“The artists who hold our attention have something eating away at them, and they never quite define it, but it’s always there.”
—Bruce Springsteen
The Atlantic article by David Brooks
The one thing I’ve done that Bruce Springsteen never did was work in a factory. In fact, he confessed on Springsteen on Broadway that he never had a “job” until he did the Broadway show. He built his common working man on the back of his father who did work in a factory.
But make no mistake, Springsteen worked his ass off for his success. Let’s call him the uncommon working man. His Darkness on the Edge of Town came out while I was in high school, and I was in the LA Coliseum for the final concert on his Born in the USA tour, so I’ve been on the Springsteen train a long time.
Heard a super interview he did with Steven Inskeep this morning on NPR and learned that Springsteen has a new album and documentary (on Apple+) out called Letter to You. Here’s a great quote from the NPR interview that I think you can translate into whatever you’re trying to accomplish in your work.
“I learned the majority of my craft, or the certainly the beginning pieces of it over those three years [1965-1968]; you know, how to perform, how to play in front of every kind of audience. We played bowling alleys, pizza parlors, firemen’s fairs, Elks clubs, Knights of Columbus, CYO dances, high school dances, weddings, bar mitzvahs. We played in front of virtually every audience you can imagine.”
—Bruce Springsteen
Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles