Bruce Springsteen had his battle with the IRS, then went bankrupt, and even once got dumped by a close friend. Still, none of these were among his greatest fears about his career.
He’d climbed the ladders of fame with 1975’s ‘Born to Run,’ becoming an instant sensation after two average-selling albums. However, although ‘Born to Run’ made him an American superstar, it also brought many troubles for the singer.
Springsteen discussed these ‘troubles,’ while speaking with the Guardian in 2010, and shared how he had fears regarding ‘Born to Run’s hit status after having released two commercially-average records. He explained:
“After ‘Born to Run,’ I had a reaction to my good fortune. With success, it felt like a lot of people who’d come before me lost some essential part of themselves. My greatest fear was that success was going to change or diminish that part of myself.”
Then, he discussed the 12-month hiatus that followed ‘Born to Run’s release, as Springsteen was in a legal battle with his former publisher, Mike Appel. He recalled:
“People thought we were gone. Finished. They just thought ‘Born to Run’ had been a record company creation. We had to reprove our viability on a nightly basis by playing, and it took many years. You had to be very committed. One thing we did well after Born to Run was, I said: ‘Woah.’ I got on Time and Newsweek because I decided to be.”
The Boss added by further sharing his fears:
“I was very frightened at the train and how fast it was going when we got on. In a funny way, the lawsuit was not such a bad thing. Everything stopped and we had to build it up again in a different place.”
Fame had its cost for Springsteen, as, funnily enough, the IRS investigation mentioned earlier in the article, also came after ‘Born to Run’s release, as the new superstar attracted IRS officers to take a deeper look into Bruce’s bank accounts and taxes.
