17 hours ago
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Bruce Springsteen drew a line when it came to making his “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” documentary.
The rocker, 75, did a new interview on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast and explained why his peptic ulcer disease wasn’t included in the Thom Zimny-directed project that chronicles Springsteen’s 2023-2025 world tour.
“I didn’t think my peptic ulcer was film-worthy, so we left it out,” Springsteen explained.
“I actually enjoyed the time off, but you hate disappointing your fans,” he said. “And it actually took a while for the whole thing to calm down and give back to my to myself.”
The musician added, “So it was an unusual experience, because I’m usually pretty ironclad. But no, we never considered it making it part of this story.”
Springsteen’s health battle forced him to take a a six-month break from his world tour with the E Street Band from Sept. 2023 to March 2024. He later had to reschedule four shows in May and June 2024 due to vocal issues.
The “Glory Days” singer told Variety that he used to be against filming his band, but now that’s changed.
“I didn’t believe that the magician should look too closely at his magic trick, that it might alter it in some way,” he said on the podcast. “And we were doing fine. It’s really amazing that we have the films that we have from when we were a younger man, because I was pretty much against filming.”
Springsteen added, “We’re at a point now where we should be filming at least everything we do. Once a tour or once an album, I enjoy filming, including films with our records. Now it’s just a part of what we do.”
The Grammy Award winner also talked about “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” the upcoming biopic on his life where he’s being portrayed by “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White.
“They pitched the idea, and I said, ‘it sounds like fun,’” Springsteen recalled. “It’s an interesting concept, because it’s only a couple of years out of my life. It’s ’81, ’82, and centered around the creation of that particular record while I was simultaneously recording ‘Born in the USA’ and also going through some personal difficulties that I’ve been living with my whole life.”
Calling Scott Cooper’s film “fantastic,” Springsteen also said he was impressed with White, 34.
“I was on tour during a lot of it, so they filmed a good amount of it without me there,” Springsteen explained. “But I was on set sometimes. It was interesting to see it played out, to see your grandmother’s house again, and to go inside and get a general feeling of what it was like when you were very young. So I enjoyed all those parts of it.”
The biopic, which comes out later this year, is an adaptation of a book of the same name by Warren Zanes.
The cast includes Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s manager, Stephen Graham as Springsteen’s father, Gaby Hoffmann as Springsteen’s mother, Paul Walter Hauser as guitar tech Mike Batlan and Odessa Young as Springsteen’s love interest.
“It’s a lovely cast and I am involved a little,” Springsteen previously said on “The Graham Norton Show.”
“This is not easy to do because you can’t do an imitation, you have to do a personal interpretation,” he continued. “It’s difficult but he is a great actor and sings pretty good.”
English (US)