The legendary rock musician had a difficult relationship with his father due to his mental health struggles. Bruce Springsteen is well regarded as The Boss. Springsteen is often regarded as the ideal of a rock star, having made his impact on the music industry. Springsteen would eventually marry and have children. Springsteen, on the other hand, was battling behind closed doors. He eventually opened out about his troubles and how they mirrored those of other members of his family, including his own father. Springsteen feared he would end up like his father, who had a rocky connection with him. Bruce’s Father Was A WWII Veteran Suffering From Depression Springsteen was largely reared by his paternal grandfather. Springsteen’s grandfather doted on him as a toddler after losing his young daughter in a car accident. When he was younger, Bruce Springsteen was not restricted in any way. The musician claims to have been able to sleep until 3 a.m. and wake up at 3 p.m. Doug Springsteen, Bruce’s father, was a World War II soldier who struggled from mental illness. Regular spells of despair and paranoia were among them. Springsteen’s father drank extensively every night and was physically violent to him. Springsteen pondered on his early circumstances and how they contributed to his success as an adult while speaking with Stuff.
“I think that if your life is going well, it does,” Springsteen said. “And it is dependent on the course of your life.” I was fortunate in that I was able to handle a lot of the issues I was dealing with and battling with, as well as the things that were challenging for me in my youth.” “I did that as my parents got older, (and) as I got older, which is fortunate because there are sins that aren’t redeemable and lives that can’t be reframed,” he concluded. I consider myself quite fortunate to have had that opportunity.” Bruce Springsteen stated that his father was unable to fully realize his dream. Springsteen speaks with NPR’s Terry Gross on his life and career in 2021. During their conversation, Gross brought up Springsteen’s father, Doug, and expressed his belief that many of the things Springsteen portrays in his songs are about him. Springsteen’s stories, according to Gross, are about “searching for a dream and wanting to, like, bust out of the confines of your life.” Despite this pursuit, Gross claims that Springsteen’s father “never found the dream.” “You know, my dad was young,” stated Springsteen. “He left for work.” He had, however, been to battle. He’d seen a little of the world. It wasn’t like he was going to be a world traveler or something. That didn’t seem to be in his nature, or in the nature of his parents, or in the nature of many people in my family. They were heading to Brown University, where we had a cousin.
It was as though a nuclear bomb had occurred.” “My parents did really sort of live out a big part of that story,” he added. And, to some extent, he did find his portion of what he was looking for in California.” Springsteen’s parents relocated to California with his sister when he was 19 years old. “He wanted to move to another planet,” Bruce Springsteen stated of his father. “And they didn’t have much.” They had $3,000 on hand. And I believe they drove an old Rambler. They also spent two nights in the car and one night at a motel. And they had my younger sister with them, with all of their belongings packed on top. It was a high-risk gamble that paid off handsomely for them. You know, I think they had a good time on the West Coast and in California.” Bruce Springsteen Revealed That He Was Suffering From Depression, Fearing He Would Become Like His Father In 2020, Bruce sat down with Vanity Fair to promote his memoir and address his own battle with depression. “You don’t know the illness’s parameters,” Springsteen explained. “Can I get sick enough to resemble my father more than I thought I would?” Springsteen’s memoir highlighted how much his sadness influenced his life.
“I was crushed between sixty and sixty-two, good for a year, then out again from sixty-three to sixty-four,” he wrote. “Not a good track record.” Springsteen further said that, while the rest of the world was unaware of anything wrong, his wife, Patti Scialfa, experienced his suffering firsthand. “Patti will notice a freight train bearing down on her, loaded with nitroglycerin and speeding out of the track… she gets me to the doctors and says, ‘This man needs a pill,'” Springsteen wrote. Scialfa expressed her displeasure with the inclusion of that particular piece, but said, “I think it’s great for him to write about depression.” Springsteen also acknowledged his family’s struggle with mental illness in his memoir. “As a child, it was simply mysterious, embarrassing, and ordinary,” he wrote of his family time. Springsteen claimed that his father was unable to tell him how much he loved him. “All you could get was ‘Love you, Pops.'” [Changing to his father’s stern tone.] Springsteen told Vanity Fair, “Eh, me, too.” “Even after he’d had a stroke and was crying, he’d say, ‘Me, too.'” You could hear his voice cracking up, but he couldn’t say anything.”
