs a day, every day, and we
very very minimal, minimal, minimal overdubs. A guitar solo here,
(14:58):
a guitar solo there. So of course, yeah, all live singing, vocals,
vocals too, everything, everything, everything is cut live in the studio,
singing playing, no overdubs. What was the reasoning behind that,
It's just how it worked out. I was assuming I
was going to re sing the vocals, and then when
(15:20):
I went to re sing them, they weren't as good
as what I cut live, and so I left them.
You know, it was pretty basic you know. So uh
after that, I assumed, well, I'll do something else with
the band, because you know, we had such a great time,
but the music just doesn't work like I have to.
Like I said, I'm not telling I'm listening, you know,
(15:41):
I'm I'm not I'm not telling my talents where to
go or or I'm listening to where they're telling me
they want to go, you know, and and what I
might be good at next. So on this record, I
remember having a little conversation with Steven just see you
know Steve. He said, well, we were gonna, you know,
we're talking about how we were gonna do a covers record.
(16:01):
And then I realized, well, the covers record was a
whole other thing. And it was once again I'm back
into cutting a lot of material and choosing some of it.
Like on the band record Letter to You, I used
everything I cut, but on this on this record, I
cut a lot of material and I choose just some
of it.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
You said you swung a lot of times to figure
out which record you wanted. I was wondering how you
narrowed the process down.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, you know, so this was a record where I
know it was gonna take me a lot of concentrated
studio time, and the guys at this point sort of
we don't go in and spend a year in a
studio like we used to. You know that that's sort
of so. So it ended up being me and my
producer ron An Yellow and our engineer Rob Lubray, and uh,
(16:47):
we kind of just started doing quote of course demos
and then devilones end up being what you end up releasing,
you know. Of course this has happened to me many times.
The band is used to this happening to me at
this point, and it's a give and take a process
that we're used to recording with the band recording some
(17:08):
solo music, you know, and I don't know where it's
going next myself, like I said, I'm listening to find
out also, like the audience is.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I just wanted to know how many songs are on
the floor, like how many didn't make it?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
A lot and probbly on this record there was probably
well there's fifteen on I don't even want to think
how many are how many were off any idea?
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Rob?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Huh say that again? Forty? Yeah? Oh so there was
so there was forty. So in other words, I put
out fifteen and I left forty down. Yeah, so I
you know, trying to find out what is going to
be the best record, you know, or have to make
(17:51):
the most sense to me and my audience, you know.
So that's not unusual. I've made records where I've cut
seventy songs, eighty songs, and you know, they come out
on sets in different places where. But on this particular record,
there were forty songs we left we left in the can.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
So since this album is essentially kind of at least
the spirit of it is a return to the music
that you kind of fell in love with in your childhood, sure,
I guess I'll start with the first question I asked
every guest on the show, even though this is like
the fourth question.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
What was your what was your very first musical memory?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
My first musical memory was Disney Records. What was these
seven snow White and the seven Doors? Wow? Hi ho,
hi hole, it's we go. So my first recollection was
something like that, you know, or you know those little
(18:53):
yellow records that played on seventy eight speed. I don't
know if you guys are old enough to remember these,
Oh no, I remember, yeah, but they were a little
seventy eight, so it's you know, a kid colors, red, yellow, blue,
and they played at seventy eight and they were basically
themes from movies. So that would be my first real
musical memory as a child. But after that, my mother
(19:16):
was young, she had me when I was when she
was in her early twenties. She played the radio. She
had the radio on all time every day, you know,
in the car and in the kitchen, and she listened
to Top forty and so right from a very young age,
I was exposed to like the great music of the
fifties and that sort of was where what kind of
(19:38):
inspired me, you know, And really I'm basically a Top
forty influence musician. That's how I kind of grew up.
And I started there and then I went searching in
blues and folk in a lot of different other places
for influences, but really I started out just listening to
Top forty on the radio.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
That's a little unusual though, because I would think, I mean,
I would consider you maybe like the second generation of
rock and roll. So you're not, I mean, you're not
exactly a greaser. And I know that you in your
teen years. You know, it was the late sixties. But
it's very unusual for me to see not not agreeable,
(20:20):
but at least an amicable musically amicable environment in the household,
because normally, like the music of the kid is rebellious music,
and the parents turn that shit, you know, right, But
you're you're saying that your your parents weren't like that
at all, like, babe, Well, my.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Dad was a bit like that, but my mother, no,
she was a young woman and she was into Uh,
you know, we're Southern Italians, which means we like music,
we can sing, and we can perform. Where that come
where they come from. You know, if you're coming from
(21:03):
Southern Italy where I'm where I'm from only a generation
or two removed, so I'm on that side of my family,
I'm a I'm a new American okay, and you know,
so uh, if you're coming from there, and as the
whole side of my family did, they were all you know,
singers and dancers and and and all of that went on.
(21:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
So since you mentioned it, of those forty songs that
are on the floor, is one of those songs, what's
the song?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
See wiggle waggle Oh.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
No, wiggle wobble Man wiggle wobble. You played a hell
of a version of wiggle wobble on the air that night.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
To this day, I'll say that, you know, I've been
on I've been on The Tonight Show for for you know,
thirteen years, and of course you and I know that.
What's weird because I don't think he does his Springsteen
impression in front of you as much as when you're
not there. But that that wiggle wobble moment during the commercial, Now,
(22:10):
I gotta explain back when I think you were celebrating.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Was it was it darkness that was born?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
It was a box that was the anniversary of Darkness.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, right, And so you know, you, you and Steven
were basically just reminiscing of like the singles and the
forty fives that really bonded you two together. And that
to me, that was the first time that you know,
usually when when a guest mentions a song or that
sort of thing during the segment, the roots basically.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Have like one minute to learn that song, Like I'm
already on YouTube and we're repressed, right.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
So, but that was such a that was such a
moment for Jimmy, Like he still tells, I hear that
I hear that story like once a week for the
last or like literally he only tells that story about
how excited you were about I was.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
I mean, come on, it's not that well known a record,
even though it was a hit man. You guys nailed
it in about sixty seconds. So that for a band leader.
For a band leader, that's impressive. See.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Well, you know, I'm also a kid of hip hop,
in which you have to know songs, you know, as
a producer, and so like Herbie Hancock did a cover
that on one of his one of his albums. So well,
speaking of which, do you remember the first album that
(23:36):
you purchased with your own money? Not like album that's
already in the house, but like I gotta have this,
like first album and first forty.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Five first album, believe it or not. I think I
bought an album of surf rock because I liked the
picture on the cover. There was a guy surfing some
hundred foot wave and and and so it was it
was like a dollar ninety nine or something. It was
really it was a knockoff record and it was really
(24:08):
kind of cheap, and I bought it. It might have
had some dig Dale on it, you know, King of
It might have had some it might have had some
Dick Dale. So I brought that home and that was
my first album. I think after that, really my album
buying began with the British Invasion, I would say, you know,
(24:30):
that was when I started to really, you know, my
album buying began when albums began to sell really, which
really was the mid sixties. You know, when suddenly albums
became the currency of the day and of the moment,
and if you were going to make a name or
for yourself, you know, you were you were putting out
(24:52):
not necessarily concept records, but but full records, records that
were you know, where it wasn't filled with a lot
of fodder, you know. So and plus it was a
time when I started to have to get a little
money of my own because I was playing in the band,
so I had a few bucks and I was able
to purchase a record on my own back in the
(25:12):
in the mid sixties when I was fifteen sixteen years old.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Okay, since we're on records, me and questl are big
record collectors and so forth. As your the records you
bought back then, have they survived today? What does your
record collection look like now, does it include all that
old stuff?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
No, you know, I had my forty fives for a
long time, and they were at my they were at
my mother's house for many many years. I could go
in and visit my little stack of forty fives. And
then at one time I had obviously a huge album collection.
I have no idea where it went, where my socks went.
Wherever my record collection is, that's where all my missing
(25:52):
socks are. So so it's it's somewhere, you know, it's
all gone now now I'm like a lot of people. Hey,
I got my entire record collection from when I was
thirteen to when I was seventy three in my pocket
at all times. You're a streaming guy, I I keep
(26:14):
it with me.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Yes, I had a specific question. Just tell me about
how you met Clarence Clemens and y'all's creative relationship over
the years.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Man, I was looking for a saxophone player because my
roots came out of, you know, out of show bands
which visited the Jersey Shore in the midsummer, because just
Asbury Park was like a cheesy sort of Fort Lauderdale,
and so there was a lot of top forty music.
