Bruce Springsteen discusses ticket prices and more in a new Rolling Stone interview.
In a new interview by Andy Greene for Rolling Stone, Bruce Springsteen commented directly, for the first time, about fans’ disappointment in the high ticket prices for his upcoming tour.
He argued, in part, that “the bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that (higher) price somewhere anyway. The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money. I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’ ”
Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” system “created an opportunity for that to occur,” he said. “And so at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans. But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.”
He also said he takes the criticism over the ticket prices in stride. “You certainly don’t like to be the poster boy for high ticket prices,” he said.”It’s the last thing you prefer to be. But that’s how it went. You have to own the decisions you have made and go out and just continue to do your best. And that was my take on it. I think if folks come to the show, they’re going to have a good time.”
Other interesting tidbits from the interview:
• One of the songs left on the cutting room floor for his Only the Strong Survive album was “My Girl.”
• Regarding the large band that he assembled for his appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” this week: “Eventually I’ll do more with them because it was so enjoyable.”
• Vol. 2 of Only the Strong Survive is “probably three-quarters recorded” and will also feature classic soul music, though “I would love to do one record of country music. I would love to do a rock (covers) record. There’s just so many different things, and all focused around my voice, all focused around how well I’m singing. I’d really like to use this time when I’m not writing to really focus on my vocals.”
• Regarding the role the Western Stars songs will play on the upcoming tour: “I might do one, but the E Street Band is going to come out and put on a rock show.”
• Rehearsals for the tour will start in January.
• Regarding the possibility of more shows after the ones that are currently announced: “We will be coming back. I’m sure we’ll be playing outside somewhat.”
• Regarding future archival releases: “I have a box set of five unreleased albums that are basically post-1988. People have always wondered … People look at my work in the Nineties and they go, ‘The Nineties wasn’t a great decade for Bruce. He was kind of doing this and he wasn’t in the E Street Band …’ I actually made a lot of music during that period of time. I actually made albums. For one reason or another, the timing wasn’t right or whatever, I didn’t put them out.
“They’ve kind of gathered. I spent time over one of the past winters completely cleaning out the vault. I have a series of Tracks albums that eventually we’ll release. Some of it is older stuff that the band plays on, and some of it is newer stuff where I was conceptualizing during that period of time. It’ll give people a chance to reassess what I was doing during that time period.”
The first of these archival releases will be “in the near future,” he said.
• No work has been done on a Born in the USA boxed set, though, due mainly of “a paucity of material” to put on it, he said.
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