Bruce Springsteen may be sidelined from touring because of issues with peptic ulcers, but that didn’t stop the Boss from making unannounced guest appearances over the weekend at two different events held in his home state of New Jersey.
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Asbury Park Press reports that Springsteen was a surprise participant Saturday (October 28), in a symposium held at Monmouth University that celebrated the 50th anniversary of his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, and he also was on hand Sunday (October 29) at the New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Newark, where he welcomed his wife, E Street Band singer Patti Scialfa, into the hallowed institution.
At the symposium, held at the school’s Pollak Theatre, Springsteen was interviewed by Robert Santelli, executive director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, which is located at the university.
Later, he took part in a panel discussion along with the three surviving E Street Band members who played on the album, keyboardist David Sancious, drummer Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, and bassist Gary Tallent, the latter of whom is still a member of the group.
“The album is a lovely wild card—me finally getting a chance to express myself,” Springsteen explained to Santelli. “Everything I’ve basically done for the rest of my career started on The Wild and the Innocent. It’s a lovely little record and I’m still very proud of it.”
During the panel, he talked about how he felt supported by the E Street Band while making the album. “There really weren’t any other musicians who could have captured that sound at that moment,” he said.
Springsteen also recalled that when he made his 1973 debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., he was encouraged to record more acoustic-based songs because he was signed as a singer/songwriter. With the second album, he noted, “I wanted to introduce myself as a rock ‘n’ roll performer … I knew I wanted to write basically a rock and soul music.”
At the end of the symposium, a variety of musicians, including Sancious, Lopez, and Tallent—but not Springsteen—took part in a performance of the songs from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.
Released on November 5, 1973, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle only reached No. 59 on the Billboard 200 chart, although it yielded such classic Springsteen tunes as “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).”
Meanwhile, at the 2023 New Jersey Hall of Fame ceremony, which was held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, Springsteen took to the stage to induct his wife, Scialfa, as part of the newest class of honorees.
“It’s so cool to be here tonight for my baby!” Springsteen told the audience, according to the Asbury Park Press. “I met Patti at [the famous Asbury Park music venue] the Stone Pony—where else! She was sitting in with the house band, Cats on a Smooth Surface. I heard that voice of hers and I wondered, ‘Who is that girl?’”
Springsteen went on to talk about Scialfa’s various musical achievements outside of the E Street Band, which she joined as a backing vocalist in 1984.
“If she hadn’t been married to some suck-the-air-out-of-the-room attention whore, they would be much more widely known,” Springsteen joked.
“Music is powerful,” Scialfa said while accepting the honor. “It can inform you. It can resonate back to you—to your heart—who you are, who you’d like to become. I was fortunate to work and meet with so many brilliant musicians and artists and find a piece of that world, a little piece of that world, for myself.”
Longtime E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos actor Steven Van Zandt also took part in the ceremony, inducting Sopranos creator David Chase into the Hall of Fame.
Springsteen, Scialfa, and Van Zandt also help bring the ceremony to a close, joining pop singer Tony Orlando, who also was inducted during the event, for a performance of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.”
Visit APP.com for a full recap of the ceremony.
(Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Comedy Central)