There were a lot of show bands, and a lot
(26:47):
of our influences came and they were playing a lot
of soul music. So a lot of our influences came out,
came from those places. And so Clarence was in a
band called Little Melvin and the Invaders, and they played
in locally in clubs. I think Gary Townon played bass
with my bass player, and uh, but I was looking
(27:08):
for a saxophonist, and it was hard to find somebody
who was really into blowing rhythm and blue saxophone or
rocks rock and roll saxophone. Uh. And there were a
couple of guys in the area, you know, one guy's
too crazy and other guy's not quite good enough. And
uh uh, So I had sort of I had a
(27:31):
couple of R and B influenced tunes that Clive Davis
got me to write at the last minute before we
put my first record out, because he said I had
nothing that would be played on the radio. So I
went home and I wrote two songs from my first record,
and they were both you know, they were both R
and B influenced, and a song called Spirit the Night
(27:53):
and a song called Blinded by the Light. There on
my first album, and I found Clarence to play on
those two songs. He had been missing in action the
entire album until finally one night he walked into this
place I was playing called the Student Prince in Asbury
Park and he just came from the back of the room,
this big presence, and he walked up to me and
(28:14):
I was just on this little, tiny stage with my guitar.
I said, can I sit in? I said, sure, he
got up, he sat in. It was a stormy night,
there was nobody there in the club, you know, thirty people,
twenty people, And the minute he started playing beside me,
I said, okay, we have some there's some connection going
(28:35):
on here. This is the guy I've been looking for
for a large portion of my life. And maybe he
felt the same way, you know, because we just connected.
And so we just met Rainy Knight Asbury Park, and
after that he came to the studio and sat in
on those two cuts, and then you know, we eventually
joined the band.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I love how you just casually mentioned mind to buy
the Light, like that's not a staple.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
It's like, yeah, you know, I had a song called
when Dove's Crow.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I don't know if you guys heard of right, right, right, No,
But I personally wanted to know, like I know, the
story of at least how the blues had an effect.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Across the pond.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
You know, for a lot of your contemporaries that were
part of the British invasion. You know, these bluesmen are
now finding second when second life over touring in Europe
during the Army basis and whatnot. And of course, like
teenage Stones, teenage Beatles see this and then suddenly the
British invasion music is in foregmed. But you know, I
(29:45):
don't think I've ever had an interaction with someone, you know,
on American soil on how what music affected them. So
for me, it's I always wanted to know.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
For your for your uh.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Formative years, at least what effect did uh Movetown and
Soul and James Brown and all of these, all these
songs by like black artists have on you in Jersey
at the time, Like was it controversial to have or
was it you know, because you know you're also coming
(30:26):
of age in the civil rights period as.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Well, right right, you know, And well here's how it
went on your bi monthly dance at the high school,
right you go, everybody's in their corners of the room. Right.
You got the raw Ras, the college bound kids over here,
you got your your black kids over here, you got
your leather greasers over here there over there, you know,
(30:52):
And so U du Opkis play, the greasers come out
and they got their girls and they're on the floor.
You get surf music are some of the top forty
early beatles. You get the raw Rose come out on
the floor. You know. But when Motown played, everybody came out,
everybody dance. It was the miracle of that music. It
(31:14):
remains a miracle of that music to this day. Everybody danced,
you know. So and our job at the times, we're
top forty cover band, just like everybody else. You know,
we're not necessarily playing all the top forty. We're playing
a lot of blues, and we're playing a lot of
soul music and things that we're just picking up from
our albums also, but we're also playing a reasonable amount
(31:36):
of top forty music just to get gig book that
your high school dances. When they would call you to
book you, they would say, can you play soul man?
Can you play satisfaction? Then if you can't play those songs,
you're not gonna get the gig. You know, somebody else
who can play them is gonna get them get it.
And so, you know, every week you learned a two
(31:59):
or evolving door of two or three new things, depending
on what hit that week, and whether it was black
white music or white music. You just learned what was hitting,
you know. And of course you know, so Motown was had.
I mean, Holland does your Holland and they had incredible
you know, so so uh uh it was. It was
(32:21):
kind of basically like that it it. You didn't even
give that much thought to it at the time. You
just played what was hitting and uh and but through
doing that, you learn how Holland does your Holland. You
learned Lenen Lennon and McCartney a gamble and huff. You
had to learn the songs, that's it. You learned their structure,
(32:42):
you learn their chord structure, you learn their production techniques.
You learned you know, and and so uh one of
the greatest times we had on making this record was
we had to produce them all again. We had to
and and I didn't try to make them different. I
tried to make them the same, you know. I was
(33:03):
sticking to the original string parts, the original horn parts,
the original vocal parts. You know, really we changed obviously
you get a chance for a greater sound quality today
and my singer, and that was all we really did differently.
