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Friday 21 July 2023

Bruce Springsteen

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Motodrom 68766 Hockenheim, Germany +49 6205 9500

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Doors open: 19:00

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• Jul 22, 2023

Video Post: Bruce Springsteen, Hockenheim 7/21/23

1. No Surrender

3. Prove It All Night

4. Letter To You

5. The Promised Land

6. Out In The Street

7. Darlington County

8. Working On The Highway

9. Kitty's Back

10. Nightshift

11. Mary's Place

12. The River

13. Last Man Standing

14. Backstreets

15. Because The Night

16. She’s The One

17. Wrecking Ball

18. The Rising

19. Badlands

20. Thunder Road

21. Born To Run

22. Bobby Jean

23. Glory Days

24. Dancing In The Dark

25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

26. I’ll See You in My Dreams

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Bruce Springsteen Concert Setlists & Tour Dates

Springsteen & e street band 2024 world tour, bruce springsteen, upcoming shows.

• Date and Venue Doors Scheduled
• May 05 2024 Principality Stadium Cardiff, Wales Doors 4:00 PM  –  Start time: 5:37 PM (Est.) 4:00 PM 5:37 PM Estimated
• May 09 2024 Boucher Road Playing Fields Belfast, Northern Ireland Add time Add time Add times
• May 12 2024 Nowlan Park Kilkenny, Ireland Add time Add time Add times
• May 16 2024 Pairc Ui Chaoimh Cork, Ireland Add time Add time Add times
• May 19 2024 Croke Park Dublin, Ireland Add time Add time Add times
• May 22 2024 Stadium of Light Sunderland, England Add time Add time Add times
• May 25 2024 Orange Vélodrome Marseille, France Add time Add time Add times
• May 28 2024 Prague Letňany Airport Prague, Czechia  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jun 01 2024 Stadio Giuseppe Meazza Milan, Italy Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 03 2024 Stadio Giuseppe Meazza Milan, Italy Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 12 2024 Estadio Metropolitano Madrid, Spain Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 14 2024 Estadio Metropolitano Madrid, Spain Add time  –  Scheduled: 9:00 PM Add time Add times 9:00 PM
• Jun 17 2024 Estadio Metropolitano Madrid, Spain Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 20 2024 Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Barcelona, Spain Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 22 2024 Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Barcelona, Spain Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 27 2024 Goffertpark Nijmegen, Netherlands  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jun 29 2024 Goffertpark Nijmegen, Netherlands  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jul 02 2024 Festivalpark Werchter, Belgium  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jul 05 2024 Heinz von Heiden Arena Hanover, Germany  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jul 09 2024 Dyrskuepladsen Odense, Denmark  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jul 12 2024 Olympiastadion Helsinki, Finland Doors 5:00 PM  –  Start time: 6:37 PM (Est.) 5:00 PM 6:37 PM Estimated
• Jul 15 2024 Friends Arena Solna, Sweden  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jul 18 2024 Friends Arena Solna, Sweden  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Jul 21 2024 Dokken Bergen, Norway Add time Add time Add times
• Jul 25 2024 Wembley Stadium London, England Add time Add time Add times
• Jul 27 2024 Wembley Stadium London, England Doors 7:00 PM  –  Start time: 8:37 PM (Est.) 7:00 PM 8:37 PM Estimated
• Aug 15 2024 PPG Paints Arena Pittsburgh, PA, USA  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Aug 18 2024 PPG Paints Arena Pittsburgh, PA, USA  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Aug 21 2024 Citizens Bank Park Philadelphia, PA, USA  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Aug 23 2024 Citizens Bank Park Philadelphia, PA, USA  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Sep 07 2024 Nationals Park Washington, DC, USA  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Sep 13 2024 Oriole Park at Camden Yards Baltimore, MD, USA  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Sep 15 2024 Sea.Hear.Now Festival 2024 Asbury Park, NJ, USA Add time Add time Add times
• Oct 31 2024 Centre Bell Montreal, QC, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 03 2024 Scotiabank Arena Toronto, ON, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 06 2024 Scotiabank Arena Toronto, ON, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 09 2024 Canadian Tire Centre Ottawa, ON, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 13 2024 Canada Life Centre Winnipeg, MB, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 16 2024 Scotiabank Saddledome Calgary, AB, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 19 2024 Rogers Place Edmonton, AB, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times
• Nov 22 2024 Rogers Arena Vancouver, BC, Canada  –  Find tickets Add time Tickets Add time Add times

