Bruce Springsteen’s Upcoming Solo Album Won’t Be Anything Like ‘Nebraska’
Bruce Springsteen's next studio project will be a solo album, but it won't follow in the stripped-down acoustic tradition of classics like 1982's Nebraska.
“It’s a solo record, more of a singer-songwriter kind of record,” Springsteen told Vanity Fair, adding he's been inspired lately by the '60s-era collaborations of Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell, “pop records with a lot of strings and instrumentation. So the record is somewhat in that vein.”
The as-yet-untitled album, set for release sometime next year, will be his first with all-new songs since 2012's Wrecking Ball. Springsteen collected a group of cover tunes, reworked older songs and sessions leftovers for High Hopes in 2014.
In the meantime, Springsteen said he's overcome an issue with his neck that required surgery. Suffering from chronic left-side numbness that was making it difficult to play guitar, he underwent a scary-sounding procedure three years ago in which his vocal cords were temporarily pushed to the side so that new disks could be inserted. He was unable to sing for months. He also noted that his 91-year-old mother, Adele, has been dealing with Alzheimer's disease.
Springsteen has busied himself not just with touring – the E Street Band's River Tour concludes on Sept. 14 in Foxborough, Mass., after more than 75 concerts – but also constructing a long-awaited autobiography. Born to Run, due this month from Simon and Schuster, deals explicitly with Springsteen's bouts of depression – something that caused wife Patti Scialfa some discomfort. “I knew I was gonna ‘go there’ in the book,” Springsteen said. “I had to find the roots of my own troubles and issues — and the joyful things that have allowed me to put on the kind of shows that we put on.”
About to turn 67 later this month, Springsteen still finds his “trustiest form of self-medication” during marathon shows that always build to the emotional high point of "Born to Run," the ageless track that gives his memoir its name. Springsteen said he's never grown tired of playing it.
“A good song gathers the years in,” Springsteen noted. “It’s why you can sing it with such conviction 40 years after it’s been written. A good song takes on more meaning as the years pass by.”
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