I wasn't interested in reinventing the wheel. That was kind
of perfect as it was, you know. So, so learning
(33:24):
your craft came through studying and learning week after week
after week all of these songs. The best bands to
this day are bands that that maybe began as cover
bands almost because you had to learn all different kinds
of music. Everybody's different writing techniques, everybody's different production techniques.
(33:46):
And we had so much fun making this record because
we were just remaking that. We got to remake those
records and going in and do a big string section
with a you know, players from the New York Philharmonica
and washing them play uh uh, only the strong survive
or or or or or some someday we'll be together,
(34:08):
you know. So it was just a tremendous, tremendously good
time just relearning that those incredible records. Again, did you.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Track and mix your entire album in your home studio?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
All right, I gotta know what kind of board are
you using because even with the mixing of the album,
it hints towards one could say, a vintage sound to it.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
What are we working on most of the time, Rob,
this SSL? Yeah, on our SSL board.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Really I thought it.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Was okay, you thought what I thought?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It was a need?
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, I was gonna say that, but I've worked on
many needs. But this is an SSL you know. So uh.
But the guys were really good at getting good sounds,
you know, and and getting authentic sounds. And the whole
record is it's just us three guys in the studio. Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Can I ask a question.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I'm curious because I know that in the process usually
when people do cover songs, there's no contact between the
initial writers or artists or anything. But this is you.
This is Bruce Springsteen doing covers of Motown, gamble Huff
and everything. So I'm curious if And shout out to
Deanna Williams who kind of put this in perspective in
the sense of this being a beautiful homage because also
all these writers are receiving the royalties from this, you know,
(35:31):
this project, which is a beautiful thing. But yet, but
has there been any contact did they know, like ahead
of time that you were doing anything.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
No one knew ahead of time, because I'm afraid of
telling anybody what I'm doing because I'll record something and
then i'll throw it out a month or two later
and it doesn't happen, you know. So I don't like
to tell anybody I've received a little connection with Gambling huff.
So I'm gonna I haven't met them, but I'm going
to meet them because they they they heard the kind
(35:58):
of record I was making, and some of their and
their influence of courses is well on it, you know.
So it's it's no, it's mostly it's just just three
guys in a room, you know.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
I was I was curious to know, Bruce. You worked
with Jimmy Ivien very early in his career as a producer.
Were there any lessons that you kind of learned from
him that you carried either into this record or any
of your other records that you produced.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
No, Jimmy learned all those lessons from me.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Yeah, say that, say that.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Man, not just me, John. And then Jimmy was a sponge.
He's a sponge for learning. He always was. He was
just one of the smartest, one of the quietest, quietly smartest,
guys in the room is Jimmy Iven. You know, it's
still my great, great friend. And uh, but when Jimmy started,
(36:57):
you have understand when I walked in to do my
first session at the Record Plan, all Jimmy was doing
was pushing pushing the start and stop button and putting
the tape on it off. He wasn't engineering or producing
any records. He hadn't done that yet.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Is it shocking to you to see, like, hell, he's
now like a supermogal or you know this guy that
one's like got your coffee and whatever, like and now he's.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Like it's it's totally shocking, and it's remained shocking to
all of us to this day. You know, Is that
okay Jimmy? I mean he's doing what he made what right, Right,
He's got what There's a lot of that that goes on.
(37:43):
But but Jimmy was just a super talented guy, you
know he was and he was a brave thinker, you know. Uh,
his partnership with Dre incredible, you know, and uh, you
know he was just h he was just a smart
young guy, you know. And and so I walked in
one night and he went from the uh pressing the
(38:04):
start and stop button on the tape deck to uh
sitting at the board, and I said, John, what's he
doing at the board man, you know? And John says, well,
he says he can do it, so and and that
was it. Jimmy Ivean ends up engineering Born to Run.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Did you like his mixing?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah, yeah, I liked Jimmy. Jimmy's technique was very simple.
He mixed until you like the way it sounded, you know,
And that's right. He mixes and he just mixes until
you like the way it sounds. And and he just
figured it out, you know. So uh you know. But
(38:45):
but so Jimmy, we were all really beginners together, you know,
honestly we we we and he like the first time
he was at that board, I walked in, I said,
wasn't this guy like overre just can he do it?