Bruce Springsteen at American Music Honors 2024

• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
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Bruce Springsteen at Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH, USA

• Lonesome Day
• Prove It All Night
• No Surrender
• Letter to You
• The Promised Land
• Spirit in the Night
• Hungry Heart
• Streets of Fire
• I'm Goin' Down

Bruce Springsteen at JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY, USA

• Darlington County
• Growin' Up
• Atlantic City
• My City of Ruins

Bruce Springsteen at MVP Arena, Albany, NY, USA

• Candy's Room
• Adam Raised a Cain
• Racing in the Street

Bruce Springsteen at Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT, USA

• Roll of the Dice

Bruce Springsteen at Kia Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA

• Open All Night
• Death to My Hometown
• Tougher Than the Rest
• Sherry Darling

Bruce Springsteen at Chase Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

• Light of Day
• Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Something in the Night

Bruce Springsteen at Pechanga Arena, San Diego, CA, USA

• Don't Play That Song (You Lied)
• Mary's Place

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Most played songs

• Born to Run ( 1825 )
• Thunder Road ( 1530 )
• The Promised Land ( 1486 )
• Badlands ( 1287 )
• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out ( 1192 )

More Bruce Springsteen statistics

100 gecs 3 Mile Island 3JS The 413s 4onthefloor The 4onthefloor 8TRACK BAND 9sundays A-Meezing Coverband Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties Jennie Abrahamson AC/TC Adamantium Bryan Adams Ryan Adams Advance Base Afterhours Afterpartees Manuel Agnelli The Airborne Toxic Event Tim Akkerman Laith Al-Deen Alabama Shakes Gli Alberi Jason Aldean Art Alexakis Alien Clouds Alkaline Trio Nicholas Allbrook John Allen Nathan Allen Peter Allen Will Allinson The Allman Betts Band Devon Allman Band Altameda The Altered Hours AM Taxi The Amazons American Aquarium American Babies Vanessa Amorosi Tori Amos Amsterdam Ana Carolina Matt Andersen Jason Anderson Joe Anderton Rick Andrade Andreas Millradt

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Artists covered

? and the Mysterians [traditional] The A’s AC/DC The Ad Libs Bryan Adams Thomas S. Allen The Animals Arcade Fire The Archies Artists United Against Apartheid Burt Bacharach Bentley Ball Hank Ballard and the Midnighters The Band Dave Bartholomew The Beach Boys The Beatles Bee Gees Irving Berlin Chuck Berry Richard Berry Big Maybelle Bill Deal & The Rhondels Bon Jovi Gary “U.S.” Bonds Mars Bonfire Booker T. & the MG’s David Bowie The Box Tops John Henry ‘Perry’ Bradford Brinsley Schwarz James Brown Les Brown and His Orchestra Roy Brown Harry C. Browne Jackson Browne Boudleaux Bryant Tim Buckley Solomon Burke Robert Burns The Byrds Glen Campbell Johnny Cash The Champs Harry Chapin Ray Charles Los Chimberos Clarence Clemons & The Red Bank Rockers Claudine Clark

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22,026 people have seen Bruce Springsteen live.

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Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band alive and well in 3-plus hours of thunderous hits

The pent-up demand for Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band had put ardent fans on edge.

Would the Boss' energy be the same after the rocker was forced to cancel last year's show in March due to illness and then a rescheduled performance in September due to a peptic ulcer?

Did the 74-year-old still have the stamina to navigate a stage for more than three hours? To gyrate with his guitar and hit the high notes of ballads and rock classics? To remember the lyrics as he's done for more than four decades in over 1,300 concerts with the band?

The answer, from about 20,000 devotees at Sunday's concert at Nationwide Arena, was a resounding, deafening "Yes." It was the band's first show in Columbus since 2016.

