There is a lot of ground covered in Time magazine’s career-spanning new interview with Bruce Springsteen ahead of the release of a new biopic about the New Jersey icon. At the centre of the piece, though, is the film and its themes. Titled Deliver Me From Nowhere, it stars The Bear’s Jeremy White and Succession’s Jeremy Strong as The Boss and his closest confidant and manager Jon Landau respectively and, rather than trying to cram everything in, homes in on a specific era of Springsteen’s life, specifically what happened around the recording and release of his stripped-down 1982 masterpiece Nebraska.
The feature details how director Scott Cooper – who says the “narrow time frame reveals deeper truths about Bruce’s lifelong struggles with identity and creative honesty” – approached Springsteen with Landau and famed biographer Warren Zanes to talk about the idea ready for a reality check. No-one, it seems, were of the opinion he’d agree to it. But asked why he did, Springsteen says, “I’m old. I don’t give a fuck what I do anymore. As you get older, you feel a lot freer.”
But that is a take that underplays the life-changing events documented in Deliver Me From Nowhere, where Springsteen veers away from recording the assured hits that would end up on 1984’s Born In The USA and records Nebraska instead, opting to fill it with the stark demos he’d recorded on a four-track because he felt it lost its magic when put in the hands of his regular E Street Band collaborators.
After its release, he had a breakdown and went into therapy, a move helping to repair his relationship with his father, whose mental illness and cold parenting cast a shadow over much of Springsteen’s family life. “My faither was a tough guy,” Springsteen says in the interview. “He was tough when he was young. He was tough on me when I was young, but fundamentally, underneath, he was a vulnerable, fragile, sweet-hearted and soulful man. I think you see that part of him at the end of the film.”
Springsteen entered a period of depression after making Nebraska and says Landau’s encouragement to seek professional help altered the course of his life. “It was and has been a total life changer,” he states.
Deliver Me From Nowhere is released on 24th October. Watch the latest trailer below:
