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USA Today
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Bruce Springsteen, wife Patti Scialfa celebrate wedding anniversary
Bruce Springsteen, wife Patti Scialfa celebrate wedding anniversary Show Caption Hide Caption Bruce Springsteen's wife Patti Scialfa reveals cancer diagnosis Longtime E Street Band member and wife of Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, revealed she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018. The Springsteens are celebrating over three decades of love. Bruce Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary over the weekend. Scialfa, a member of Springsteen's E Street Band, has been on hiatus from the group since revealing she had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer. "Our one year anniversary … Bruce surprised me with a beautiful party," Scialfa wrote in a June 8 Instagram post alongside a photo of the couple sharing a kiss. Scialfa and Springsteen were married June 8, 1991, in Los Angeles. "Today marks 34 years … even though we already had Evan and Jess was on the way … spent the evening with Bruce (and) Sam and our granddaughter Lily," she continued. Scialfa and Springsteen share three children: Evan, 34; Jessica, 33; and Sam, 31. The family will soon notch another milestone: a multigenerational album. Sam and Evan are credited with contributing background vocals on the track "Where You're Going, Where You're From," part of the "Faithless" album, one piece of a two-part project that releases old Springsteen tracks from the vault. On Instagram, friends, fans and family congratulated the couple on their milestone. "Happy Anniversary!!!!!! We love you both!!!!!" commented Rita Wilson, an actress and wife to Tom Hanks. Longtime Springsteen photographer and concert promoter Danny Clinch laid down three heart emojis. "What a beautiful picture of the two of you! A very Happy Anniversary from us to you! Nicki & Garry," Nicky Germaine, the wife of E Street bassist Gary Tallent, wrote. Springsteen and Scialfa first met when she answered a newspaper ad in the mid-1970s for a female backup singer versed in 1960s girl groups. She had a tryout with the E Street Band, but did not end up joining the group until 1984 on the eve of the Born in the USA tour. When the two began to rehearse alone at her New York City apartment ahead of the subsequent Tunnel of Love tour, the line between bandmates and lovers began to blur. "I used to steal up there and sit on a park bench waiting for my gal to meet me with a six pack of beer," Springsteen said during a July 2020 broadcast of "Bruce Springsteen: From His Home, To Yours" on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel. "We got engaged on that park bench," Scialfa added. Marianne Faithfull's "Trouble In Mind" was the theme of their budding romance, the couple revealed. "I used to drive you back from New York City after visiting me, and we would play that all the way back," Springsteen said. "That makes me think of your blue Camaro," Scialfa added, "and also you had an old Corvette, which was also blue. We would just play that, never talk. We were just in a daze of love." "Marianne Faithfull was our guardian angel in those days," Springsteen said. Contributing: Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY
San Francisco Chronicle
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Neil Young invites Trump to summer tour, ‘if there is not martial law by then'
Neil Young has extended an invitation to President Donald Trump to attend his upcoming 'Love Earth' summer tour, though with a pointed caveat: 'If there is not martial law by then.' The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who has been feuding with Trump for years, made the offer Tuesday, June 3, in a post on the Neil Young Archives. 'When I tour the USA this summer, if there is not martial law by then which would make it impossible, let's all come together and stand for American values,' Young wrote. 'We will not be doing a political show. We will be playing the music we love for all of us to enjoy together. President Trump, you are invited. Come and hear our music just as you did for decades.' While the invitation may sound conciliatory, it reads more like a provocation. Trump was once a vocal admirer of Young, attending his shows and praising his performances. 'He's got something very special,' Trump told Rolling Stone in 2008, recalling Young's concerts at Madison Square Garden and his performances at Trump casinos. 'I've met him on occasions and he's a terrific guy.' Their relationship soured after Trump launched his presidential campaign and began using Young's song 'Rockin' in the Free World' at rallies without permission. In his latest message, Young warned, 'Our country and our way of life, that which our fathers and theirs fought for, is now threatened by our government. This is not what we voted for. This is our new reality. Our government is out of control, not standing for us. You can stand up for American values this summer, for our children and theirs.' Young's remarks come amid Trump's escalating conflict with musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, who recently criticized the former president during a concert in England. Trump has since called for investigations into artists like Beyoncé, Bono, and likely Young, over baseless claims of illegal campaign support for Vice President Kamala Harris. 'Bruce Springsteen and many others will be in our country this summer, there for you, playing your favorite music, songs like 'Born in the USA,'' Young added. 'We are proud to be who we are, and we must never let our government forget.' Young, who previously worried he might be barred from re-entering the U.S. over his criticism of Trump, is set to begin his 'Love Earth World Tour' in Europe this month, with North American dates following in August.