The tone was set in the opening bars of "Youngstown," a nod to the Rust Belt factories that build the weaponry "that won this country's wars," but then died off to leave empty shells and unemployment. A searing guitar solo by Nils Lofgren infused the song with powerful shards of despair.

And like the canon blast after a Columbus Blue Jackets' goal, "Lonesome Days" followed, with a jarring rim shot by drummer Max Weinberg, a percussive human metronome throughout the sell-out concert that lasted about three hours and 10 minutes.

Springsteen, in a short-sleeve denim shirt, black vest and purple tie, appeared to relish the arena crowd. With eyes often closed, he channeled deeply personal songs like "The Promised Land," The Rising," and "Ghosts."

More: From Cher to Ozzy Osbourne, see the 2024 list of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees

His grimacing was not from bad joints, but during his guitar solos, thrashing the strings during extended versions of favorites such as "Streets of Fire."

He didn't pause much between songs, often exchanging one guitar for another by tossing it to a stagehand, as Weinberg continued to strafe the crowd with nonstop rhythmic transitions.

During "Spirit in the Night," Springsteen graciously walked behind the stage to focus on those seated behind the band, sauntering at times for effect.

He ended up in front, resting his legs on the edge of the stage and his back against saxophonist Jake Clemons, whose uncle Clarence Clemons, also a sax player, was one of Springsteen's closest friends.

While mortality and distant youth were themes that may have resonated with the older crowd, many of whom were in high school or college when Springsteen blasted into stardom in the late 1970s and early '80s, there were also some younger fans.

Michelle Grinestaff and her husband, Jared Schuetter, brought their daughters, Claudia, 14, and Vivian, 12, both of whom had memorized many of Bruce's hits.

"She's been playing Springsteen their entire lives," said Schuetter of his wife.

Grinestaff's attraction followed her father Jerry's, a rabid fan who, two years ago died of pulmonary fibrosis. The night before his passing, she told him she really wanted him to come to last year's concert with the girls. "He said to just make sure you have a good time," she recalled, halting to wipe a tear.

She vividly recalls that Springsteen's "Racing in the Street" was playing while to spoke to her dad. She hoped she'd hear it Sunday night.

Photos: Taylor Swift played 5 concerts in Columbus before release of The Tortured Poets Department

Sure enough, the concert's 19th song, "Racing in the Street," was a beautiful rendition of love, loss and redemption with exquisite interplay between Roy Bittan's piano and Charles Giordano's organ. The audience quickly silenced, seemingly in hushed awe of Springsteen's meticulous alchemy of music and lyrics, considered by many among his best work.

The Boss still is in top form, telling the audience that his little "bellyache" from last year is a memory. "It's all good now," he said. He even skipped across the stage at one point during "Hungry Heart."

Springsteen seems to thrive on the adulation, but not in a selfish manner. He's keenly aware of audience temperament. And knowing when to end a marathon show is about having empathy for the crowd, which stood most of the night.

Typical of the band's recent encores, the iconic "Born to Run" led a string of hits, including "Rosalita (Come out Tonight)," "Bobby Jean," "Dancing in the Dark" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."

Full, bright arena lighting illuminated the crowd during a medley of oldie covers, including a Detroit medley, "Devil with the Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly and C.C. Rider," among others.

Brothers Darrell and Don Miller, of Hilliard, both in their early 60s, recalled before the concert training for high school basketball with a coach playing the song "Born to Run" endlessly to inspire track workouts.

"It's the one song not on my playlist," said Don, "because I had to run laps to that thing for two years."

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Darrell couldn't help wonder how much longer Springsteen can keep running.

"He's going overseas. This might be his ride off into the sunset," he said.

The blast furnace of a performance is the tour's last in the U.S. as the band now heads to Great Britain to begin its European tour. It returns in late summer, including two shows in Pittsburgh on Aug. 15 and 18.

Toward the show's final encore, "I'll See You in my Dreams," from his 2020 album, "Letter to You," Springsteen bent over in feigned (or likely real) exhaustion.

"I don't think you got anything left," he challenged the crowd, which answered in a deafening roar. "Are you saying you can outlast the E Street Band?"

A test of an artist's emotional reach is often found in the most distant seats. In the upper bowl, at the far end of the Nationwide stage, fans could be seen dancing, pumping their arms and waving.

