Before E Street, Bruce Springsteen Was in a Heavy Metal Band

Bruce Springsteen appeared seemingly out of nowhere with his debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. In reality, he had an entire career before this that many people may have forgotten. Before he had the E Street Band, Springsteen was a member of a heavy prog-rock group.

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“I had a whole other career as a heavy-metal guitarist that never came out on record anywhere,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone in 2014. “I had a prog band, basically. Steel Mill was a heavy-metal, prog-rock, blues-based classic, sort of late-1960s, early 1970s four-piece unit. We made a lot of music.”

Despite making a lot of music, as Springsteen said, the band never released an album. His tenure lasted from 1969 to 1971, with his solo debut dropping two years later in 1973. Steel Mill also consisted of Robbin Thompson and Vinnie Roslin. Additionally, future E Street members Vini Lopez, Danny Federici, and Steve Van Zandt were part of the band as well.

Bruce Springsteen Was Once the Guitarist of the Heavy Metal Band Steel Mill Before Going Solo

Steel Mill was formed in part because of a battle of the bands competition. In 1966, Bruce Springsteen and Vini Lopez were allegedly competing in a battle of the bands, with Vinnie Roslin as a judge. Springsteen was only 16 then, but he apparently impressed Roslin enough to give him a chance in the band.

In a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, Springsteen spoke more about Steel Mill. He admitted that, as his time in the band went on, he felt that they weren’t keeping up with where he wanted to go.

“I learned,” he said. “I went some place I hadn’t been. I went into a bigger environment musically, and I learned that we were very good, but not quite as good as I thought we were. I had to think what I was going to do about that.”

From there, Springsteen went out on his own, forming the E Street Band that still backs him to this day. However, he never forgets where he started, and urges fans to find the plethora of live performances the band did.

“I never close the door on any of it,” he said in 2016. “[It] never came out on record anywhere, but there’s tons of music. If you go on YouTube, there is actually quite a bit of it there.”

Featured photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns