Bruce Springsteen dedicated the opening night of his 18-week Broadway run to his old pal Tom Petty.
“Down here on E Street, we're devastated and heartbroken over the death of Tom Petty," he wrote before going on stage at the Walter Kerr Theatre. "Our hearts go out to his family and bandmates. I've always felt a deep kinship with his music. A great songwriter and performer, whenever we saw each other it was like running into a long lost brother. Our world will be a sadder place without him."
Playing to just 975 lucky punters who paid between $75 (the official price) and $2,400 (the StubHub price) for the privilege, The Boss mixed anecdotes and reflections from his Born To Run autobiography with the following songs:
‘Growin’ Up’
‘My Hometown’
‘My Father’s House’
‘The Wish’
‘Thunder Road’
‘The Promised Land’
‘Born in the U.S.A’
‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’
‘Tougher Than The Rest’ ‘Brilliant Disguise’
‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’
‘Long Walk Home’
‘Dancing In The Dark’
‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’
‘Born To Run’
Talking to Variety magazine, Bruce says of the show: “There’s a loose connection to the arc of my book, in that it sort of starts at the beginning and goes from there. I read a little bit from it, I tell some stories and play some music -that’s basically the show. Back in the early ’70s, when we played smaller places, there was a lot of time for storytelling; people were up close and it was fun, so it’s a bit of a return to some of that. We needed a place that was very small, so that’s how we ended up on Broadway, where all the beautiful small theatres are. I had been thinking about doing something that combined the book and music for a while, and I performed it once. In the last few weeks of the Obama Administration, I played at the White House in the East Room for about 300 people, and I brought this idea down there and it felt really good. I haven’t really played a venue of that size in probably 40 years.”
Bruce also revealed what was on the Springsteen hi-fi when he was assembling his new solo album.
“Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, those kinds of records. I don’t know if people will hear those influences, but that was what I had in my mind. It gave me something to hook an album around; it gave me some inspiration to write. And also, it’s a singer-songwriter record. It’s connected to my solo records writing-wise, more Tunnel Of Love and Devils And Dust, but it’s not like them at all. Just different characters living their lives.”