You know? But obviously he could.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
You know, oftentimes I'll say that, you know, most artists,
and I'm one.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Of those, like I'm so.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Uber obsessed with writers that you know, this is basically
my chance to play journalists. But you know, oftentimes artists
really aren't aware of their critical claim and you know,
of course the main narrative of your journey into rock
(39:29):
stardom was definitely through a connection of you know, our pal.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
John Landau, who's your manager.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Landau course famously, you know, wrote for Prime, Rolling Stone,
and you know, all these publications, and you know, he's
definitely the one of the first generation critical thinking journalists
out there. And of course he famously wrote that, you know,
he saw the future of rock and roll back when
you first saw you play. I don't know, Boston whatever,
but he saw the future of rock and roll. And
(39:58):
his name is Bruce Springsteen. I always wanted to know, like, okay,
So from my side of the fence, those words in
print could be super crippling to an artist. I've known
artists that are, you know, twenty seven years, twenty eight
years in the game, and they might have three records
(40:19):
out I know artists that have.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Given up after their first record.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
For you, at the time when literally the entire world
is declaring that you're going to pick up this this betime,
this betime, that's sort of like the remnant leftover of
the folk movement and the singer songwriter movement and the
rock movement and whatnot. Was that any pressure in you
(40:46):
or were you just shrugging it off like, oh, okay,
that's cool.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Now as a twenty five year old kid, So I
felt tremendous pressure, you know. But I felt two things,
you know, I think good artists always feel in the
same way. One and they go, I am a complete phony.
Two they go, I am the greatest thing you've ever seen.
And they believe both things right now, Believing that they're
(41:10):
a complete phony keeps them working, right, It keeps you
chasing your craft and trying to get better and keep
you working after it, you know, and thinking you're the
greatest thing you ever said. Well, you need you gotta
have some of that swagger, man, if you're gonna make it,
And no matter how humble you're gonna fake it, you're
gonna need some of that swagger to make to get
(41:32):
yourself through, you know. So. Uh but at the time,
I felt tremendous pressure around it, and it shook my world.
And uh, you know, I just hunkered down, sat in
and we just played night after night after night after
night after night after night. We played our hearts out
and the best we could for year after year after
(41:53):
year after year. At the end of the day, I
was gonna let the work speak for itself, you know,
come and see me, come and listen to me, check
my songs. And that's pretty much. That was my approach
to it. But there was a lot of pressure at
the time, and I went through a lot of you know,
mental anguish about it.
Speaker 6 (42:13):
One question I had man was regarding one of my
favorite records you did as a song you wrote for
the wrestler Micky Roy. He talked to me about like,
when you're writing for film, do you get a copy
of the film that they show it to you beforehand?
Do they sing you notes? How do you approach writing
songs for film?
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Well? It varies, you know. Jonathan Demi called me in
one time and said he was making a film I
was dealing with the AIDS crisis, and he was looking
for a song. So I didn't see the film. I
think I saw a few minutes of its opening because
that's where he was looking for a song for Wow.
So I spent a couple of days and I ended
(42:55):
up writing and recording the song Streets of Philadelphia. That
was one approach to the other approach. I just sometimes
somebody will send me a small piece of film and
they'll say this is the ambiance of the movie, or
this is where we're thinking of a song coming in.
And and in Mickey's case, Mickey Rourke, you know, i'd
been friends with him for quite a while, and he said, man,
(43:17):
this is this is a big movie for me, and
and and do you think you'd have anything that might work?
You know? So I said, okay, what is this a
guy about? This is a song about a guy whose
the whole thing is living with pain, you know, living
with pain. That that that's how uh, that's how he
processes his life. And so with that in mind, I
(43:42):
just sat down and I think I wrote the song
pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
That's what's up now.
Speaker 6 (43:48):
That song it f hit the movie perfectly, man, like
you did a great job.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
It really spoke to the character.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Wait was was that song nominated for an Oscar or there?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Could you?
Speaker 1 (44:02):
All right? I'm only asking what happened to be honest
with you, because I won a Golden Globe for it, right, okay, right,
I want to go and Mickey won the Golden Globe
for acting, you know, so I.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Had my thoughts on why Mickey, you know, when when
Mickey Rooke gave his speech at the Golden globes about
his dog dying and everything. I knew instantly that was
going to freak out the Academy, and thus no, I
still say that Mickey Rooke should have won that award,
but I know how the Academy thinks. They're like, he
(44:34):
ain't making a full of us on our stage. We're
going to give that to the swamp pinn.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But I I was wondering, okay, but.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
I wanted to know why because they only have three
songs in the category, and I was like, what the
fuck is Bruce's song?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
And why is that? Did you how many writers.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Were I was told something at the time that if
the song wasn't within the body of the movie, it
couldn't be nominated if it was just in the credit.
I mean I I got told some sort of thing
like that. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.
All I know is it didn't get nominated, So I
thought you were.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Showing for that, So okay, there's I don't know, if
you read the friendship of you and Little Steven, to
me is like, you know, one one for the history
books and the relationship that you two have with each
other and the way that he you know, when his
book came out. It was one of my favorite rock
(45:31):
memoirs ever because he's almost a poet in describing, like,
especially the early days where you guys were playing these
teen clubs like the Halloah, yeah, so can you. Because
the thing is we don't necessarily have that today. But
what were the teen First of all, were these teen
(45:54):
night clubs at night or were they like afternoon things
where you guys would play these night clubs with teenage them.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
That's what it was. Here was the shocking thing, and
it remains to me shocking to this day is that
that doesn't exist anymore. Right, But there's there's kind of
a reason. And if you think about it, like nineteen
sixty six, Pallablue on TV, Shindig on TV. You know,
American band stipt Worthy. You know, there's all sorts of
Soul Train, you know it's coming in, There's all sorts
(46:21):
of different music shows on and but at that time,
if you wanted to hire a rock and roll band,
you had to hire children. Teenagers really yeah, yeah, teenagers
are who played rock and roll. There wasn't the forty
year old men playing rock and roll in nineteen sixty six. Ah, right,
(46:45):
It was just fourteen year old men, not forty. Now,
you want to hire a rock and roll band, you
got to hire fifty year old men, you know. But
at that time, at that time, you know, you, it
was it was you. It was youth oriented. And so
there were all of these clubs that were on either
(47:07):
two or three nights a week. Sometimes it certainly open
on the weekends. And they were for teenagers only. Really,
there weren't even people in their twenties in them, and
there was no booz served. But there were rock bands playing,
you know, there were local rock bands and sometimes national
acts where you honed your craft night after night. You know,
I played, and Stephen and I both played, and who
(47:30):
knows how many of these places, but they were all
over the shore, probably all over the country at that time,
you know. But what people forget is rock and roll
bands were teenagers in those days, and and and there
weren't there was no such thing as like I say,
the fourty or fifty year old played rock music, you know.
But but what shocks me now is that sort of
(47:54):
venue no longer exists. These were places where everybody made
their bones. Everybody, you know, everybody played, You played five
hours a night you played five sets. You know, you
played fifteen minutes on and ten minutes off for five
sets in a row. And you did this, you know,
weekend after week after week after week after week. And so,
(48:17):
you know, Steve and I were craftsmen. You know, we're
old school craftsmen, like shoemakers, you know, or like seamstresses
or or you know, we're we're we're we're those kinds
of guys. You know. We we learned our craft bit
by bit, piece by piece, song by song, and and
(48:39):
and basically that's how we perform on stage two this day.
The East Street Band is a band filled full of craftsmen,
guys who came up, you know, learning their craft from
first how to put it on the two and four
and uh so that's that's different. Today we have a
kid in his bedroom. Two months later, he's got the
(49:01):
biggest hit in the United States. He's on the radio.
He may have never played a gig in his life.
You know, there's something cool about that, and that's sort
of it. It being there available to all is a
wonderful thing, you know, And it was totally out of
any type of you couldn't even record yourself in nineteen
sixty six unless people didn't have studios or they didn't
(49:25):
have tape players.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
I was gonna ask, do you feel as though you're
the father or the yes? And I know like Todd
Rundren and slid Stone and Stevie Wonder were all like whatever,
the bedroom musician or whatever. But the kind of legacy
that is the Nebraska record, even though you said it
was an accident and you were just right, you know,
(49:47):
just putting some songs down on tape, But do you
sometimes credit yourself with the Nebraska album being like the
really one of the first early examples of that type
of lo fi home recording.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Yeah, yeah, it just you know, I can't claim any
credit for it because I wasn't planning on doing anything
that was unusual at the time. I was simply trying
to hear if I had any any good songs to
record with the E Street Band when we went in
the studio, and I was sick of wasting all my
money with endless hours of studio time throwing out forty songs,
(50:23):
leaving them on the floor, and so I said, well,
I'm gonna find out if I have some good songs
that I'm gonna go in and record those songs. But
of course, the minute you hit the start button, things happen,
and things happen that aren't gonna happen again. They're only
happening right now in this particular moment in time. So
(50:44):
I'm in my bedroom and I just sent my guitar
tick out to get a little four track TX cassette player,
which you know, previous to that, all I had was
my boombox to record the rehearsals on. You know, we're
recording rehearsals on the boombox. And so I sat down
and I started to play off these songs, and you know,
(51:04):
I played a certain and then suddenly I went to
record it with the band. Didn't sound as good. I
went to record it by myself in the studio. Didn't
sounded better, but was worse. And suddenly I realized that
the little cassette I had in my pocket, that was
my album.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
You know who talked you into so you yourself said
the cassette this is this is the final album.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
This is all debated, but if you read Steves books,
Steve says he said it was. If you read it,
I'm sure thinks he said it was. And I think
I think it was my credit, That's right. I think
it was my idea. But who knows.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
You know, the promise of a rock god is is
coming in the seventies, and you know, I mean you
delivered with these records, you know, the River and Born
to Run and and and Darkness. But do you often
find and especially with how Born in the USA was received,
(52:00):
do you often find that sometimes you might have a
fan that's more in love with the idea of Bruce
Springsteen than the actual Bruce Springsteen. I mean, I know
that you've had many a situation where like this particular
unsavory political figure wants to use Born in the USA
(52:22):
sure fully missing the fact that the song has nothing
to do with type of patriotism. So you know, when
this album comes out, are you at all aware or
are you even in the mind space of knowing that
you're about to go to like god levels that Born
(52:45):
to Run wasn't taking you yet? Like before Born in
the USA, did you just think like, okay, well I'll
just coast out and do whatever, or was there still
hunger in you to grab the brass ring?
