From the 27 Club to the tragically premature losses of rock stars like John Lennon and John Paul Jones, the musical world and death, unfortunately, can seem like they go hand in hand—but Bruce Springsteen has gone to great lengths to protect himself and his E Street bandmates from what he calls the “death cult.”
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The Boss is certainly no stranger to booze and drugs (he had his come-up in the 1970s, after all), but he’s made a point to place firm boundaries around what he and his colleagues do. Based on their decades-long career, we’d say it’s working.
How Bruce Springsteen Protects Himself and His Bandmates
Bruce Springsteen sat down with The Telegraph just days after the shocking death of One Direction star Liam Payne. Even as an artist whose homebase is across the pond, Springsteen could readily identify with Payne’s trajectory from his meteoric rise to his struggles with substance abuse to his tragic end that came far too soon. It’s a path to and from stardom that Springsteen knows well and has taken great pains to avoid himself.
“I’ve had my own wrestling with different things,” he said. “The band has all wrestled with different things. Drugs were not uncommon in the E Street Band, you know. There was a boundary, however. I stayed out of your business, but if I was on stage and I saw that you were not your complete self, there was going to be a problem. So, I made a bit of a boundary around that stage, where people had to be relatively sober.”
Springsteen’s boundaries with his bandmates (and himself) have protected the E Street Band from joining the ranks of musicians who lost their lives too young. The “Born in the USA” singer called this overarching trend in the music industry “a death cult. It’s a grift, man. That’s a part of the story that suckers some young people in, you know, but it’s that old story. Dying young—good for the record company, but what’s in it for you?”
The Frontman Has Set An Example For His Band (And Everyone Else)
In a world where most rock stars have dabbled in varying degrees with alcohol, hard drugs, and toxic combinations of the two, Bruce Springsteen has stood fast to his commitment to his physical and mental health for both his sake and the fans. In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt called his bandmate “the opposite of a drug-created monster.”
“He’s in good shape by not doing drugs,” he continued. “It’s something he doesn’t have to preach about. He’s a living example of what happens when you never do drugs your whole life. I mean, I’m sure he’s taken a drink or two a few times in his life, but he was never a drinker, either. And he eats right, and he’s in the gym. Well, that’s what happens.”
The guitarist added, “Don’t do drugs. Don’t drink, eat right, go to the gym, and you can rock and roll at 62, too. It isn’t rocket science. This is real old-fashioned common sense.” Even years after Van Zandt’s interview with the music magazine, he, Springsteen, and the rest of the band are still getting after it on the road and in the studio. So, yeah, we’d say that common sense has paid off (and then some).
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Shoah Foundation