Winnipeg Free Press
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bruce Springsteen's lyrical view of America has long included politics – even more so as he ages
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as his fame and wealth have soared over the decades, Bruce Springsteen has retained the voice of the working class' balladeer, often weighing in on politics — most notably when he was a regular presence on Barack Obama's presidential campaign. This month, though, his music and public statements have ended up as particularly pointed and contentious. At a concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen denounced President Donald Trump's politics, calling him an 'unfit president' leading a 'rogue government' of people who have 'no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.' 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,' Springsteen said in words that he included on a digital EP he released a few days later. (A few more days later, he began another gig with the nonpolitical but saliently titled track 'No Surrender.') Trump shot back and called Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. For decades, Springsteen has salted his songs with social and political commentary, and it's hardly surprising: One of his self-described musical heroes, the activist folk singer Woody Guthrie, played a guitar upon which was written, 'This machine kills fascists.' Here is a look at some Springsteen lyrics that ventured into current events and the plights of people caught up in them. ___ 'Born in the USA' LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: I'm 10 years burnin' down the road; nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: Springsteen's most misinterpreted song — misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him — tells the tale of a Vietnam vet who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. The driving, catchy chorus — composed primarily of the words from the song's title, which made misunderstanding it easier — turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans' circumstances. 'My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: As he moved into his second decade of fame, Springsteen started touching on themes of economic distress more. 'My Hometown' is about a 35-year-old man remembering how he used to ride proudly around his town with his father when he was little. But now, he laments, 'they're closin' down the textile mill across the railroad track. Foreman says, 'These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't comin' back.'' 'American Skin (41 Shots)' LYRIC: 'No secret, my friend — you can get killed just for living in your American skin.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2001, 'Live in New York City.' BACKSTORY: A song written about the 1999 police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was standing in front of his apartment building in the Bronx when he was peppered with 41 bullets — 19 of which went into his body. The case captivated and divided New York City, and the song's release alienated Springsteen from some of his fan base, which included cops (whose lives he had sometimes chronicled in earlier songs like 'Highway Patrolman'). 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' LYRIC: 'Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest — no home. no job, no peace, no rest.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: Keying in on the ethos and tone of Steinbeck's Depression-era classic 'The Grapes of Wrath,' Springsteen chronicles modern-day people at the fringes of society trying to get by on the road. 'The highway is alive tonight,' he says, 'but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes.' 'The Line' LYRIC: 'At night they come across the levy in the searchlight's dusty glow. We'd rush 'em in our Broncos and force 'em back down into the river below.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: The tale of a lonely, widowed border patrol agent who falls for one of the illegal immigrants caught crossing the border. It leads him to confront his hypocrisy and leave the job, still searching for the woman he met fleetingly. Its companion song on the album, 'Across the Border,' was written from the perspective of a Mexican man dreaming of America ('For you I'll build a house high upon a grassy hill, somewhere across the border'). 'The Rising' LYRIC: 'Lost track of how far I've gone — how far I've gone, how high I've climbed. On my back's a 60-pound stone; on my shoulder a half-mile line.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2002, 'The Rising' BACKSTORY: Barely a year after 'American Skin,' Springsteen turned back to first responders in the wake of 9/11, venerating them with a song that tells of a firefighter ascending the steps of one of the Twin Towers to save people — and, presumably dying along the way. He sings of a 'sky of blackness and sorrow, sky of love, sky of tears, sky of glory and sadness, sky of mercy, sky of fear.' He takes no political position but — in his typical way — shows one of history's most political events through the lens of a regular person caught up in it. 'Jack of All Trades' LYRIC: 'The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin. It's all happened before and it'll happen again.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: A lament from an underemployed American man who can't get more than odd jobs after the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The work he does as a handyman sends him toward hopelessness, and he feels a lack of dignity. 'You lose what you've got and you learn to make do. You take the old, you make it new,' the protagonist sings. But, he also allows, 'If I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight.' 'Death to My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Send the robber barons straight to hell — the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found. Whose crimes have gone unpunished now, who walk the streets as free men now.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: Springsteen revisits the theme of a dying hometown, this time with more aggressiveness than lament, keying in on the financial crisis of 2007-2008. It functioned as a protest song and a rallying cry against greed and its carriers. The same album featured the song 'Wrecking Ball,' a defiant challenge to people who would tear down beloved parts of northern New Jersey in the name of 'progress.' 