Bruce Springsteen joined and honored his wife, E Street Band singer and guitarist Patti Scialfa, on Sunday night as she was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Taking the stage he said, “I met Patti at the Stone Pony [in Asbury Park]. Where else? She was sitting in with the house band, Cats on a Smooth Surface, and I heard that voice of hers and I wondered, ‘Who is that girl?’ I went to find out, and we went out for cheeseburgers at The Inkwell in my 1960 Corvette and the die was set for many cheeseburgers to come...
"[She is] a street-smart, fascinating, lovely, sexy, beautiful redhead with a sound completely her own. So this is long-deserved, I love her. She’s a Jersey girl through and through.”
In accepting the award, Patti said, “That was like really a lot of compliments, all in a row. I’m going to record him … saying this before I go to sleep or ask him to say it again.”
She joined her husband and E Street Band members Max Weinberg and Steve Van Zandt as solo inductees, as well as already being enshrined with the band in 2012. Van Zandt was there Sunday to induct Sopranos creator David Chase.
Patti joined The E Street Band in 1984 and they started dating in 1988 when his marriage to model Julianne Phillips went south. They married in 1991 and have three children.
On Saturday, Springsteen made a surprise appearance at a symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of his second album, 1973's The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.
Held at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, home of his archives, he said, “The album is a lovely wild card — me finally getting a chance to express myself. Everything I’ve basically done for the rest of my career started on The Wild and the Innocent. It’s a lovely little record and I’m still very proud of it… The main thing for me on The Wild and the Innocent was that I wanted to introduce myself as a rock ‘n’ roll performer… I knew I wanted to write basically rock and soul music.”
Springsteen also joined a panel featuring original E Street Band members Vini Lopez and David Sancious, along with Garry Tallent, who's still in the band. Sancious played on Springsteen's last album, 2022's Only the Strong Survive.