Chris Christie writes about meeting Bruce Springsteen, among many other topics, in his new book, “Let Me Finish.”
Not surprisingly, there are a handful of references to former Gov. Chris Christie’s favorite musician, Bruce Springsteen, in his new book, “Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics,” which arrived in stores today. The most substantial one takes up almost two pages of text: Christie’s account of meeting Springsteen after a 1999 E Street Band show at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Christie had been a Morris County Freeholder through the end of 1997, and would not be appointed Attorney General of New Jersey until 2002. From ’97 to ’02, he worked mainly as lawyer and a lobbyist. He writes that he and his wife Mary Pat, then an investment banker, took “a group of her clients” to the concert.
Christie writes that the show was “amazing,” but focuses on what happened the next morning, when the Christies found themselves on the same plane as Springsteen (traveling alone). The plane was delayed, and he and Mary Pat introduced themselves to Springsteen, and chatted with him for a while. When the plane landed in Newark, “Bruce walked off the plane right behind us,” Christie writes, and he asked if he could tell Springsteen a story.
Springsteen said “Sure,” so Christie told him about attending a Springsteen concert a few months earlier, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, with his then 6-year-old son, Andrew. They sat in the front row, having won the tickets in an auction for the Kristen Ann Carr Fund.
Springsteen had thrown a guitar pick to Andrew early in the show, and then, late in the evening, looked at the boy and exclaimed, “He’s still going!” Before the final song, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” writes Christie, Springsteen pointed at Andrew and said, “Here’s a lullaby for the little guy.”
Christie writes that Springsteen told him he remembered that night, and asked, “That was your little guy?”
Christie said yes, and “proudly” told The Boss, “He calls Sandy his song.”