'Galveston Bay' LYRIC: 'Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell and the communists rolled into Saigon. He and his friends watched as the refugees came, settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: An almost biblical parable about pain and old hatreds. A veteran in Galveston Bay, who'd fought in Vietnam, watches as an immigrant Vietnamese shrimper protects himself and sets out to kill him one night — but it ends with unexpected results and quiet hope. '57 Channels (and Nothin' On)' LYRIC: 'So I bought a .44 Magnum, it was solid steel cast. And in the blessed name of Elvis, well, I just let it blast 'til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet. And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1992, 'Human Touch' BACKSTORY: An expression of sardonic rage at the emptiness and hopelessness that the unremitting feed of cable TV had brought to the world. This is less political and more social, though it reflected some of the disillusionment of the age about the brain rot of popular culture. It came months before Michael Douglas' anger-management-failure movie 'Falling Down' depicted an enraged man losing it and tearing a swath through Los Angeles because of the stresses of modern culture. 'Livin' in the Future' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. LYRIC: 'My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon. The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2007, 'Magic' BACKSTORY: A twist on the old-fashioned warning song, written from the vantage point of the future. ('We're livin' in the future, and none of this has happened yet.') This was a commentary on a post-9/11 America that — as the song suggests — is headed in a bad direction. Oblique but devastating, particularly with such somber words against an upbeat melody reminiscent of his early work, it suggested there was still time to correct course. Which touches on a frequent Springsteen theme: possibility amid the hardship and challenge. ___ Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation for The Associated Press, has written about American culture since 1990.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Springsteen's lyrical view of America has long included politics — even more so as he ages
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as his fame and wealth have soared over the decades, Bruce Springsteen has retained the voice of the working class' balladeer, often weighing in on politics — most notably when he was a regular presence on Barack Obama's presidential campaign. This month, though, his music and public statements have ended up as particularly pointed and contentious. At a concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen denounced President Donald Trump's politics, calling him an 'unfit president' leading a 'rogue government' of people who have 'no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.' 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,' Springsteen said in words that he included on a digital EP he released a few days later. (A few more days later, he began another gig with the nonpolitical but saliently titled track 'No Surrender.') Trump shot back and called Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. For decades, Springsteen has salted his songs with social and political commentary, and it's hardly surprising: One of his self-described musical heroes, the activist folk singer Woody Guthrie, played a guitar upon which was written, 'This machine kills fascists.' Here is a look at some Springsteen lyrics that ventured into current events and the plights of people caught up in them. ___ 'Born in the USA' LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: I'm 10 years burnin' down the road; nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go." YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: Springsteen's most misinterpreted song — misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him — tells the tale of a Vietnam vet who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. The driving, catchy chorus — composed primarily of the words from the song's title, which made misunderstanding it easier — turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans' circumstances. 'My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: As he moved into his second decade of fame, Springsteen started touching on themes of economic distress more. 'My Hometown' is about a 35-year-old man remembering how he used to ride proudly around his town with his father when he was little. But now, he laments, 'they're closin' down the textile mill across the railroad track. Foreman says, 'These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't comin' back.'' 'American Skin (41 Shots)' LYRIC: 'No secret, my friend — you can get killed just for living in your American skin.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2001, 'Live in New York City.' BACKSTORY: A song written about the 1999 police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was standing in front of his apartment building in the Bronx when he was peppered with 41 bullets — 19 of which went into his body. The case captivated and divided New York City, and the song's release alienated Springsteen from some of his fan base, which included cops (whose lives he had sometimes chronicled in earlier songs like 'Highway Patrolman'). 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' LYRIC: "Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest — no home. no job, no peace, no rest." YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: Keying in on the ethos and tone of Steinbeck's Depression-era classic 'The Grapes of Wrath,' Springsteen chronicles modern-day people at the fringes of society trying to get by on the road. 'The highway is alive tonight,' he says, 'but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes.' 'The Line' LYRIC: "At night they come across the levy in the searchlight's dusty glow. We'd rush 'em in our Broncos and force 'em back down into the river below." YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: The tale of a lonely, widowed border patrol agent who falls for one of the illegal immigrants caught crossing the border. It leads him to confront his hypocrisy and leave the job, still searching for the woman he met fleetingly. Its companion song on the album, 'Across the Border,' was written from the perspective of a Mexican man dreaming of America ("For you I'll build a house high upon a grassy hill, somewhere across the border"). 'The Rising' LYRIC: "Lost track of how far I've gone — how far I've gone, how high I've climbed. On my back's a 60-pound stone; on my shoulder a half-mile line." YEAR/ALBUM: 2002, 'The Rising' BACKSTORY: Barely a year after 'American Skin,' Springsteen turned back to first responders in the wake of 9/11, venerating them with a song that tells of a firefighter ascending the steps of one of the Twin Towers to save people — and, presumably dying along the way. He sings of a 'sky of blackness and sorrow, sky of love, sky of tears, sky of glory and sadness, sky of mercy, sky of fear.' He takes no political position but — in his typical way — shows one of history's most political events through the lens of a regular person caught up in it. 