Bruce Springsteen Said He’s Ready for ‘Blowback’ After Announcing Political Tour
Bruce Springsteen is preparing to embark on a tour that he says will be unabashedly political. Springsteen has been vocal in his criticisms of Donald Trump and recently released a song about the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by ICE agents. He acknowledged that this may lose him fans, but he said that he doesn’t care.
Bruce Springsteen said his new tour will be political
Springsteen will soon kick off his Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour. He will play the first show at Minneapolis’ Target Center on March 31. He sees the city as the perfect place to start.
“The tour is going to be political and very topical about what’s going on in the country,” Springsteen told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Minneapolis and St. Paul, that was the place I wanted to begin it, and I wanted to end it in Washington.”
He also believes that he and his band have a responsibility to speak up about politics.
“The E Street Band is built for hard times. It always was,” he said. “These are the moments when I think we can be of real value and real worth to the community. These are moments that fill the band with purpose, so I try to fill the set list around those ideas.”
Bruce Springsteen doesn’t worry about his political views alienating fans
In this political moment, Springsteen understands that his outspokenness could lose him fans. This doesn’t concern him.
“I don’t worry about it,” he said. “My job is very simple: I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say and then people get to say what they want to say about it. Those are the rules of my game. That’s fine with me.”
He said he feels it’s more important to speak out than to retain fans who disagree with his politics.
“I don’t worry about if you’re going to lose this part of your audience,” he said. “I’ve always had a feeling about the position we play culturally, and I’m still deeply committed to that idea of the band. The blowback is just part of it. I’m ready for all that.”
He recently released a new song
Springsteen released the song “Streets of Minneapolis” following the shootings of Pretti and Good by ICE agents.
“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” Springsteen wrote in a post on Blue Sky. “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free.”
This is far from his only political song, but it’s one of his most explicitly political. In it, he calls out Trump, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem by name.
“Now they say they’re here to uphold the law / But they trample on our rights / If your skin is black or brown, my friend / You can be questioned or deported on sight / In our chants of ‘ICE out now’ / Our city’s heart and soul persists / Through broken glass and bloody tears / On the streets of Minneapolis.”
