On Friday (April 24th) Bruce Springsteen appeared on SiriusXM's E Street Radio for a second episode of Bruce Springsteen: From His Home To Yours. Springsteen talked candidly about the current state of affairs while friends, family, and fans all self-quarantine as the country attempts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Springsteen played tracks by Sam Cooke, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, George Jones, the Bee Gees, and more.
Backstreets.com transcribed some of Springsteen's on air chat and dedications, with “The Boss” saying at one point before spinning 2Pac's “Dear Mama”: “One of the hardest things about recent times is the distance you have to place between you and your loved ones. . . My mom has had Alzheimer's for 10 years, and she lives in the present: this moment, and this moment only, is hers. So touching her and hugging her and kissing her are very, very important for her life experience right now. One of the things we've had to suffer with is that we can't do that right now. For her safety and for her health. So I wanna send this one out to my mom, and to your mom too.”
Springsteen gave the “Big Apple” a one-two-punch salute by playing Billy Joel's “New York State Of Mind” and his own “New York City Serenade,” introducing the tracks by explaining, “New York City has struggled so tremendously with this disease. . . My son lives there, of course we've been worried about him, and everybody else, too.”
He went on to add: “One the most frustrating things about this virus is not knowing how long we're going to have to live like this. . . . before people are going to be able to trust one another to congregate in large groups, for music, sports, family gatherings. . . it's very disheartening. We've got to stay strong, stay home, and stay together, and settle on the fact that it's probably going to be a pretty long walk home.”
Springsteen spoke candidly about what it takes in facing this thing head on: “I think one of the hardest things in difficult times is keeping faith. Not letting the struggle and the pain and the loss grief overcome you. That's very, very hard. There's a lot of people that have suffered a lot of loss over these days. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you. But I know that is cold comfort for those who have lost husbands and wives and sons and daughters.”
Bruce Springsteen makes no bones about the fact that the starting point for playing rock n' roll is all about escape and carving out one's own path: “One of the things about rock n' roll is it's the art of self creation. A lot of the time you wanna erase too much of your past. That moment, that moment of explosion when — bang — you run into whatever it was that made you pick up the guitar. Y'know, that moment you hold that thing and you look in the mirror. You gotta be wanting to get away from something pretty hard, y'know, I think, for that to happen.”