Springsteen looked skyward, opened his eyes and smiled broadly.

Springsteen's setlist

• "Youngstown," tour debut; first time since 2017
• "Lonesome Day"
• "Prove It All Night"
• "No Surrender"
• "Letter to You"
• "The Promised Land"
• "Spirit in the Night"
• "Hungry Heart"
• "Trapped," Jimmy Cliff cover
• "Streets of Fire," tour debut, first time since 2016
• "I'm Goin' Down," tour debut, first time since 2017
• "Nightshift," Commodores cover
• "Racing in the Street," sign request
• "Last Man Standing," acoustic, with Barry Danielian on trumpet
• "Backstreets"
• "Because the Night," Patti Smith Group cover
• "She's the One"
• "Wrecking Ball"
• "The Rising"
• "Thunder Road"
• "Born to Run"
• "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
• "Bobby Jean"
• "Dancing in the Dark," followed by band introductions
• "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
• "Detroit Medley"
• "Twist and Shout," The Top Notes cover

Encore No. 2

• "I'll See You in My Dreams," solo acoustic

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Springsteen jams with Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and more in N.J. (VIDEOS)

• Updated: Apr. 27, 2024, 8:24 a.m. |
• Published: Apr. 25, 2024, 11:00 a.m.

John Mellencamp (left) and Bruce Springsteen (right) performing at the American Music Honors in Monmouth University Courtesy of Sammy Steinlight

• Saleah Blancaflor | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Hot off the latest leg of his ongoing concert tour, Bruce Springsteen returned to the Jersey Shore Wednesday night for a jam session with rock nobles.

The Boss was in West Long Branch, at his own Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center For American Music at Monmouth University, where the second annual American Music Honors was held, hosted by Brian Williams.

The 2024 honorees were John Mellencamp , Jackson Browne (inducted by Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau ), Mavis Staples (inducted by Darlene Love ), and Dion DiMucci (inducted by Steven Van Zandt ).

Springsteen inducted Mellencamp and the two performed Mellencamp’s hit “Small Town.” Bruce went on to play “Glory Days” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and closed the show with the old hymn “ Will The Circle Be Unbroken ,” which was led by Staples. Steven Van Zandt’s Disciples Of Soul was the house band for the evening.

This isn’t the first time longtime friends Springsteen and Mellencamp have performed together. In March, Springsteen surprised a crowd during Mellencamp’s concert at Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center .

Springsteen will be back at the Shore in September, headlining the sprawling Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park, on the sand before about 35,000 fans.

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Saleah Blancaflor may be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter at @saleyley and Instagram .

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Bruce Springsteen Shares Funny Memory About His First Show in Syracuse from 1973

T he Boss is at it again! Bruce Springsteen has shared the latest in a series of videos promoting upcoming shows on his current U.S. tour with the E Street Band.

In the new clip, Springsteen was joined by founding E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent to address the fans in Syracuse, New York, where Bruce and the gang will play their next show, on April 18.

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“Syracuse! First time I came to Syracuse was 1973,” Springsteen said, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tallent. “And you are looking at the only two members of the E Street Band that were there, 51 f—ing years ago!”

Tallent then piped in, sharing how Springsteen was introduced at the show.

“They said, ‘Welcome Bruce Spring-stine,” he recalled, to which Bruce added, “That’s right. It was ‘welcome Bruce Spring-stine.’”

As he’s done in previous video messages, Springsteen then sent out a joking warning to fans about what they can expect if they come to the concert.

[RELATED: Bruce Springsteen Jokingly Warns Albany Fans, “The E Street Band Is Coming To Destroy Your City”]

“Bruce Spring-stine’s coming back, 50 years later,” he said. “And guess what. Me, this gentleman, Garry W. Tallent, and the rest of the E Street Band have plans to destroy your city and rock you into the ground!”

The Boss’ comical threat prompted Tallent to respond, “Ouch!”

Springsteen ended the clip by saying, “We warned you.”

As with Springsteen’s previous promo clip , the new video was shot by his sister, veteran photographer Pamela Springsteen.

