“You’re about to test yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually”—Bruce Springsteen says he still has "anxiety" before every performance

Despite his many years of experience, Bruce Springsteen recently sat down and opened up about how he still gets anxious before performing on stage. While making an appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter Podcast, the 20-time Grammy Award winner got real about stage fright and how it still plays a role in all of his shows.

“[It’s] what I call anticipatory anxiety. You’re about to test yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually.”

The musician continued,

“Every night you’re going to call on all those parts of your personality and you’re going to relive them and be as alive as you can be, which is, I believe that’s what the audience pays for, how alive you can be on any given night, more than what song you’re singing or what song you don’t sing.”

In the interview, Springsteen talked about disliking his nickname, "The Boss." He stated that it stuck after his bandmates and even E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt started addressing him that way.

Springsteen on his process and 2025 schedule

Springsteen, the rock legend, is notorious for his high-octane sets that can stretch up to 4 hours despite his age and years of commitment to being on the road. He divulged to THR in the same interview that his anxiety is usually quelled by just working through the emotions on stage. He also gets his sense of calm from the E Street Band, which has been touring with the rocker for five decades.

“It’s how present you are. So there’s always some anticipation before I go out on stage, which pretty much disappears the minute I count in the band”

On the topic of slowing down his schedule, or simply just walking away from his unique brand of performance art, Springsteen immediately scoffed at the line of questioning,

“We ain’t doing no farewell tour bulls---. Jesus Christ. No farewell tour for the E Street Band!” he told the crowd during a performance in Philadelphia. Hell no… Farewell to what? Thousands of people screaming your name? Yeah, I wanna quit that. That’s it. That’s all it takes. I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”

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Springsteen has freshly announced the release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, a collection of unreleased and unheard albums featuring music he recorded between 1983 and 2018. The official release announcing Bruce Springsteen's new project states that the songs will inform his fans what the rockstar was working on and where he was at creatively in between touring and releasing some of his biggest hits; a true peek behind the curtain.

The New Jersey native currently also has a string of 16 European shows on the horizon. The shows are scheduled to start in May and culminate in July, surely thrilling news for his international fans.

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