Bruce Springsteen Says Only Death Will Stop Him from Touring: ‘Never Seen a Hearse with Luggage on Top’

Bruce Springsteen turned 75 in September, and the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has spent more of his life on the road than off it. Old habits die hard, and for The Boss, touring is one habit that won’t die until … well, he does.

“You’ve never seen a hearse with luggage on top, so that will be it for me,” Springsteen said during the Oct. 18 episode of The Graham Norton Show. “I am going to keep going until it’s over.”  

Springsteen, who was on the show promoting his new documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, has sold millions of albums, racked up an impressive string of hit singles, won 20 Grammys and one Oscar — and he’s spent half a century thrilling legions of adoring fans in concert.

But, he told host Graham Norton, after all these years, he’s still prone to a little bit of stage fright.

“I get anticipatory anxiety,” Springsteen said. “It’s not quite the same thing as nervousness. It’s a natural feeling to have before you go out to challenge yourself. If it wasn’t there, I think there would be something wrong with you, and you couldn’t do the job.”

During his appearance on the talk show, Springsteen also spoke about Jeremy Allen White, who will play him in Deliver Me from Nowhere, an upcoming biopic about the rocker.

The film will follow Springsteen after the release of 1980’s The River, as he works on his personal, stripped-down 1982 follow-up, Nebraska.

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Springsteen praised the film’s “lovely cast” and told Norton, 61, he’s “involved a little in the project.”

As for the man who will be stepping into his boots and trying to capture his gravelly voice, The Boss was encouraging. “This is not easy to do because you can’t do an imitation, you have to do a personal interpretation,” he said. “It’s difficult, but he is a great actor and sings pretty good.”

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White, 33, recently praised Springsteen for being “really supportive of the film” in an interview with GQ. “I’ve had some access to him, and he’s just the greatest guy,” he said.

As for the inherent pressure in playing a rock and roll deity, he said, with a laugh, “I’m really lucky that there’s sort of a team of folks now in place to help young actors portray rock stars.”

“Also,” White added, “there’s just so much footage. It’s really great to go down a YouTube rabbit hole and find him at all these different periods in his life and be able to listen to his speaking voice as well as his singing voice. That’s kind of been the deal, just listening to him a lot and watching him a lot. It’s been really fun preparing.”

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band premieres on Hulu and Disney+ on Oct. 25.