'Jack of All Trades' LYRIC: 'The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin. It's all happened before and it'll happen again.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: A lament from an underemployed American man who can't get more than odd jobs after the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The work he does as a handyman sends him toward hopelessness, and he feels a lack of dignity. 'You lose what you've got and you learn to make do. You take the old, you make it new,' the protagonist sings. But, he also allows, 'If I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight.' 'Death to My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Send the robber barons straight to hell — the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found. Whose crimes have gone unpunished now, who walk the streets as free men now.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: Springsteen revisits the theme of a dying hometown, this time with more aggressiveness than lament, keying in on the financial crisis of 2007-2008. It functioned as a protest song and a rallying cry against greed and its carriers. The same album featured the song 'Wrecking Ball,' a defiant challenge to people who would tear down beloved parts of northern New Jersey in the name of 'progress.' 'Galveston Bay' LYRIC: 'Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell and the communists rolled into Saigon. He and his friends watched as the refugees came, settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: An almost biblical parable about pain and old hatreds. A veteran in Galveston Bay, who'd fought in Vietnam, watches as an immigrant Vietnamese shrimper protects himself and sets out to kill him one night — but it ends with unexpected results and quiet hope. '57 Channels (and Nothin' On)' LYRIC: "So I bought a .44 Magnum, it was solid steel cast. And in the blessed name of Elvis, well, I just let it blast 'til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet. And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1992, 'Human Touch' BACKSTORY: An expression of sardonic rage at the emptiness and hopelessness that the unremitting feed of cable TV had brought to the world. This is less political and more social, though it reflected some of the disillusionment of the age about the brain rot of popular culture. It came months before Michael Douglas' anger-management-failure movie 'Falling Down' depicted an enraged man losing it and tearing a swath through Los Angeles because of the stresses of modern culture. 'Livin' in the Future' LYRIC: 'My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon. The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2007, 'Magic' BACKSTORY: A twist on the old-fashioned warning song, written from the vantage point of the future. ("We're livin' in the future, and none of this has happened yet.") This was a commentary on a post-9/11 America that — as the song suggests — is headed in a bad direction. Oblique but devastating, particularly with such somber words against an upbeat melody reminiscent of his early work, it suggested there was still time to correct course. Which touches on a frequent Springsteen theme: possibility amid the hardship and challenge. ___ Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation for The Associated Press, has written about American culture since 1990.
Daily Mirror
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Bruce Springsteen brutally slams Trump on UK tour as 'corrupt and treasonous'
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are in Manchester for three huge gigs, but 'the Boss' had to take a moment to savage the Trump administratio Music legend Bruce Springsteen delivered a damning of President Donald Trump during his opening night in Manchester on Wednesday (May 14), slamming the US leader and "urging the crowd to raise your voices against authoritarianism." The 75-year-old singer-songwriter is in the UK for his ongoing Letter to You tour, which has seen 'the Boss' take on 130 shows across North America and Europe, with an estimated box office total of £475 million. Manchester is buzzing with Springsteen-fever, with fans of the Born to Run artist queuing outside the Co-op Arena for days, hoping to snag autographs. One woman, who had been queuing since Friday, said the gig would be her 102nd Springsteen concert. As the lights dimmed on Wednesday and fans erupted into thunderous applause, Springsteen expressed his delight at being back in Manchester, welcoming the packed arena to the sold-out tour. The Manchester Evening News reports 'the Boss' stating that the E Street band had taken to the stage to 'call upon the righteous power of music, art and rock and roll in dangerous times' currently being experienced in the USA. Springsteen is a fervent liberal who has consistently campaigned for Democratic presidential candidates over the years. Illuminated by a spotlight, he continued: "In my home, the America I love, the America I've written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. "Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American spirit, to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom reign." Bruce Springsteen's impassioned outburst swiftly garnered attention on X, with one fan posting: "Wow #BruceSpringsteen Bruce Springsteen just battered Trump unbelievable moment at start of Manchester tour." Another user chimed in: "Bruce #Springsteen kicks off his LOHAD tour with a message to Trump: 'Incompetent who believes in democracy rise up.'" The American music legend, famous for hits such as 'Born in the USA' and 'Dancing In The Dark', is set to perform alongside the E Street band at the venue on May 14, 17, and 20. He will also play dates in Liverpool in early June, followed by shows in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy in the coming months. The announcement of the tour was met with immense excitement as fans clamoured to secure tickets for the European gigs. Over the weekend, fans flocked to Manchester city centre to catch a glimpse of the singer, who is currently staying at Gary Neville's Stock Exchange Hotel. On Saturday, fortunate fans snapped photos with Springsteen as he signed vinyl records and memorabilia on Sussex Street. The rock star appeared to be in high spirits, posing for pictures and chatting with those who had queued up before being escorted away by security. The 75 year old, hailed by Rolling Stone as 'the embodiment of rock and roll', has released 21 studio albums, including his 1973 debut 'Greetings from Asbury Park, N. J. ' and his most recent effort, 'Only the Strong Survive', from 2022.
