Bruce Springsteen: Impending Tour Will Be ‘Political’

Bruce Springsteen sees no need to mince words as he prepares to begin his Land of Hope and Dreams tour with the E Street Band on March 31 in Minneapolis: “the tour is going to be political and very topical about what’s going on in the country,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune in a new interview. “The E Street Band is built for hard times. It always was. These are the moments when I think we can be of real value and real worth to the community.”

Springsteen visited Minneapolis in late January for a Tom Morello-led benefit concert in support of I.C.E. shooting victims Renee Good and Alex Pretti, about whom he wrote the Donald Trump-bashing protest song “Streets of Minneapolis.” Morello will be joining the E Street Band onstage every night during the upcoming trek, which concludes May 27 in Washington, D.C.

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Tomorrow, the Boss will perform “Streets of Minneapolis” again alongside Senator Bernie Sanders, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers at a No Kings rally in St. Paul.

“I don’t know of another time when the country has been as critically challenged and our basic ideas and values as critically challenged as they are right now,” he said. “I’d have to go back to 1968 when I was 18 years old to another moment when it felt like the country was so on edge and like it felt there was simply so much at stake as far as who we are and the country we want to be and the people we want to be. It’s a critical, critical moment.”

Springsteen credited Morello with helping him sharpen the lyrics to “Streets of Minneapolis,” despite his concerns about sounding “like I’m on a soapbox. But as Tom said, ‘Nuance is wonderful, and sometimes you have to kick them in the teeth.’ And this was one of those times.”

As for the prospect of alienating fans with a bluntly political message, Springsteen noted, “my job is very simple: I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say and then people get to say what they want to say about it. I don’t worry about if you’re going to lose this part of your audience. I’ve always had a feeling about the position we play culturally, and I’m still deeply committed to that idea of the band. The blowback is just part of it. I’m ready for all that.”

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