βWriting about yourself is a funny businessβ¦But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, Iβve tried to do this.β βBruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowlβs halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. Thatβs how this extraordinary autobiography began.
Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.
He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as βThe Big Bangβ: seeing Elvis Presleyβs debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song βBorn to Runβ reveals more than we previously realized.
Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock starβs memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.
Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (βThunder Road,β βBadlands,β βDarkness on the Edge of Town,β βThe River,β βBorn in the U.S.A.,β βThe Rising,β and βThe Ghost of Tom Joad,β to name just a few), Bruce Springsteenβs autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.