For many years, Bruce Springsteen was the nation’s favorite celebrity. People believed that the rocker would never get married, and perhaps he shared their opinion.
But he knew he had found his soul mate when he met his present wife, Patti Scialfa. The musician is now talking openly about his difficulties and the steps he had to take before committing to a single woman.
Bruce Springsteen is well-known to music lovers. The vocalist began his career in 1964 and is still going strong at the age of 73. He has released over 20 studio albums, has a sizable fan base, and is renowned for his engaging stage presence.
The artist, though, is becoming more and more open about himself and his life as he ages. His admirers now have additional information about Springsteen’s thoughts and inner workings thanks to various secrets he has shared, mostly about his personal life.
He recently gave Howard Stern a lengthy interview. He sang some of his biggest hits throughout the interview and also discussed some of his deepest beliefs and significant events that affected his life.
He discussed his last encounter with Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist for his backing band, the E Street Band, who was both a good friend and a professional. The two were referred to by their followers as “the Boss and the Big Man.”
Springsteen disclosed that he had played his friend “Land of Hopes and Dreams” while he was on his deathbed.
“I had a hunch he could hear me since he could squeeze your hand when I initially went to him,” the rocker claimed in the interview. There was a reaction to your presence and voice, Springsteen added with a great deal of emotion.
“I had a premonition that he would pass away, so I had brought the guitar in and started strumming the tune ‘Land of Hope and Dreams. ‘Land of Hope and Dreams,’ indeed. The topic is crossing over to the other side. It concerns life and death.
He said, “It’s a hymn,” revealing the song’s profound meaning. It was the final tune on which Clarence and I collaborated on a sax solo. That was it; I think it’s one of my best songs in the past 20, 30, etc. Nothing else could be said.
Stern questioned Springsteen about the rationale behind his adored extended concert sets. He was just told by the rock star that it involved a “purification ritual.”
“You grow up with a lot of sin,” he continued, “since I was raised in the Catholic Church.” The ritual of purification, of the cleansing of your soul and your intellect, is at the heart of original sin, life, and rituals, the singer continued.
In my work, I occasionally went too far with my self-created rituals of purification, the Boss explained.
Stern then delved into a touchier subject: Bruce Springsteen’s family relocated to California when he was 19 years old, leaving the young man in New Jersey to fend for himself.
Springsteen was questioned by the interview program host on how this affected him as a young man and whether he later looked for father figures as a result of this. The rock star was completely open and shared more information than before.
“I always had father figures, right from when my parents departed,” Springsteen said in response. Somewhat outlaws I was not connected to the grid. You won’t be meeting any typical folks because my parents moved away in 1969, I stayed in New Jersey, and I was living with the band.
He also admitted at that point that the singer and his band were handled for a while by a couple of college-aged boys who had some money to invest in them. It used to be a pair of college-aged men. “And then there was a fella named Carl ‘Tinker’ West, who ran a surfboard factory in Wanamassa, New Jersey,” he continued, mentioning another father figure in his life. He almost adopted me as one of his own. He was a surfdog from the West Coast who migrated to the East and was probably ten years older than I was. I spent a few years living at the workplace with him.
The musician then went into detail about his therapy, which may have been of great use to him. He provided some details regarding his marriage to Patti Scialfa before starting to sing his song, “Tougher than the others.”
Bruce mentioned his three-year marriage to a “beautiful” woman in his thirties, which had ended in divorce because it had not worked out. The musician was then questioned by Stern about his troubles with commitment and how long it took for him to win his wife’s confidence.
The timer is still on for that, Springsteen retorted, making reference to the fact that his wife still has some doubts about his ability to maintain their marriage. The question, in his opinion, ought to be how long it has been since she has been able to trust you “enough” to keep you in the house.
Throughout the discussion, he continually made lighthearted comments to her mistrust of his dedication to her.
Stern’s jokes elicited laughter. But it is clear that it was all in jest and that the pair has a great marriage given how long they have been together and have stuck by each other’s sides.
However, the actor has already made a big deal about how encouraging his wife has been.
He disclosed his own battles with the illness in his memoir. He claimed that his depression was brought on by a combination of his genetic make-up and his early life experiences. In reference to Springsteen, John Lennon once remarked, “God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God.” But it was his own thinking, not the adoration’s waning, that drove Springsteen into sadness.
His deteriorating physical condition irritated him to no end. Springsteen consistently ate fast food and was underweight. He eventually ran out of energy to the point where he had assistance being led off stage.
This encouraged him to change his way of life. He began a new exercise regimen that included three times a week of weightlifting and six miles of treadmill running. His mental health continued to deteriorate even if his physical condition had improved.
He stated in an interview that while he has acquired some coping mechanisms, “it is still a powerful, powerful thing that truly comes out from things that still remain incomprehensible to me.”
He stated, “My depression is pouring like an oil spill all over the lovely turquoise-green gulf of my perfectly planned and controlled living when I was experiencing depression despite my new healthy lifestyle. Its black sludge poses a threat to suffocate every live cell in me.
Then he understood that depression was essentially a biochemical condition that required more than just an exercise regimen to manage.
He has talked extensively about how to fight the illness, claiming that self-realization was one of the things that made a difference for him. Just naming it [helps], the singer claimed. When feeling awful, most individuals try to explain why they are feeling that way by saying, “I feel horrible because…,” and then they transfer that feeling to another person by saying, “…because Johnny said this to me,” or “this happened.”
“And occasionally, that’s accurate. However, many times you’re just trying to give a name to something that isn’t especially nameable, and if you name it incorrectly, it only makes everything worse. So, I guess you could say that my “talent” is sort of saying, “Okay, it’s not this, it’s not that—just it’s this.” The singer continued, “This is something that comes, something that goes, and possibly something I have to live with for a while.”
He discussed how his wife Patti Scialfa has supported him and been one of the factors in his ability to overcome depression.
He noted that over time, “She was strong enough, stable enough, and brought a lot of affection, so those were very therapeutic things.”
He claimed that Patti was essential to his recovery and fight against despair. “Patti will watch a freight train bearing down, laden with nitroglycerin and speeding out of track… she gets me to the doctor and says, “This man needs a medicine,”” the singer claimed.
He said that Patti was the only partner he had who truly understood how he felt about his sadness, which made their bond even more intense and unique.
“She had a greater understanding of my motivations, some of my decisions, and some of the twisted aspects of my personality than some of my prior relationships, according to the singer.”
All in all, Bruce Springsteen is a loving father, grandfather, and husband. He has truly grown into a family man, which many people never expected of him!
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