Bruce Springsteen admits years battling depression left him ‘crushed’
Bruce Springsteen has spoken candidly about the mental health struggles that have affected him over the years.
The Boss was speaking to Vanity Fair ahead of the publication of his autobiography ‘Born To Run’ this month and admitted that depression left him “crushed”.
Bruce says his wife and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa describes his mental illness like "a freight train bearing down, loaded with nitroglycerin and running quickly out of track.”
"I was crushed between 60 and 62, good for a year and out again from 63 to 64. Not a good record,” Bruce said.
"Whoever you've been and wherever you've been, it never leaves you. I always picture it as a car. All your selves are in it. And a new self can get in, but the old selves can't ever get out. The important thing is, who's got their hands on the wheel at any given moment?"
Reflecting on how the comedown after performing can remind him of his mortality, Bruce explained: “Playing a show brings a tremendous amount of euphoria – and the danger of it is, there’s always that moment, comes every night, where you think, 'Hey, man, I’m gonna live forever.' You’re feeling all your power.
"And then you come offstage, and the main thing you realise is ‘Well, that’s over.’ Mortality sets back in. I realise there is a finite amount of time in which I’m going to continue to do what I’m doing."
Bruce also expressed his fears that he may always suffer from the disease like his late dad Doug who died in the nineties.
"You don't know the illness's parameters,” he continued. “Can I get sick enough to where I become a lot more like my father than I thought I might?"
Opening up about his relationship with dad Doug, Bruce said he his dad never told him once “I love you.”
"The best you could get was 'Love you, Pops.' 'Eh, me, too.' Even after he had a stroke and he'd be crying, he'd still go, 'Me, too.' You'd hear his voice breaking up, but he couldn't get out the words," he said.
Born To Run is released on 27th September. Bruce’s solo album, which he describes as being inspired by “pop records with a lot of strings and instrumentation", is coming out in 2017.
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> American icon and rock-n-roll legend Bruce @Springsteen is the V.F. October cover star https://t.co/QrCW2gUv41 pic.twitter.com/ymAQSAafXD > > — VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) September 6, 2016