Bruce Springsteen began seeing his star rise in 1975, after the release of Born to Run
While the success was exciting for the artist, he was also worried about the uglier side of fame
Springsteen tells TIME about his desire to be “protective” as things changed around him
Bruce Springsteen had an uneasy feeling about his early fame.
As the musician began to enjoy breakthrough success in the fall of 1975, he started to feel the impact of what leading a truly public life would be like.
In the days that followed Springsteen’s first TIME and Newsweek cover releases, the rocker, now 76, recalls feeling the attitudes towards him shift.
“It’s making you very, very different than all the people you grew up with,” he shared in his TIME100 cover story published on Thursday, Sept. 25.
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While the feedback to his music was everything an artist could dream of, he’d hear from his sister, Pam, about the paparazzi peering into the kitchen of their family home. He was concerned how fear would change things, not just for those around him, but for the artist himself.
“It’s a very distorted lens to live your life through,” he says. “You have to be very protective of yourself, of what matters dearly to you.”
With those thoughts in mind, Springsteen’s next project, Darkness on the Edge of Town, served as a celebration of the working-class lifestyle.
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Thunder Road” artist discussed contemplating suicide following the release of his 1982 album Nebraska, leading him to begin caring for his mental health.
“It was and has been a total life changer,” Springsteen told the publication.
The artist has kept up with therapy to this day, even finding a new one after his therapist of 25 years died.
“When I walked into a new therapist’s office, I had a lot more information than when I first walked into Dr. Myers’ and said, ‘I don’t have a home, I don’t have a partner, I don’t have a life beyond my work, and those are things that I want.’”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
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