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Yeah, that's that's been that's never gone away, you know,
and started when I was a young kid, and I
always tell people more than rich, more than good looking,
more than I wanted to be great. I wanted to
make great music. I wanted to inspire people the way
(53:20):
that I felt inspired. And if I could do that,
that's my life's work, you know. I once just want
to inspire you with with what I created in my music,
the way that I was inspired by the people who
touched my heart and my soul and my life with
their music. That's really what I like doing. You know,
everything else great. You know, you want like to throw
(53:41):
the money at me back dynamite, you know, that's all
fabulous too, But uh, I just love. I love doing
what I'm doing, and I love I still love pursuing
that golden Ring. It takes a lot of different shapes
as life. As life goes on, you know, sometimes it's
in Nebraska, or it's it Born in the US, or
it's The Rising or something else or some other record, you.
Speaker 6 (54:04):
Know, speaking speaking of Born in the USA, what were
your thoughts on Band in the USA?
Speaker 1 (54:09):
By two? Me what they asked me about this, and
I forgot that. Yes, come on, they asked me about it,
and I said, sure, go ahead, you know, wait.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
The reason the reason why I asked you that question
about were you trying to grab the brass ring or
did it.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Just happen and it.
Speaker 3 (54:34):
Occurred, you know, without your planning, is because I ought
so this this one. Of course, you know, I'm one
of the twelve million. This is the first Springsteen Now'm
I ever owned, and I always wanted to know. So,
you know, there's six singles from this record, but for me,
I always wanted to know why the monster ones were
always just at the end of side too, Like in
(54:58):
my mind, like Glory Day Dancing in the Dark. Yeah,
even my hometown closes it like that's buried at the
end of side to it. Normally, the way that albums
are structured, it's like your heavy hitters are first, and
you're okay, I'll let you write your song or whatever.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
Like right, that will be the Landaus to the Landau
theory is heavy hitters come first usually. You know. My
theory is, I'm looking for a narrative in the record.
I'm I'm taking the intellectual I'm taking the intellectual point
of view. I know John John in this instance is
taking the gut, is using his gut to make his judgments.
(55:38):
And I'm going the other way. I'm thinking, like, well,
what's kind of what am I trying to say? How
am I saying? What's song? I knew my hometown was
going to close it. I knew Born in the USA
was going to open it and everything else, but I
don't know how it ended up where it was. It
just did. Just man, it just.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
Always to this day, like I just I've never seeing
an album.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
I'm I'm a guy that that obsessed over sequencing and.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Songs and oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's important.
Speaker 3 (56:06):
I've just never seen an album built that way that
it's such a staple of yours. But it's almost like whatever,
just thow a song where I always wanted to know why,
Like your heavy hitters were like way buried at the
end of the the album, but.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
I probably didn't know they were heavy hitters. I just
thought they were another it was another cut, you know.
