Bruce Springsteen is entertaining jammed venues around the world on his current tour with the E Street Band. However, he tells correspondent Jim Axelrod that one of his life-changing performances was creating the album “Nebraska” four decades ago. Springsteen talks about his search for meaning in his life in the recording of the album, in an interview to be broadcast on “CBS Sunday Morning” April 30 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.
“If I had to pick out one album and say, ‘This is going to represent you 50 years from now,” Springsteen told Axelrod, “I’d pick ‘Nebraska.'”
Springsteen recorded “Nebraska” alone 41 years ago in a farmhouse in Colts Neck, N.J. He found himself there in search of meaning for his life, and at a time when he had reached the rock star status he had dreamed of earlier.
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“I think in your 20s, a lot of things work for you,” Springsteen said. “Your 30s is where you start to become an adult. Suddenly I looked around and said, ‘Where is everything? Where is my home? Where is my partner? Where are the sons or daughters that I thought I might have someday?’ … I realized none of these things are there. … So I said, ‘OK, the first thing I’ve gotta do as soon as I get home is remind myself of who I am and where I came from.'”
The making of “Nebraska” is the subject of “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” a new book from author Warren Zanes. Springsteen returned to the Colts Neck farmhouse with Axelrod to revisit the album and what was going on his life at the time. The owners of the home have left the room where Springsteen recorded “Nebraska” largely untouched.
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Springsteen and Zanes talk about the origins of the songs and what the album meant at that pivotal point in the artist’s life.
“Things are going so well here, you know, that you just assumed, like, ‘Oh yeah, well, the rest of your life is going to fall into place,'” Springsteen said. “No, that’s not how it works.”
“And you can’t succeed your way out of pain,” Axelrod responded.
“No, you cannot. That’s a very good way of putting it. You cannot succeed your way outta that pain.”
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You can stream “Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):
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