Bruce Springsteen has been promoting his new documentary, Road Diary, which starts streaming Friday on Hulu and Disney+. And while doing so, he's been asked about another film being made about him, Deliver Me From Nowhere.
Based on the 2023 book by Warren Zanes of The Del Fuegos, Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, it stars Jeremy Allen White from The Bear as "The Boss."
Springsteen, during an appearance last week on The Graham Norton Show in the UK, was asked about Allen singing. He said, “This is not easy to do because you can’t do an imitation, you have to do a personal interpretation. It’s difficult but he is a great actor and sings pretty good.”
Filming will begin next year.
Springsteen also shared a story with Norton about playing at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York in the early '70s.
He says his manager thought it would be good for publicity. After disappointing the inmates by not having any girls in the band, they just sat there staring as he performed. He then hit a high note on the guitar and heard what he described as a "bip." This happened three times until the prisoners parted and one prisoner came forward and took a tiny saxophone out of his shirt. Springsteen said he could really play it so he invited him on stage and the audience "erupted into applause and the rest of the evening was fine."
And at the Q&A following the London screening of Road Diary on Friday, Springsteen said he pays The E Street Band "a tremendous amount of money. That greases the wheels pretty good. And then, I’m a pretty nice boss. The truth is, you need to cast your band well.
“If you get the art right, the music right, and the band right, you go out and play every night like it’s your last night on Earth. That was the serial philosophy of the band, and we’re sticking to it.”
Springsteen is in Los Angeles for a private screening of Road Diary, this one at the David Geffen Theater at the Motion Picture Academy. It's part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's "Screening Series" and afterwards, Hall of Fame Foundation Chairman John Sykes will host a Q&A with Bruce, his manager Jon Landau, the film's director Thom Zimny, and E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt.