Bruce Springsteen and actor Jeremy Allen White appeared together on the October 2 episode of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote the new biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, which features White as the Boss.
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During their conversation, Jeremy talked about what it was like performing as Springsteen during the making of the movie. This prompted host Jimmy Kimmel to ask White, “Do you think you are now going to be asked to sing Bruce Springsteen karaoke for the rest of your life?”
The Emmy-winning star of The Bear responded, humorously, “I hadn’t even thought of that. … Like, that’s nightmare fuel you just gave me, that I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know.”
Kimmel then turned the spotlight on Springsteen, asking the rock legend if he’d ever done karaoke himself. Bruce proceeded to reveal a surprisingly negative karaoke experience he had.
“I was in London in a little bar,” Springsteen recalled. “They were doing karaoke, and I said, ‘I’m gonna get up and do some f—ing karaoke.’ … And I decided I was gonna do The Temptations ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.’”
White voiced his approval of Bruce’s song choice, saying, “Oh, hell yeah,” before the Boss finished his story.
“So, I assume [that] I’m gonna get up there, I’m gonna to sing a few notes, and this place is gonna go wild,” Springsteen continued. … I got up there, I started singing, and they thought I was just another a–hole who got up on stage and was trying to do karaoke. So it was really disappointing. I’ve never done it again.”
About “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”
“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” which was written by Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland, was a 1966 hit for The Temptations. It peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Rolling Stones’ covered the song in 1974, and their version reached No. 17 on the Hot 100. Springsteen has played “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” a handful of times in concert over the years.
Springsteen Also Discussed the Upcoming Deluxe Nebraska Reissue
As previously reported, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere focuses on the making of Bruce’s acclaimed, stripped-down 1982 solo album Nebraska. Springsteen mainly recorded the album solo on a four-track tape recorder at a makeshift home studio in New Jersey.
On October 17, a week before the movie gets its wide release, a deluxe, expanded reissue of Nebraska is scheduled to hit stores. The collection, titled Nebraska ’82, will include a bonus disc called Electric Nebraska. Electric Nebraska features alternate versions of many of the songs on Nebraska that Bruce recorded with most of the members of the E Street Band.
During his interview with Kimmel, Springsteen talked about how he didn’t recall that the electric versions of the Nebraska tunes even existed until the tracks were rediscovered in his vaults.
Bruce then noted that the movie depicts him being dissatisfied with the versions of the songs that he recorded with the E Street Band members.
As he explained to Kimmel, “In the movie, I kind of go on about how terrible the band was doing with the Nebraska material. I was sitting next to [E Street guitarist] Steve Van Zandt the other night watching the film, and I felt a little bad.”
Bruce then admitted, “[W]hen I went back and dug the stuff out, I realized that actually they played it very well.”
Nebraska ’82 can be pre-ordered now. The box set features a newly mixed version of Nebraska and the aforementioned Electric Nebraska disc, as well as various unheard outtakes and previously unreleased tracks from the sessions. It also includes a live performance of the entire Nebraska album recorded and filmed earlier in 2025.
(Courtesy of Disney/Jimmy Kimmel Live!)
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