I mean, I knew when I wrote I knew when
I wrote Dancing in the Dark that that sounded like
what I thought was a hit for me, you know,
And I don't you know, in which I do not
have many other records I've cut where I said, oh yeah,
that's gonna be a top forty I'm generally not a
top forty hit artist. I'm more of an album artist,
(56:44):
you know. But I knew when I cut that, when
I said, well, if I was ever to have a hit,
it would sound like it's gonna be that one. Yeah, yeah,
that's right. And so it's sort of that's a song
that's just sustained for the John Legend does a version
of it. Sounds like Gershwin incredible. He does a beautiful
(57:05):
version of it, you know. And uh, but I'm so,
but why the thing ended up at the bottom of
the second side, I really don't know. It doesn't make
any sense.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
Lastly, I'm gonna ask you.
Speaker 3 (57:20):
You know you did You did a You did a
string of dates at Massive Square Garden and I got
to witness about five of them. Wow, And each show was,
you know, your your typical gargantu Win three and a
half hour fair whatnot. All the songs were different orders.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
It's almost like.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
A new show every night. How how how are you
able to to to.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
All that text, all those core changes, all those arrangements,
And you know, at one point I decided, I think
on the third night, I decided I'm just gonna walk
in the stadium and watch the audience watch you, and
I'm singing everything verbatim, so it wasn't even like you
were missing a step or missing a lyric or anything.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
How much pressure is it in putting those shows together,
in those songs, and how to even crap your show?
Speaker 1 (58:12):
Well, two years, my band will have been together for
fifty years. Okay, So we've got a lot of history
and we've got a lot of experience, all right. And
on the last tour, we played two hundred songs, two hundred,
two hundred different songs. You know, we'll pull things out
of the audience or or you know, I'll just my
(58:35):
thing is on. Usually once the tour gets rolling, the
show is regularly different on a night to night basis,
you know, And I'll you know, I'll get with the guys.
I'll send notes into the guys before showtime. I'll say,
refresh yourself on this one from that album, this one
from that album, this one from that album, because we
(58:56):
might play it tonight. So the guys will have, you know,
hopefully they'll have an hour or half hour to prepare
themselves a little bit, and then we rehearsed in the afternoon. Also,
we don't just play three and a half hours at night.
We're we're there in the afternoon and I've we'll do
we have done two hour sound checks just just trying
to learn something new or or you know, the sound
(59:16):
checks can go from ten minutes to two hours. You know.
But it's it's just because it's fun, you know, it's
just all it's just it's still all just fun, playing,
playing surprising that audience here and there is is just
it's fun to do. It's wonderful, you know, it's wonderful.
I look what am I doing. I'm standing looking in
(59:38):
your face all night long every night. I'm watching how
you're responding to what I'm doing, and then I'm responding
to you. So there's this huge circle of energy going on.
I'm You're watching me, I'm watching you, You're watching me,
and then I'm watching you. And this is going on
all night long with the with the beautiful faces in
(01:00:01):
front of you. And it remains an honor to play
for our audience. And that's the way that I approach it,
and that's what I insist from the band on a
nightly basis. As you come out, your name is on
the line every single night. I don't care how long
you've been doing it. Right, your name is on the
line that night. You have an opportunity to impact somebody's
(01:00:21):
somebody's life tonight, I don't care how long you've been
doing it.
Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
And it's somebody's first time seeing you.
Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
There could be someone's first time seeing you that night.
Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
It's somebody's first time. That's right. Every night is somebody's
first night. I want to play like it's my first night.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Yeah, So that's that's a mic drop right there. I'll
say to our audience.
Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
That you know, if there's ever a show or a
comfort zone that you have to leave and see someone
that you've never seen before or someone outside of your zone,
I absolutely twelvey twelve million percent record men that you
see a Springsteen show because literally the show like you perform,
(01:01:06):
like your life depends on it. And I've seen you
at least in the last ten years.
Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I've seen you about fifteen times and like.
Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Each each And I'm the guy that doesn't know everything
by heart, like I'm I I've learned stuff backwards.
Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
I know well enough to now say, yes, I'm a
Springsteam fan.
Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
But even at the time when you know when I
first saw you, like I only know a few albums
and a few cuts, but yeah, I highly recommend. It's
an education just to watch someone that passionate about their
craft service.
Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
A bunch of fans in the audience, which you.
Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Know, And I'm going to shows now and I'm not
trying to be the old guy that's just like a man,
I'm not not connecting anymore like I used to. But yeah,
for me, you know, you're You're one of the last
Mohicans left. So I highly recommend it, and I thank
you for doing this with us.
Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Thank you, Thanks, thank you, Thanks guys, thank.
Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
You, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Man On behalf of us, fan Tikolo and Sugar Steve
and Unpaid Bill.
Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
This is Questlove and we will see your next go
round of.
Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
West Love Supreme.
Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
And thank you Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
All right.
Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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