The one lesson Prince taught Bruce Springsteen: “He knew all about it”
Despite his own musical stature, Bruce Springsteen was left feeling like millions of other fans—utterly distraught—when the world lost two of its greatest musical talents, David Bowie and Prince, within a few months in 2016. These were not just artists he admired; they were also friends, and the void left by their passing can never truly be filled. For most casual listeners, the loss was hard to bear, but for Springsteen, it struck even closer to home.
Springsteen had worked alongside David Bowie before, with the ‘Starman’ providing a few notable covers of Springsteen along the way. The two men may have operated in sincerely different spaces, but they still delivered a heartfelt take on rock and roll that resonated with one another. But it’s clear that the singer held a special place in his heart for Prince Rogers Nelson.
Nicknamed ‘His Royal Badness’, to merely peruse the enigma of Prince is to witness a caricature of rock and roll revelry that is hard to contain within one’s mind’s eye. A man who refused to stand still, refused to conform and refused to hide. Prince was an artist whose uniqueness could, despite the wilds of his creativeness, sometimes come across as almost, well, a bit silly. However, when you scratch away Prince’s perceivable shiny surface, there are simply mountains and mountains of musical knowledge and innovation. It was this lesson that Springsteen learned from Prince.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2016, Springsteen opened up about the loss of Bowie and Prince, reflecting most sincerely on ‘The Purple One’s magnificent education in pop music. “It was a terrible shame,” begins Springsteen when asked about their deaths and the tributes he had been paying to them during his recent run of live shows. It was one thing to admire the duo, but to have contributed to their legacy meant Springsteen felt an on-stag tribute was necessary to show his grief.
“It was a great loss and a tragedy,” he continued, “I felt a great kinship with Prince. And he was a guy, when I’d go to see him, I’d say, ‘Oh, man, OK, back to the drawing board.'” Considering just what a fantastic performer Springsteen is, it shows just how highly The Boss regarded Prince.
He also showed Springsteen that there was never a moment under the spotlight that wasn’t worth taking advantage of, and he asserted that a firm education in the world of music was essential for a long and illustrious career. “There was a film of him on the Arsenio Hall show, where he plays a series of songs in a row. It’s just some of the greatest showmanship I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“And he knew everything,” Springsteen effused to Rolling Stone. “He knew all about it, and then could put it to work. Just since the Sixties and Seventies and your Sam and Daves and your James Browns, he’s one of the greatest showmen to come along. I studied that stuff a lot and put as much of it to use as I can with my talents. But he just took it to another level.” It’s hard to disagree. Prince was a meticulous creator, and that didn’t stop in the studio. His dedication to perfection would emanate from everything he did on and off stage, and while under the glare of the audience, the musician was near-immaculate in everything.
When speaking about the deaths, Springsteen also offered a moment of soulful reflection: “Well, I think we all sit back and go, ‘What?’ I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. Any death gives you renewed sight. It’s a part of what the dead pass on to us. A chance to look at our lives and look at the world again. It’s just a powerful experience.”
There are a few lessons for any budding musician to learn here. Firstly, there is nothing more important to a rock star than their performance. Despite the studio often providing a safe refuge for a host of creatives, to hear live music is to hear the heavens themselves creak open, and a musician should never resist being a performer, too. Next, one must always provide oneself with an ample curriculum of weird and wonderful music to bolster any foray into the world of music. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you should always let inspiration take hold of you, no matter the source.
