Bruce Springsteen is 70 this September 23rd! How can that be? Why that would make me….oh nevermind.
Bruce has been my musical Idol since I turned about 15 years old and discovered his music. And this man ROCKED his sixties – he spent it not “protecting the brand”, but tring new and somewhat crazy stuff. He did a one-man Broadway show, dropped albums of music that were almost experimental, for him anyway.
His latest album “Western Stars” is a Southern California cowboy ablum, that was dropped as a surprise. A movie version is coming out. On Netflix you can find the film of his Broadway Show. He wrote his autobiography “Born To Run” and was brutally honest about his battles with depression.
Here’s some facts you may not know about the Boss:
- He got his nickname “The Boss” while playing with a band called Earth in the late 60s when he was given the job of collecting the band’s fee from club owners and paying the rest of the band.
- When The Boss dissolved the E Street Band in 1989, he gave each member $2 million in severance pay. Then put the band back together a few years later.
- Springsteen campaigned for Barak Obama during the 2008 US presidential campaign, and when the singer was presented with a Kennedy Center award in 2009, Obama said: “I’m the President…but he’s the boss.”
- He had a planet named after him in 1999. The Boss claimed his spot in the heavens after a minor planet – now called (23990) Springsteen – was spotted by astronomers in Auckland, New Zealand. Springsteen’s music had entertained the observers on the night of September 4th.
- His daughter Jessica is a champion show jumper who has represented the US in the Show Jumping World Cup. She was part of the US team that clinched the Aga Khan trophy at Dublin Horse Show in 2014.
- Springsteen’s father Douglas was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked as a bus driver. His mother Adele was of Italian ancestry and worked as a legal secretary.
- The Boss is known for epic concerts. He played his longest ever concert in Helsinki, Finland, in 2012, with the performance clocking in at four hours and six minutes long.
- He made history in October 1975 by becoming the first rock star to feature on the cover of Time and Newsweek in the same week.
- He won a best song Oscar in 1994 for Streets of Philadelphia, from the film Philadelphia. He’s also won a Golden Globe in 2009 for The Wrestler, from the film of the same name.
- Despite being one of the most well-recognized and biggest-selling artists in the world. Springsteen has never had a Number One single in either the US or the UK.
