LOS ANGELES — Born to Run, but stuck inside because of COVID-19.
Music icon Bruce Springsteen is discussing his new album, what he plans to do following the COVID-19 pandemic, and looking back on his life and work in a new interview with AARP the Magazine.
Springsteen's upcoming album with E Street Band, "Letters To You," is the artist's twentieth studio album, and the milestone is not marked without reflecting on his iconic five-decade career.
“I heard something of mine from 1975 on a record the other day, and I said, ‘That was about seven or eight lives ago. It was a full and entire life of its own.’" Springsteen told AARP the Magazine, "And I lived that one, and it was a great one, and now I’m living another one. I lived a life where we raised our children. That life is gone now. Now Patti [his wife] and I are living another life. So, you live a lot of lives over the course of your one life.”
The 71-year-old Grammy, Tony, Oscar, and Golden Globe winner told AARP that even after selling more than 150 records during his career, he still felt as though he has more to tell through music, and that "Letters to You" was one way of doing just that. The album also gave the singer the chance to return to his rock 'n' roll roots.
“It’s like you’re in a mine and one vein has gone dry, so you tap into another. A pop vein or a folk vein, and so you start working there," the Glory Days singer said, "But because I am primarily a rock ‘n’ roll musician when I’m operating sort of at my peak—I like to…every once in a while, come up with some rock songs."
While the album is a return to his most well-known genre, it's also unlike any other project Springsteen has ever worked on. According to the twenty-time Grammy winner, the album took less than one full week to record.
“We spent one week in the studio—five days—and cut the entire record. It was all live, no overdub vocals and just a few overdub instruments. It’s the first truly live, in-the-studio record of the band we’ve ever made" Springsteen told the magazine.
The music-giant also said that he has found recent peace in exploring himself through therapy, but that it takes hard work to actually reap the benefits.
“The talking cure—it works. But you’ve got to commit yourself to a process. And I was pretty good at doing that. I enjoyed the investigative examination of issues in my life that I didn’t understand" Springsteen said, "I learned a lot and therefore was able to exploit what I had learned and turn it into a real life.”
Aside from celebrating the new album- which debuts on October 23- Springsteen says that he is looking forward to what is coming after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended.
“All I can tell you is, when this experience is over, I am going to throw the wildest party you’ve ever seen. And you, my friends, are all invited.”
For more information on the singer's interview with AARP the Magazine, click here.
