Bruce Springsteen on Lockdown Life, the Legacy of Little Richard
played DJ again Wednesday morning on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio as part of his ongoing Bruce Springsteen — From His Home to Yours series. His selections included Glen Campbell’s “Times Like These,” The Magnetic Fields’ “Andrew in Drag,” Bob Dylan’s take on “Some Enchanted Evening,” and his own song “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Before playing Tom Petty’s “The Waiting,” Springsteen vented some frustrations. “The toughest thing about the lockdown is not knowing what the future holds,” he said, “the feeling of your whole life being placed on hold, time seeming to move quickly, but slowly.”
Springsteen originally planned on releasing a new E Street Band album this year and supporting it with a tour, his first since 2016, but he’s been locked away in his New Jersey home these past few months. “Empty and unused time, I don’t care for — especially at 70,” he said. “I’m counting my days and, my friend, I’ve got things to do that involve me and you. My son is 25 and he’s worried about the time it’s taking out of his life!”
He then compared himself to Muhammad Ali in the late Sixties, when the boxer’s refusal to serve in Vietnam took him out of the boxing ring for nearly four years. “He was at his prime,” Springsteen said. “I’m in my late prime, and he was] at his prime, and the years he could have spent boxing were taken away from him.”
He concludes the sad thought by reflecting on his late Aunt Eda, who died in 2012 at the age of 90. “She always said, ‘Just live every day as if you’re going to live forever,” he said. “I like that. I think she meant, ‘Greet each day on its own terms as an opportunity for life’s possibilities. Breathe it in. Let the world open up before you and prepare yourself to accept it in its entirety, on its own terms with a vengeance.’ Well, I’m ready and I hope you are, too. But right now, the waiting is the hardest part.”
Elsewhere during the program, Springsteen talked about the legacy of Little Richard. “Richard came out of Macon, Georgia, to take the nation, the world, and your body and soul by storm,” he said. “His art was filled with absurdity, dead seriousness, great humor, and sex, sex, sex. He’s one of a handful of men who changed the face of world culture. He crossed radical boundaries, he challenged gender norms, and he had the time of his life.”
E Street drummer Max Weinberg, meanwhile, is also communicating with his fans to keep busy. He’s accepting fan questions through the email address [email protected] and answering them with a weekly Instagram video he posts every Monday night. Check out the first one below.
