Born In The USA
Bruce Springsteen is a real American superstar. From humble beginnings, he crafted his talent and pursued his passions even when it seemed that the world wouldn’t accept what he offered. Unfortunately, along with fame comes increased scrutiny, and when the public got involved in his personal affairs, Bruce and everyone around him suffered.
His actions in the 80s threatened to tarnish his hard-won image—yet he managed to overcome and become the legend he is today. Here’s to the Boss!
1. He Came From Humble Beginnings
Born in Long Branch, New Jersey in the autumn of 1949, Bruce Springsteen lived a simple life growing up—one that would get referenced often in his song lyrics later in life. His father worked as a bus driver and at odd jobs. However, he suffered from mental illness, which caused struggles for himself and his family.
In these times of struggle, the Springsteens needed someone else to pick up the slack.
Thomstrom5700, Wikimedia Commons
2. He Depended On His Mother
The responsibility for raising the family and providing for them fell on the shoulders of Bruce’s mother, Adele Anne. Adele worked as a legal secretary and the income from this role supported the family. This early “blue collar” upbringing influenced much of Bruce’s music as his career began to grow—and the pain in his relationship with his father would become a prevalent theme.
3. He Was A Problem Child
Although Bruce Springsteen attended Catholic school, he struggled under the strict nature of that upbringing. He often rebelled against the nuns and the strictures that they taught him. Although Bruce said in a 2012 interview that his Catholic upbringing influenced his music, it didn’t start the connection. Bruce caught the bug from another source.
Julien_civange_and_bruce_springsteen.jpg: Laura bland
derivative work: Beao, Wikimedia Commons
4. He Latched Onto Idols
Bruce’s early influence in music came from the radio and television. He grew up listening to Frank Sinatra on the radio. At the age of seven, an Elvis Presley performance on The Ed Sullivan Show sparked his determination to become a musician himself. However, he struggled on that journey early on.
5. He Needed Instant Gratification
Having shown interest in music, his mother rented him a guitar for $6 a week. However, he faced an immediate problem. When Bruce found that he wasn’t instantly good at the instrument—that it would take time and practice—he was disappointed and dropped it.
Bruce’s childhood often exhibited difficulties of this nature. He struggled in high school and skipped his graduation due to feeling so alienated. He needed something bigger to hold onto his attention.
Carl Lender, Wikimedia Commons
6. He Found His Spark Again
Seven years after originally seeing Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show, a different act sparked a renewed interest in music. This time Bruce found inspiration from a 1964 performance by the Beatles and immediately bought a guitar for $18.95 He began performing with the Rogues, a local band. However, he needed a helping hand to escape his hometown.
Eric Koch for Anefo , Wikimedia Commons
7. He Got A Little Help
One of the recurring themes in Bruce’s music is the importance of community and a support system. And as he worked toward becoming a professional musicians, he had to rely on others to give him a helping hand. His own mother was the first to chip in with a heartbreaking gesture. She got a loan in order to buy him a $60 guitar. And she wasn’t the only one to pitch in. In 1965, Tex and Marion Vinyard helped Bruce become the lead guitarist for the Castiles.
Tex and Marion sponsored local young bands that had potential, and Marion believed Bruce when he promised her that he’d become big. Her faith was proven right when Bruce moved up to lead singer for the Castiles. However, it wasn’t all easygoing.
Takahiro Kyono from Tokyo, Japan, Wikimedia Commons
8. He Defined His Image
Bruce Springsteen spent the rest of the 1960s moving from band to band and working to develop the unique style that he’d eventually become known for. But he did things a little different. His future record label described his songwriting at the time as having “more words in some individual songs than other artists had in whole albums”.
It became clear that he’d make his own path—and he was determined to do it his own way. However, once again, outside forces proved to be an indelible influence.
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9. He Met Lifelong Friends
While playing shows along the Jersey shore in different bands, Bruce met a group of people who would change his life. He played with a band called Steel Mill, which included musicians Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, and Steven Van Zandt. Not only did they get along well, they lit the stage on fire when they played together, and music critics from as far as San Francisco wrote about the unknown talent they’d managed to catch up the boardwalk.
Now, it only seemed like a matter of time.