More About the Syracuse Show

The Syracuse concert will take place at the JMA Wireless Dome, formerly known as the Carrier Dome. The venue is the home of Syracuse University’s football, basketball, and lacrosse teams.

The last time Springsteen performed in Syracuse was in 1992. The most recent show he played with the E Street Band in the city was in 1985. Both concerts took place at the Carrier Dome.

Springsteen’s Upcoming Tour Plans

The Syracuse show is the next-to-last gig on Springsteen and the E Street Band’s current tour leg. The trek winds down on April 21 in Columbus, Ohio. The group then will visit Europe in May, June, and July, before mounting a second U.S. leg in August and September.

Following that leg, Springsteen and the band will launch a Canadian trek that runs from late October to late November. Visit BruceSpringsteen.net to check out his full itinerary.

Tickets for the concerts are available via a variety of outlets, including StubHub .

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The post Bruce Springsteen Shares Funny Memory About His First Show in Syracuse from 1973 appeared first on American Songwriter .

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Bon Jovi on the Band’s New Doc, If They’ll Ever Tour Again & Driving Around New Jersey With Bruce Springsteen

Out tomorrow (April 26) on Hulu, Thank You, Goodnight unpacks the band's 40 year history and confronts an uncertain future.

By Katie Bain

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Bon Jovi: The Billboard Cover Story

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“When I can do two-and-a-half hours a night, four nights a week and not think about it — the way that I did for the first 30 years of our career — then I’ll say, ‘Sure, I’d love the opportunity,'” says the group’s frontman, still a dreamboat at 62.

The opportunity in question is touring. On the precipice of releasing its 16th studio album, Forever , Bon Jovi isn’t sure they’ll hit the road behind the album, out June 7. The wildcard element is JBJ’s voice, the same one that implored us to live for the fight when that’s all that we’ve got on “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and melted a billion hearts on “Bed of Roses” — and which has been under heavy repair since the vocal difficulties Bon Jovi has experienced for years necessitated a major vocal cord surgery in the summer of 2022. The procedure left him unsure if he’d ever be able to sing about going down in a blaze of glory, or living while he’s alive, or anything at all, ever again.

This issue isn’t what the band’s new documentary , Thank You, Goodnight was intended to be about. The stakes, however, became quickly apparent to director Gotham Chopra when he started filming a few years back.

“The more time I spent with Jon, I was like, ‘So wait, what’s going on with your voice?'” Chopra says over Zoom. “Jon said he’d been struggling with it for a couple of years, and didn’t know what was going to happen — because the shows we were filming might be the end of the line — but that that wasn’t for the documentary.”

This narrative thus became the through line of the four-part documentary, premiering tomorrow (April 26) on Hulu. Helmed by Chopra, whose previous work includes the 2021 Tom Brady docuseries Man in the Arena , the Bon Jovi project was one, Chopra says, “where nothing was off limits.” It unpacks the Bon Jovi story from its earliest days in Bon Jovi’s native Sayreville, New Jersey to the arena-rock juggernaut of the Slippery When Wet era to the band’s lineup changes — to Jon Bon Jovi scanning his neck with specialized lasers in an attempt to shore up his voice. Interview subjects include the band (Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Brian, drummer Tico Torres and newer members Hugh McDonald, Phil X and Everett Bradley), along with former manager Doc McGhee, songwriter Desmond Child, good pal Bruce Springsteen and Richie Sambora, the guitar-wielding yin to Jon Bon Jovi’s yang, who left the group in 2013.

“Obviously early on, I was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get Richie Sambora. We can’t do this without Richie’,” Chopra recalls, “Jon was like, ‘Oh, yeah, you gotta get Richie Sambora. You can’t do this without him.'”

With Sambora’s departure serving as one of the documentary’s central tensions, Chopra — who interviewed each person involved in the film separately — eventually even captured an onscreen apology from the guitarist.

“In the film he says, ‘I don’t regret doing it. I regret the way I did do it; I apologize to the guys for that,'” recalls Chopra. “I think the guys and Jon were pretty affected by that… All of these things become an act of therapy in some ways.”

