He has used his public spotlight to hit out at Donald Trump and his tour is currently the hottest ticket in Manhattan, with tickets on sale for up to $1,000.
Not Bruce Springsteen, the Boss, but James Comey, the former boss of the FBI, who is preparing to launch a coast-to-coast tour to promote his new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, which progressives hope will provide new ammunition in their campaign against Trump.
Springsteen – currently in the middle of an extended run playing week in, week out in a small Broadway theatre – may be about to be eclipsed by the man who has sold out New York’s Town Hall, five blocks south, even though Comey is no liberal hero to those who blame him for Hillary Clinton’s election defeat.
Springsteen is known for turning up unannounced during solo shows by band members. Comey seems less likely to warm up for his tour with an impromptu appearance onstage at a thinktank event by fired colleagues such as Andrew McCabe, but you never know.
Age
Springsteen: 68
Comey: 57
Born
Springsteen: Long Branch, New Jersey
Comey: Yonkers, New York
Height
Springsteen: 5ft 10in
Comey: 6ft 8in
Top ticket price this month
Springsteen: $5,000 on Stubhub to see the Boss at New York’s Walter Kerr theatre on 10 April
Comey: $1,000 at Chicago’s Harris theater on 20 April
Views on Trump
Springsteen:
Well, you know, the republic is under siege by a moron, basically. The whole thing is tragic. Without overstating it, it’s a tragedy for our democracy … The ideas he’s moving to the mainstream are all very dangerous ideas – white nationalism and the alt-right movement. The outrageous things that he’s done – not immediately disavowing David Duke [former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan]? These are things that are obviously beyond the pale for any previous political candidate.
Comey:
I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document.
Career lows
Springsteen:
His 1992 soft rock albums Human Touch and Lucky Town, written after his marriage to Patty Scialfa, were seen as boringly contented. “I got a new suit of clothes, a pretty red rose / And a woman I can call my friend,” Springsteen sang cheerfully on Better Days. “I tried it [writing happy songs] in the early 90s and it didn’t work,” he said later. “The public didn’t like it.”
Comey:
He bounced between being a hate figure for the left and the right in the US during the 2016 election, when he oversaw the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server, closed it, reopened it, and then closed it again. “It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election,” he said later.
Career highs
Springsteen:
Superstardom in the 1980s with Born in the USA was followed by a period of retrenchment; he returned to the public eye in the 2000s with his 9/11-inspired album The Rising and has capped his career so far with a well-received autobiography and his extremely lucrative Broadway residency, currently extended until December.
Comey:
The former FBI chief’s testimony before Congress last year saw Washington grind to a halt to watch him give evidence. “In LA, you’ve got the Grammys and the Oscars,” one woman told the Guardian at a bar showing the hearing. “Here we don’t have those big events – but we have this.” Comey’s vivid testimony was praised for shedding light on Trump’s alleged attempts to block the investigation into his fired adviser Michael Flynn and the president’s alleged demands for loyalty from the then FBI chief.
What they said about … law enforcement
Springsteen:
License, registration, I ain’t got none
But I got a clear conscience ’bout the things that I done
Mister state trooper, please don’t stop me …
– State Trooper, 1982
Comey:
In times of turbulence, the American people should see the FBI as a rock of competence, honesty, and independence. What makes leaving the FBI hard is the nature and quality of its people, who together make it that rock for America.
– Letter to FBI after being fired, 2017
… loyalty
Comey:
Near the end of our dinner, the President returned to the subject of my job, saying he was very glad I wanted to stay, adding that he had heard great things about me from Jim Mattis, Jeff Sessions, and many others. He then said: ‘I need loyalty.’ I replied: ‘You will always get honesty from me.’ He paused and then said: ‘That’s what I want, honest loyalty.’ I paused, and then said: ‘You will get that from me.’
– Statement to the Senate intelligence committee, 2017
Springsteen:
The road is dark
And it’s a thin, thin line
But I want you to know I’ll walk it for you anytime
– Tougher Than The Rest, 1987
… being fired
Springsteen:
I had a job, I had a girl
I had something going, mister, in this world
I got laid off down at the lumber yard
Our love went bad, times got hard
– Downbound Train, 1984
Comey:
It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation. I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.
– Testimony to the Senate intelligence committee, 2017
… sex
Comey:
On the morning of March 30, the President called me at the FBI. He described the Russia investigation as ‘a cloud’ that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia … He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative.
– Statement to the Senate intelligence committee, 2017
Springsteen:
Sometimes it’s like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull
And cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
I’m on fire
– I’m on Fire, 1984
