Advertisement

arts entertainmentPop Music

Countdown to #Springsteen in Dallas: Boss' guitarist talks the E Street life and his own legacy

By Darryl Smyers, Special Contributor

Although known primarily as the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, Nils Lofgren actually had an amazing career even before he knew "the Boss." Fronting his own act, Grin, back in 1971, Lofgren also played in Neil Young's band at age 17.

Lofgren called us from a tour stop in St. Louis recently, in anticipation of Springsteen's American Airlines Center show in Dallas on April 5. The guitarist gave us a bit of insight into his E Street Band role and his own musical journey.

Advertisement

{"type":"Event","title":"Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band","_id":271617,"html":"

News Roundups

Catch up on the day's news you need to know.

Or with:

","providerType":"guidelive","providerLink":"http://www.guidelive.com/oembed"}

Advertisement

This Springsteen tour marks the anniversary of The River. Are these three-and-a-half hour shows exhausting?

I've been in the E Street Band for 32 years. I've been blessed with a very turbulent and beautiful career. It is exhausting and exhilarating. After so many years on the road, you realize that you are someone who thrives in this setting. It is a champagne problem. It is a very high-end problem to be a touring musician and have a home you miss. This is my 48th year on the road. Sitting in a hotel room alone missing my family is not enjoyable. But the shows take on an extreme focus. Do I want to play 70 or 90 minutes and rush back to some hotel room where I call my wife and family? I will play four-and-a-half hours. Yes, it is exhausting. It does beat me up because I am 64. I much prefer a longer show in spite of the exhaustion.

Do you get tired of questions about Springsteen?

Advertisement

Look, I've been blessed to work with a great variety of talented musicians, most notably Ringo Starr, Neil Young and Bruce. Probably more people do not know that I write songs and sing than do. I am grateful when people are familiar with my solo work and my old band Grin. I've recently had this unusual opportunity to do a 10-disc box set. I handpicked the best of 50 years of work. And I did this recent live album which was my wife's idea. It was a confluence of good things that led to having a new live CD, Live in the UK.

Having a 10-CD box set is quite the validation of your solo career.

It was extraordinary. For Fantasy Records to come and say they wanted to do a comprehensive box set, 10 discs with 40 bonus tracks, it was a labor of love that took two years. Dave Marsh helped edit my story that he insisted I write. It was shocking getting to do a 10-disc box set of songs without having a hit record.

The first two albums from Crazy Horse were reissued together in 2014. With that and this box set, there has been a major resurgence of your work.

One of the highlights of my life was meeting Neil Young when I was 17 and being in Crazy Horse. I loved all those guys and I still do. It was an honor to join Crazy Horse and make their first definitive record. What an extraordinary chapter for me. It was a simpler time with no videos and no internet. That led to touring with Neil and recording the album Tonight's the Night.

How did you distill your career to the fifteen songs you recorded for your live CD?

Live is a little bit different. My job with the box set took months and months of listening. When you walk out in front of an audience, that is a different animal. It is very therapeutic. It is a place that I thrive in. In my own shows, I try and do requests here and there. I try to honor that. Of course, you want to go through the entire career and catalogue and hit the high points. You try to hit all the bases emotionally and musically. You are not thinking about going through 50 years of work. You are thinking about connecting with that particular audience.

Advertisement