Steven Van Zandt discusses future of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: “You never know”
E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt has looked ahead to the future, admitting he doesn’t know how much longer they’ll continue touring with Bruce Springsteen.
On July 27th, Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their latest tour to a triumphant close at Wembley Stadium, performing to 90,000 fans in London. Two days earlier, they had performed another sell-out show at the iconic venue, and despite Springsteen now being 74, he put in an age-defying display on both nights.
While most rockers of a certain age choose to slow down, Springsteen has stepped up his touring in recent years, and looks to continue playing live for his long as his body can maintain doing so. Although the European shows are now over for 2024, after a brief break, the band will return to the road in August and extensively play throughout North America over the next few months.
Furthermore, Springsteen has already announced he’ll be returning to European shores in 2025, and so far, he’s set to visit Marseille, Prague and Milan with more dates likely to be added to the jaunt in due course.
The annual touring routine that Springsteen and the E-Street Band have stumbled upon, seeing them play North America in the winter and Europe in the summer, suits Van Zandt greatly, who is content with carrying on forever, but knows the decision could be out of his hands.
During a new interview with The Telegraph, Van Zandt said of their future: “You never know. I mean, we treat every show like it could be the last show, and we’ve been doing that for 50 years. But the audience is still there, and we can see them getting younger every year.”
The guitarist is thoroughly enjoying this twilight period of their career, adding, “I don’t see the end anywhere in sight, to be honest, especially in Europe, where we’re bigger than we’ve ever been. I think we can play every summer for evermore, man. I love that the Stones are still out there. Because as long as they’re out there, man, we’re still the new kids on the block, right? So I’m good with that.”
While they’re less prolific than previously in the studio, playing live is their home, and the thrill of rocking out in stadiums has yet to become tiresome to the New Jersey icons.
Significantly, in 2023, the band were forced to cancel a series of dates due to Springsteen was diagnosed with peptic ulcer disease, which likely made ‘The Boss’ become even more grateful to perform live.
Speaking to SiriusXM, Springsteen explained that the uncomfortable symptoms left him unable to sing. “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, you know?”
The postponement led to a dark period for Springsteen. He continued: “So, I literally couldn’t sing at all, you know, and that lasted for two or three months, along with just a myriad of other painful problems.”
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