Bruce Springsteen has no interest in ending his music career and saying goodbye to the “Glory Days.”
“We’ve been around for 50 f–king years, and we ain’t quitting!” Springsteen, 74, said during his Friday, August 23, concert at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. “We ain’t doing no farewell tour bulls–t! Jesus Christ! No farewell tour for the E Street Band!”
The Grammy winner continued to slam any and all speculation that he was hanging up his guitar as the crowd began to cheer his name.
“Farewell to what?” he asked. “A thousand people screaming your name? Get the hell out. I ain’t going anywhere!”
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Springsteen’s declaration comes as the rocker and his band continue their 2024 world tour. In addition to 11 remaining shows in the United States and Canada this year, the group already has concerts scheduled for the summer of 2025 in Italy and France.
While guitarist Steven Van Zandt previously acknowledged that the group never knows exactly what the future entails, they all look forward to many more performances.
“We treat every show like it could be the last show, and we’ve been doing that for 50 years,” he told The Telegraph in July. “But the audience is still there, and we can see them getting younger every year. 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.”
Van Zandt, 73, looks no further than Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones — who performed in 16 cities across the U.S. and Canada this summer — for proof that you can rock out as long as you’d like.
“I love that the Stones are still out there,” he said. “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.”
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Springsteen’s latest tour, however, has faced some hurdles. In May, the “Born in the U.S.A.” singer had to postpone four European tour dates citing “vocal issues.”
In addition, Springsteen was forced to postpone a significant chunk of his U.S. tour dates to recover from peptic ulcer disease in late 2023. The painful ulcers hindered Springsteen’s ability to sing from his diaphragm.
He was able to reschedule the shows in 2024 and deliver on his reputation of putting on high-energy performances that can last more than four hours.
