Bruce Springsteen has not held his tongue lately when it comes to criticizing the current administration. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer flash-released the protest song “Streets of Minneapolis” just days after writing it in January following the killings of U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers in that city and he’s gearing up to launch a U.S. tour that he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune will be very politically charged.
“The tour is going to be political and very topical about what’s going on in the country,” Springsteen told the paper about the E Street Band’s upcoming Land of Hope and Dreams outing, which kicks off in Minneapolis’ Target Center on March 31 and winds down in Washington, D.C. on May 27. “Minneapolis and St. Paul, that was the place I wanted to begin it, and I wanted to end it in Washington.”
Before that, though, Springsteen will perform his anti-ICE anthem at the No Kings rally in St. Paul on Saturday (March 28) as part of a nationwide day of protest against the Trump administration at an event that will also feature appearances from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, as well as actress/activist Jane Fonda, folk icon Joan Baez and singer Maggie Rogers. According to Minnesota Public Radio, more than 80,000 people are expected at Saturday’s event, the third in a series of increasingly larger nationwide protests against the Trump administration and just one of an expected 3,000 such gatherings across the country this weekend.
Springsteen spoke to the paper about premiering “Streets of Minneapolis” live at the city’s iconic First Avenue club on Jan. 30, just days after releasing the song on which he sings, “Through the winter’s ice and cold/ Down Nicollet Avenue/ A city aflame fought fire and ice/ ‘Neath an occupier’s boots/ King Trump’s private army from the DHS/ Guns belted to their coats/ Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law/ Or so their story goes.”
“That was exciting. First of all, just being in Minneapolis at that moment was very meaningful,” he said of playing the song in the club made famous as the location of pivotal scenes from Prince’s movie musical Purple Rain at the invitation of friend and collaborator Tom Morello. “Being in that club meant a lot. I knew the history of the club itself and knowing how much a place like that means to a certain city.”
He also talked about what it means to him to have Morello join the E Street Band on the tour, calling the Rage Against the Machine guitarist, solo artist and fellow outspoken Donald Trump critic a “smart, inspirational figure, directly descended from Woody Guthrie and all sorts of great topical musicians and songwriters. He always brings a little edge to the E Street Band. He is one of the few guitarists that completely has his own voice on guitar.”
Springsteen hinted that the set lists for the upcoming shows will be purposeful and meet the moment at a time when many Americans are struggling to put food on the table as gas and commodities prices spike due to Trump’s now monthlong war in Iran. “The E Street Band is built for hard times. It always was. These are the moments when I think we can be of real value and real worth to the community,” he said. “These are moments that fill the band with purpose, so I try to fill the set list around those ideas.”
The 76-year-old rock icon who has been unabashed in his disdain and distrust of the Trump administration told the paper that he cannot think of another time in U.S. history when the nation has been as “critically challenged” as it is right now, a time he described as one in which our “basic ideas and values” are being put to intense stress tests.
“I’d have to go back to 1968 when I was 18-years-old to another moment when it felt like the country was so on edge and like it felt there was simply so much at stake as far as who we are and the country we want to be and the people we want to be,” he said of the tumultuous Vietnam War era. “It’s a critical, critical moment.”
He also said he decided to join Saturday’s No Kings event in St. Paul in order to “meet the moment,” praising the swelling No Kings movement as something that is very important at this time. “When you have the opportunity to sing something where the timing is essential and if you have something powerful to sing, it elevates the moment, it elevates your job to another level. And I’m always in search of that,” Springsteen said, adding that he’s not worried about any blowback from taking a strong political stance because, as he described it, his job is very simple: “I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say and then people get to say what they want to say about it.”
Click here to see the list of Saturday’s No Kings events.