“What he was going through wasn’t easy,” says Chopra. “There were times on that tour when he was struggling, and he was in his dressing room, and he’d be like, ‘get the f–k out of my room’ and I’d get the f–k out of his room — then gradually find my way back in after five or 10 minutes.”

This level of intimacy, along with frank, often funny and frequently poignant interviews (in the last episode Bon Jovi gets choked up about his love of songwriting) and a barrage of archival footage, combines to offer a film that even hardcore Bon Jovi fans will likely learn something from. Here, Jon Bon Jovi and Torres discuss the documentary, as well as the future of the band.

Jon, the film’s director Gotham Chopra mentioned that there were times where he was filming and you didn’t necessarily want him in the room. How vulnerable was the documentary experience?

Jon: We had to trust him as the director in order to get what we wanted, which was the truth. One thing we all agreed upon, on day one, was we didn’t want a vanity piece. [We wanted] to tell the honest-to-God ups and downs of life behind the curtain. Nobody anticipated the health issues with me, and so that was the wild card in this. But I trusted him.

Tico: Gotham is a very spiritual person, and after a while you forget he’s there. But his questions are very spiritual in nature, and somehow he opens you up to be honest with yourself. You don’t find that in regular interviews.

Jon, so much of documentary focuses on this narrative about your voice. What was it like during this uncertain time, to also be bearing it to the camera?

The surgery was nearly two years ago, and obviously you’ve recorded an album since undergoing it. How are you feeling now?

Jon: There is still uncertainty about the outcome 22 months after the surgery, although I’m optimistic. And for the record, I can say — because now I’m speaking to press and need to clarify — I’m very capable of singing again. It’s just that the bar for us is two-and-a-half hours a night, four nights a week. I have to get to that level again before we’ll tour. So being vulnerable I was never afraid of. Sharing it now with the public, it’s out of my control, because that’s what we all signed up for. And like T said, Gotham has a kind of spiritual approach to things, so it was never combative. I trusted him.

Tico: It was difficult for the band. To see one of your brothers suffering and going through something, and he’s the hardest working guy there is. Every day he works hard to get back. Right after the operation, speaking to him, once he could speak, he sounded way lower [in register] than me. And we’re a band, so we worry about each other. I think the fact that the documentary was capturing that as well is important. Because we’re in it together. We’re gonna back him up no matter what.

Gotham took the approach of interviewing everyone separately. What was it like to finally see Richie’s footage?

What was it like getting an apology from him?

Jon: I don’t need an apology… I don’t need an apology. It’s not about that.

Tico: Remember, you’re a band. We grew up together. And like I said before, when somebody’s hurting, you care about him… Alec as well, our beloved bass player, when he left, it’s a void. And you know he passed away just a couple of years ago. It’s family. It does affect you. As a whole, it affects us. There’s a comeback from that. I think the writing process and the recording process as a band helps you get that out, because it’s emotion.

Jon, in the doc you say that in the Slippery When Wet era, the band had found another rung of the ladder to climb, and obviously there was much more to go after that. Given everything you’ve done, do you see more rungs for Bon Jovi? Where is there left to go?

Jon: It’s not about numbers at all. I would love the opportunity to be whole, so that when we would go out on that stage, we could do those 18 albums and pick any song I want throughout that catalog on a nightly basis, the way I used to be able to do. That’s where I have left to go. When we’ve done those kind of shows… when we opened the O2 Arena in London and we did 12 or 15 nights, and we did 90 different songs over the course of the nights — that’s the bar that I need to get back to.

What are your current daily practices for getting yourself back to that place?

There’s some great unheard music in the documentary — I’m specifically thinking of a song called “Cadillac Man” that you wrote for the 1990 Robin Williams movie of the same name. Is there a chance that any of this archival music gets released?

Jon: Yes. One thing that we have always known, and our deep fan base knows as well, is that we always write 30 songs to get 10. And so there’s always been a backlog of material that’s been unreleased. There’s no shortage of it. So I think that we stumbled on 30 or 40 songs that no one’s heard, and they’ll all come out, yeah.

So we get new music from the Slippery When Wet heyday era Bon Jovi?

Jon: Slippery When Wet, New Jersey, Keep the Faith . All the records.

Is there a timeline for that?

