"Good Songs Stay Written ..."

Rock legend Bruce Springsteen on music as a time machine, responsibility in the family, and the situation in the USA

- BY Michael Ebert

HE IS NOW 76 years old. But that doesn't stop Bruce Springsteen from continuing to tour and releasing previously unknown songs, as he did recently on the album Tracks II. The significance of ‘The Boss’— as he is nicknamed—in the world of rock music is also underlined by a film about him that was released in cinemas in October.

Question: Music is a time machine. A song can take us back to the past, to certain places, to certain feelings, to certain people. How did it feel to work on Tracks II with material that you wrote more than 40 years ago?

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Music seems timeless to me in a beautiful way. A song that I started 20 years ago and left lying around, I can pick up today and finish. Good songs stay written.

Your life would have been completely different if 'Born in the USA' hadn't been released. Especially since the success also changed you physically at the time. You gained 10 kgs of muscle mass.