Columbia Records, Wikimedia Commons
10. He Made A Deal
In 1972, Bruce Springsteen signed with Columbia Records. The executives expected Bruce to make an acoustic album. However, Bruce had his own ideas. He brought together several of his fellow artists from New Jersey to form a band to back up his music. This band eventually became known as the E Street Band and performed with him for most of his career. Bruce also developed another name during this time.
Richard E. Aaron, Getty Images
11. He’s The Boss
If you know anything of Bruce Springsteen, then you may know him by a certain name: the Boss. Bruce collected this name during the early period of his career working with his band. It supposedly came from Bruce collecting the band’s pay and distributing it to the musicians. However, a tendency to play Monopoly with his fellow musicians also influenced the name.
In 1972, the Boss was about to break out onto the music scene—almost.
12. His Won The Critics
Bruce released his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, in January 1973. Critics loved it. However, the general music listener tended to work at a slower pace when picking up the lyrical folk-rock music that Bruce produced. However, Bruce was so sure of his vision that he refused to let it bring him down.
He was ready to keep going with his E Street Band.
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark (Official Video), Bruce Springsteen
13. He Struggled To Find Success
Bruce released his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, 11 months after his first. The second album performed much the same as the first did: critically it excelled. Commercially it struggled. Still, Bruce continued to write and perform. As one critic put it, “[I] saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen”. He just needed to find the right audience.
Sound Quality Shootout The Wild The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle, True Audiofiles
14. He Tried Again
Springsteen kept honing his live show playing at the Stone Pony in Asbury, creating a defining sound of the era—but now, he had the challenge of putting it down on a record. Though he’d previously seemed unfazed by the lack of commercial success, Bruce nonetheless was determined to blow not just critics, but everyone away with his new album.
It was his last shot at big-time fame—but it turned out to be far more complicated and frustrating than he expected.
Uhlemann, Thomas, Wikimedia Commons
15. He Struggled To Record
The name of the album was Born to Run, and Bruce Springsteen struggled to record it. He became frustrated when he heard “sounds in [his] head” that he couldn’t explain to others. He almost threw the entire project out and insisted on rerecording it live. Things like this went on for over a year, with six months alone going toward the recording of the title track. At one point during the recording, Bruce listened back to what he had and made a chilling realization.
He thought he had to throw it all out and re-record the entire thing live. Perhaps having been driven a little crazy by the exacting and lengthy recording process, the perfectionist in Bruce had taken a dark turn—but thankfully, Bruce’s band talked him out of it.
Bruce Springsteen - Born to run (Vinyl), formercosmico72
16. He Broke Out
Born to Run proved to be worth all the effort and the sleepless nights that Bruce put into it. It became a breakout album, launching Bruce’s career to the next level, and putting him in the spotlight in a new way—one that could be alienating, as we'll see later. The level of instant success attracted speculation that he was a record industry plant. Having spent the years prior struggling, Bruce found the claim infuriating.
He’d got what he wanted—but he felt his identity splitting down the middle in a way he couldn’t control.
Krwessel2024, Wikimedia Commons
17. He Got Sued
Bruce ended up in a dispute with his early manager, Mike Appel, that turned into a courtroom battle in the mid-70s. As an unfortunate side effect, the lawsuit prevented him from getting in the studio to make new music. His ascending career trajectory now had the potential to lose all its momentum. And for a man who expressed his feelings and took out many of his frustrations through music, it was infuriating.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
18. He Bounced Back
After getting through the court battle, Bruce returned to the studio to make more music, recording the album Darkness on the Edge of Town. He also threw himself into his live shows, extending his sets out to a grueling three hours and turning legions of casual fans into die-hard devotees. The albums that followed explored different themes and sounds, solidifying him as a musician who didn’t rest on his laurels, and who wasn’t afraid to take risks.
Then, in 1984, he released his best-selling album Born in the USA—which happened to kick off a particularly scandalous period of Bruce’s life.
19. He Went To A Show
Bruce’s life changed forever when he made a visit back to the Stone Pony nightclub in Asbury Park just before heading off on tour for Born in the USA. By now, the Pony had established itself as an integral part of not just the local music scene, but as a springboard to launch some of the most important artists in the area.
But when he visited that night in the early 80s, Bruce was there for a completely different reason—and what followed led to a whole lot of trouble.