Jon: No. No one’s actually even addressed it with me yet. The archiving was still going on simultaneously to the mastering and the album cover and the video and all that kind of stuff… But we know what we’ve got. It’ll happen during the course of the release of the album.

That’s incredibly exciting.

Jon: Yeah, there’s some really good songs that I can’t believe didn’t make those records.

Jon, there’s this great moment in the documentary when you share about going for long car rides with Bruce Springsteen, and you both leaving your phones at home and just driving around New Jersey and talking. What can you tell us about the last drive?

Yeah, not too many.

So yeah, we often do it, and it’s some of my most treasured memories. People have seen us along the way. The first five, six, seven times, nobody would have known. But then this time we went for an ice cream cone, or this time we went for a drink, or this time we were stopped at a light. So the sightings of Sasquatch have happened. [ Laughs. ]

I was also struck by the part of the doc where you were all talking about what your success could afford you in terms of spending one-upmanship. Like, “You bought me a car? I’m going to buy you two cars” or “We need 16 pinball machines on this tour.” Is there one extravagance from those days that sticks out to you?

Jon: There was silliness. There were absolutely cars and art and toys — because you could, and we took full advantage of it.

Through documentary you all got to review 40 years of your own personal style. Was there one look from each of yourselves that made you think, “Oh my God, I looked amazing”?

Jon: No, I take the opposite. My baby pictures were public, yours were not. We still have to suffer some of those looks. It could have been worse, but you know, some of those baby pictures were tough to look at.

Tico: I mean, if you take the clothes away, we definitely were better looking and younger. But the clothing was much to be desired. Even the haircuts were a little like, “I wish we didn’t do that.”

Some of that style has come back around though.

Jon: Oh, yes. You sit around now your kids and you go, “Those torn jeans? Let me tell you where all this stuff comes from that you’re doing.” When I see parachute pants and Capezios come back though, I’m running for the hills. [ Laughs. ]

Tico: I think we’re living the joy now. Jon’s been through a lot, and of course everybody goes through that pain with him. The joy is the revival. Doing a record together is cleansing. Jon’s lyrics — and I’m not a lyricist; I don’t listen to lyrics — but this is one of the few records where I listen to every one of them, because they just grabbed me. There was a lot of joy in making this record. I think we’re enjoying it. Jon, what do you think?

Jon: Well, we are. I’ll give you a great example: when we’re at these rehearsals and we’re just marking the progress that I’m making on a monthly basis. There’s no miracles, but when I look around the room and not once does the band sit there and go, “I don’t want to be here.” Or “I don’t want to play that song again.” That to me is love on a whole other level.

We know we’re not going out on the road tomorrow. We know we’re not being paid to sit in this rehearsal space. But the guys are like, “Of course I’ll be there. Let’s go. Let’s do it again.” Or if I crash and burn, they go, “Okay, I traveled all this way and we played an hour before I’ve gotta cool it.” Nobody has cursed me for it. They’re like, “We’re with you.” That’s the love of family and band and brotherhood that no presents, no cars, no art, no silly kids’ stuff could ever, ever replace.

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Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse strike heart of gold at tour-opening San Diego concert

The concert began with an epic, 15-minute version of ‘Cortez The Killer’ that featured extra lyrics recently unearthed by Young. Guitarist-singer Micah Nelson, Willie’s son, very ably assumed the role in Crazy Horse of Nils Lofgren, now on tour with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.

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When Neil Young sang “rock and roll will never die” near the conclusion of his tour-opening LOVE EARTH concert with Crazy Horse Wednesday in San Diego, you believed him.

Those words, from his 1978 song, “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black),” sounded like a defiant vow in the face of possible obsolescence 46 years ago. Now, they are a statement of fact from a proud maverick who sounds more committed than ever, even — or, rather, especially — at a time when rock is increasingly becoming a niche genre pushed aside by formulaic pop, hip-hop and dance-music.

At 78, Young remains a staunch keeper of the flame whose passion for music burns as bright as ever. If anyone thinks this veteran singer, songwriter and guitarist is ready to kick back in his old age, he and his band immediately and convincingly refuted such notions with their powerful, nearly two-hour performance at SDSU’s Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre. (They are set to perform a second sold-out show at the same venue Thursday night.)

