Bruce Springsteen had a rough year in 2023. Illness seemed to plague his E Street Band. At the same time, he struggled with peptic ulcer disease. In the end, The Boss had to shut down his tour and take time to deal with his chronic medical issues. Now, he’s back on the road and ready to rock fans across the country and around the world.
The moment Springsteen and his fans had been waiting for finally came last week when he took the stage in Phoenix, Arizona. However, there was a time not so long ago when The Boss didn’t know if he would ever stand under the bright stage lights again. He feared that his peptic ulcer would keep him off the road for good.
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He recently revealed that concern in an interview with Sirius XM’s E Street Radio host Jim Rotolo.
Bruce Springsteen Worried He’d Never Sing Again
During the interview, Springsteen revealed why an ulcer was keeping him off the road. “You sing with your diaphragm. My diaphragm was hurting so badly that when I went to make the effort to sing, it was killing me,” he explained. “I literally couldn’t sing at all and that lasted for two or three months,” he added.
“Once I started singing, you know, you can rehearse singing, but your voice isn’t the same in rehearsal. You don’t have that edge of adrenaline that really pushes it into a better place,” he added. “When I had the stomach problem, one of the big problems was I couldn’t sing.”
For a time, Springsteen thought that he would suffer from this condition for the rest of his life. He worried that his singing days were over. “It took a while for the doctors to so, ‘Oh no. You’re gonna be okay.’ At first, nobody was quite saying that which made me nervous,” he said. “At the end of the day, I found some great doctors, and they straightened me out, and I can’t do anything but thank them all,” he added.
Featured Image by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation
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