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. 40th Anniversary Red Vinyl, Marc’s Sentimental Music
20. He Met A Girl
That night, Bruce Springsteen went to the Stone Pony to support his friend Bobby Bandiera. Bandiera, who’d backed Bruce’s band several times, had an equally long-standing working relationship with another singer and songwriter, Patti Scialfa. That night Bandiera and Patti were performing together at the Stone Pony. At that moment, Bruce’s life took a sharp turn down a path that he couldn’t get off of, even when he tried.
21. He Got Closer With Her
Bruce Springsteen felt an instant connection to Patti. He liked the sound of her voice and he wanted to know more about her. Already a massive superstar, he didn’t need to try hard to make an impression—but Bruce did things the old-fashioned way. He politely waited until the performance finished and introduced himself.
That simple conversation proved enough to set off a series of events that changed everything—for better and for worse.
22. He Developed A Friendship
You see, Bruce and Patti hit it off. From that initial conversation a connection began to blossom. Bruce and Patti began spending more and more time together. Their friendship seemed effortless. Therefore, it brought no one surprise when they took that friendship to the next level.
23. He Hit The Road
In early 1984, Bruce decided that he wanted to see more of Patti in his life—and he wanted to hear more of her voice. He asked Patti to join his band for his upcoming tour for Born in the USA. Patti agreed—and that moment caused everything to take an unfortunate turn.
24. He Got Closer With Patti
During the initial leg of the Born in the USA tour, something seemed to be growing between Bruce and Patti. They spent more and more time together. Everyone watching the two together agreed that sparks were flying. It seemed as if it were only a matter of time until the “just friends” became a little something more… except something got in the way before they could. Or should we say someone.
25. He Met Another Girl
The Born in the USA tour started in June of 1984. During that first leg, everyone presumed that it was only a matter of time before Bruce and Patti became an item. Enter Julianne Phillips. An actress and model, Bruce met Julianne in October of 1984—and suddenly, it appeared that whatever he had grown with Patti became entirely forgotten.
26. He Fell Quickly
If things had moved quickly between Bruce and Patti, they moved even faster between him and Julianne. A few minutes after midnight on May 13th, 1985 at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake Oswego, Oregon, they tied the knot. Bruce was 36 and Julianne was 25.
Friends who had watched the friendship and romance develop backstage between Bruce and Patti were stunned. Others who knew little about it thought this sudden marriage to a gorgeous actress and model seemed like a fairy tale. But, despite the seeming intensity of their romance, the couple couldn’t have been more different if they tried.
27. His Wife Was Too Different
Julianne called Lake Oswego home. She grew up in an affluent neighborhood with her mother and her insurance broker father. On the other hand, Bruce famously grew up in a working class family primarily living off of his mother’s secretary wage. From the outside, anyone would find it difficult to see what these two had in common—and that’s before you factor in the looming presence of Patti.
28. He Went Back To Music
Bruce released his next album, Tunnel of Love, in 1987. Unlike his previous albums, Tunnel of Love came across as slower, with songs that took the time to reflect and contemplate the complex matter of love. The album shows a maturity that some of his earlier albums may have lacked in parts, and Bruce can thank Julianne for most of that.
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love (Official Video), Bruce Springsteen
29. His Unhappiness Inspired Him
Whatever possessed Bruce and Julianne to marry so impulsively began to fade and slip through their fingers. Their marriage became complicated and Bruce expressed his unhappiness in the only way that he knew how: in music. Many of the songs from Tunnel of Love explore how he felt “trapped” in a relationship. Maybe, potentially subconsciously, Bruce already had his eyes out for an escape.
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love (Official Video), Bruce Springsteen
30. He Wanted Patti
Bruce’s team set the Tunnel of Love Express Tour to start in February 1988 and Bruce wanted one musician in particular to be on it: Patti Scialfa. However, they had a problem. Patti had her music, her plans, and her dreams. To chase Bruce around, she’d need to set those aside.
Debra L Rothenberg, Getty Images
31. He Convinced Her To Stay
Fortunately for Bruce, he convinced Patti to do just that. She postponed her solo album and when the tour set out in February of 1988, Patti joined them. However, unlike the Born in the USA tour, where Patti spent her time in the background, she now found herself front and center—making everyone ask, “Who’s that pretty redhead”?
And the show she and Bruce put on was quite the spectacle.
32. His Show Turned Heavy
A showman at heart, fans knew to expect a good show from any Bruce Springsteen concert. However, the Tunnel of Love Express tour brought Bruce into a whole new level of energy and he dragged Patti along for the ride. Only one word can be used to describe the energy on stage during the Tunnel of Love Express tour: carnal.
Goedefroit Music, Getty Images
33. He Had Energy On Stage
Many of the songs that Bruce performed during the Tunnel of Love Express tour had explicit and salacious undertones—that became overtones when performed on stage. On top of that, Patti no longer sang her vocals in the background. For several songs she stepped forward, singing center stage and often cheek to cheek with Bruce.
34. He Coaxed Patti To The Front
While Bruce initially had to coax Patti into her new role, Patti took to it willingly, blossoming under his support. As she put it, “I feel real complete working with him on stage. It's like for a moment nothing bad can happen to you. It's a wonderful give-and-take. You go through every emotion every night”.
This intoxicating formula continued night after night, coming to a head during the middle of the show.
35. He Thrived Off The Tension
This entire energy seemed to peak during the performance of “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)”, a song from Bruce’s album The River. The entire song is about the tension between a man and a woman. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Bruce decided to emphasize this tension during the middle of the performance, right?
36. He Changed Things Up
After dancing with Patti throughout the song, Bruce would return to the drum kit where a tray of water and a sponge sat. Bruce had this at all of his concerts during all his tours. Typically he drinks the water, wipes his head down, and starts again. But things took a slightly different turn during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour.
37. He Was Explicit
Instead of taking the water and clearing off his head Bruce decided to use the water to cool down another part of his body. When Bruce went back to the drum set during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, he’d loosen up his pants so he could drip the water down there before getting back on with the show.
It drove the crowd wild…and it made them speculate about what they were watching.
38. His Eyes Were Wandering
Dave Marsh, a Springsteen biographer, felt confident that everyone knew what they saw when they went to see a show during this tour. Marsh wrote, “You could have written it off just to musical magic...if you were dumb as a doorstop”. Bruce sang songs about a failed marriage and wandering eyes, while Patti stood across the stage and his wife was nowhere to be seen.
39. His Wife Was Forgotten
In contrast to the heady energy that Patti and Bruce exhibited, Julianne spent little to no time with Bruce during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour. In the early days of the tour, Julianne joined Bruce. For some of the early shows she even danced on stage during the infamous “You Can Look” performances. However, this did not last long.
40. His Wife Left
Reports from the time insist that even when Julianne attended the concerts, she did not appear engaged. When the music finished, she looked lost and even lonely backstage. Then, suddenly, she left. Supposedly, she departed to either audition for or film a movie.
However, fans began to speculate on other reasons for her departure.
41. He Began To Stray
When you put Julianne’s absence beside the growing energy that existed between Bruce and Patti, it seemed obvious what was happening. By mid-May, actions seemed to prove these theories right, as Bruce appeared on stage during his Madison Square Garden show without his wedding ring. The media noticed—and latched on to it.
42. He Made Headlines
The New York newspapers had a hay day. Headlines announcing that Bruce’s marriage was in trouble were suddenly splashed across every media outlet. However, Bruce and his team declined to respond to their requests for comment.
In June, Bruce and Patti headed to Rome in order to start the European leg of the tour—and things only got messier from there.
43. He Attracted Paparazzi
The European leg of the Tunnel of Love Express tour started with three shows in Rome. While they were there, Patti and Bruce became constant fodder for the paparazzi. It did not paint them or the fate of Bruce’s marriage in the best light.
44. He Got Caught In Photos
The first picture that surfaced in Rome saw Bruce and Patti snuggling up on a balcony in their underwear—or their nightshirts, depending on which outlet you went with. Far from a flattering image, when one assumed Bruce to still be a married man. On top of that, the photos didn’t stop coming.
45. He Needed To Say Something
While Bruce and Patti remained clothed in the second image of them caught together on the balcony, the Italian papers became convinced that they knew what was up. One paper stated, “There are no doubts…Patti and Bruce love each other”.
