Bruce Springsteen On ‘The Fuel That Started The Fire’ Of His Career

Bruce Springsteen may be 66-years-old, but that doesn’t mean he’s quite ready to retire just yet. In fact, Springsteen is as active as ever, between touring with his E Street Band in promotion of The River and putting out a candid and best-selling autobiography entitled Born to Run. The memoir shares its title with Bruce’s third studio album, but the book is far more personal than that album released so early in his decades-long career. Hoping to instill interest in his Born to Run memoir, Springsteen touched upon the themes explored in the autobiography during a CBS Sunday Morning interview.

Bruce Springsteen Shares What Inspires His Continued Drive

After earning his place as a rock and roll icon and putting out too many hits to count, Bruce Springsteen has proven himself time and again, but, as Billboard reports, that doesn’t mean The Boss has any intention of quitting. In fact, Springsteen’s live concerts have only grown more ambitious. His tour to promote The River is making headlines for shows that give fans up to four hours of playing time. Even many younger artists might not have the endurance to keep a single concert going for an entire evening, but, for Springsteen, his drive to perform has never come into question.

“I believe behind every artist [he] has someone that told him that he wasn’t worth dirt, and someone that told him they were the second coming of baby Jesus, and they believed them both,” Bruce says. “That is the fuel that starts the fire.”

Recent concerts in East Rutherford’s MetLife Stadium and Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park mark some of Bruce’s longest running shows to ever have been performed in the United States, but, for Mr. Springsteen, this isn’t anything extraordinary. Beginning his career with 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., Springsteen has spent nearly 43 years performing to live audiences, so he feels he’s conditioned his body to be able to perform extended concerts through those years of experience.

“It’s amazing how you can do it every night when it calls you,” says Bruce.

Born To Run Writer Bruce Springsteen Reveals A Troubled Relationship With His Father

It may be surprising news to many of his fans, but CBS News reports that Bruce Springsteen’s relationship with his father, Doug, was strained throughout much of their lives together. While mother Adele Springsteen encouraged Bruce with a gift of an acoustic guitar and an appreciation for his gift, Doug wasn’t nearly as accommodating. In Born to Run, Bruce describes his father as an angry man, working his life away at the local Ford plant and hassling his son to stop wasting his life on frivolous endeavors.

“He loved me, but couldn’t stand me,” Mr. Springsteen says of his relationship with his father.

Thinking back to those years, Bruce also uses words like “domineering” and “frightening” in describing his father, but he reveals that, years later, the two would come together and learn a degree of mutual respect. Bruce and Doug Springsteen began to mend their embattled relationship upon the birth of Bruce’s son, Evan. The “Born in the U.S.A.” singer says the two men shared an early morning beer one day and reveals that the simple gesture forever changed their relationship.

“He said, ‘I wasn’t so good to you,'” Springsteen said. “I said, ‘You did the best you could.'”

That short moment of understanding and seeing life from one another’s viewpoint gave Doug and Bruce the opportunity to really mend their broken father/son dynamic.

“It changed our relationship immediately,” Springsteen said. “It was a lovely gift. A lovely epilogue.”

Bruce Springsteen’s memoir, Born to Run, will be available in bookstores September 27.

[Featured Image by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]