Young and his three-man band opened with “Cortez the Killer,” an epic number from their 1975 album, “Zuma.” But this was no sentimental journey down nostalgia lane, nor was it a tentative, shake-off-the-dust run through.

Their carefully calibrated version of “Cortez” built to a series of powerful climaxes Monday and lasted 15 minutes — nearly twice as long as the original on “Zuma.” The song began with an opening guitar jam that lasted 7 minutes before Young’s reedy vocals commenced. For good measure, near the conclusion of “Cortez,” he sang — for the first time anywhere in concert — a missing verse he recently came upon that had been cut from the 1975 recording.

The unearthed lyrics provided additional depth and a palpable sense of despair to Young’s tour de force song about Hernán Cortez, the bloody Spanish conqueror of Mexico’s Aztec Empire: I floated on the water / I ate that ocean wave / Two weeks after the slaughter / I was living in a cave / They came too late to get me / But there’s no one here to set me free / From this rocky grave / To that snowed-out ocean wave.

The next selection was the buoyant “Cinnamon Girl,” a choice cut from 1969’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” the first album Young and Crazy Horse made together. It clocked in at a crisp three minutes.

The rest of the concert included several other extended jams, with “Down by the River” and “Love and Only Love” both clocking in at a glorious 16 minutes (but not lasting one second too long). Conversely, Young’s tender solo acoustic versions of “Comes a Time,” “Heart of Gold” and “Human Highway” were each delivered with admirable concision.

The manner in which he alternated between longer and shorter selections served as a master class on how to pace a concert to build momentum and achieve maximum dynamic tension and release.

The final encore was an eight-minute rendition of “My My Hey Hey (Into the Black),” whose line There’s more to the picture than meets the eye could be a synopsis of Young’s career and his dogged determination to do things his way, every time, no matter what the trends of the day may be.

At SDSU, Young and his longtime Crazy Horse compadres — bassist/singer Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, both 80 — were focused and in sync from start to finish. They were joined by guitarist/singer Micah Nelson, 33, who on Monday had played a key role accompanying his father, Willie Nelson, at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park.

Review: Willie Nelson’s San Diego concert defined, not defied, the passing of time. He turns 91 on April 29.

The American music-master and his band warmed up a damp, cool evening at The Shell. David Sanger, the drummer in opening act Asleep At The Wheel, took the ferry back to his family’s home in Coronado after the show.

April 23, 2024

Micah Nelson was performing in place of Crazy Horse charter member Nils Lofgren, who is now on tour in The E Street Band with his other longtime employer, Bruce Springsteen. Those are big shoes to fill, but Nelson was so in sync with Young you’d think they had been musical partners for decades.

The stage was bedecked with the giant, faux Fender guitar amplifiers, speaker cabinets and road cases Young and Crazy Horse used on their 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour. There were no video screens on the stage, the better for the audience — which included basketball great Bill Walton and Las Vegas Raiders NFL team owner Mark Davis — to focus completely on the music at hand.

The SDSU concert — the start of Young and Crazy Horse’s first major tour together in a decade — came a year after Young’s mesmerizing solo concert here at The Shell. Wednesday’s performance was even more mesmerizing, in large part because of the musical empathy between the four musicians.

Review: Neil Young delivered singular San Diego solo concert by digging deep for new/old musical gold

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee performed his first San Diego solo concert in 31 years, mixing classics with deep, deep album cuts

July 12, 2023

When they locked into a groove, which was often, they seemed to be of one mind. And it’s difficult to think of any other rock band of any vintage that can gain as much traction from so many slow-paced songs.

With few exceptions, Young’s biting guitar solos contained a minimum of notes, but he made each one count, repeatedly going into a zone where feeling and intensity trump quantity. Or, to invoke the title of Young’s 1988 album: “This Note’s For You.”

Apart from a heartfelt spoken tribute to the late David Briggs — the producer of many of Young’s albums with (and without) Crazy Horse — Young’s comments to the audience were along the lines of: “Thank you” and “How ya doin’?”

Otherwise, he let his music speak for him, and it spoke volumes.

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