Whether they wanted to or not, the time had come for Bruce, Julianne, and Patti to address the situation publicly—however, Bruce still remained silent.
46. He Let His Wife Do It
On June 17, 1988, Julianne finally announced through her publicist that her marriage had come to an end. For Bruce and Patti, this seemed to only encourage the media’s feeding frenzy. All through Europe, photographers followed them attempting to decipher whether Bruce had moved on to Patti or not. Bruce’s lips remained sealed.
47. He Finally Made A Statement
If the media wanted answers, they weren’t going to get any. Bruce’s management team only divulged one small statement on the matter. In late June, after Julianne already made her announcement, they elaborated that the pair had simply grown apart, denying any reports that anything more dramatic had been at play.
Julianne echoed this announcement in an interview. Yet sadly, Julianne took the brunt of it all.
48. He Immediately Shacked Up
Julianne filed for divorce at the end of August and the relationship came to an official end in March of 1989. Bruce and Patti finished the tour and moved in together shortly after. They welcomed their first child in June of 1990 and tied the knot a year later. Since then, they have carried on, remaining happily together today.
However, the shadow of the fateful summer of 1988 remained over their relationship and lives for some time.
49. He Didn’t Care For Attention
Long after the papers were signed and the divorce was finalized, Bruce Springsteen often found himself asked to speak on the matter of his first marriage—likely because he had spoken so little on it at the time. In a 1995 interview he stated, “It's a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn't. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, 'Well, all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that's life”.
This stance did not change how he felt about his past relationship.
Bill Ebbesen, Wikimedia Commons
50. He Admired His Ex-Wife
Despite all of the drama that surrounded the circumstances of Bruce’s relationship with both Patti and Julianne, Bruce held no ill will toward Julianne. He even put some of the blame on himself for the failure of the relationship. “My first wife's one of the best people I've ever met. She's lovely, intelligent—a great person. But we were pretty different, and I realized I didn't know how to be married”.
It seemed he also didn’t know how to handle a divorce either.
51. He Admitted His Mistakes
Eventually, Bruce Springsteen found that he regretted the way that he’d handled his divorce. While he’d been preoccupied with his privacy, he’d neglected to consider how it affected Julianne as well. Many years later he stated, “I didn't protect Juli…some sort of public announcement would have been fair, but I felt overly concerned about my privacy. I handled it badly, and I still feel bad about it. It was cruel for people to find out the way they did”.
On top of it all, he still had a career to consider.
52. He Carried On
Following the mayhem that was the 80s, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if Bruce had taken a step back from the limelight. However, he did the opposite. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s and continued to make albums. Bruce released his most recent album in 2025, and intends to release another original album in 2026. He is busy working still today.
Craig ONeal, Wikimedia Commons
53. He Got Caught Up Again
Considering all the problems that his 80s love triangle sparked, few expected Bruce’s name to end up in the tabloids again, but in 2009, his name ended up in the strangest place—as a respondent in a New Jersey couple’s divorce papers. Arthur Kelly, in his filing, claimed that his wife Ann “has committed adultery with one Bruce Springsteen … at various times and places too numerous to mention”.
Bruce denied any allegations of infidelity, while Ann Kelly said that her estranged husband’s claim was made up in hopes that a “big celebrity” would want to pay him off to keep it hush-hush. Springsteen's problems with media attention went all the way back to the beginning of his career...
54. He Didn’t Want To Be Pigeonholed
Bruce Springsteen was real—and so was the music he made. But the “Bruce Springsteen” that landed on the cover of magazines and whose face was splashed across posters produced by the record company directly following the success of Born to Run was another matter. And then, when Bruce arrived to play at the iconic Hammersmith Odeon in London, it all became too much.
Bruce stalked around the venue’s lobby tearing down posters—but he also managed to pull it together and perform an absolutely legendary show, one that immortalized in a live recording which was eventually released as an album in 2006.
55. He’s Still Producing Today
Bruce Springsteen is one of the biggest names in music. His career has spanned decades and despite being in his 70s, he does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon—and his marathon three-hour shows are proof. While he has often struggled under the publicity that comes with his fame, he has grown into a man who wields his fame carefully, and often speaks out about what matters most to him. He is, quite literally, the boss.
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