Bruce Springsteenwas joinedbyBon Jovi,PublicEnemyand others at a star-studded New Jersey event – see footage below.
The two-day concert series was thrown for the opening of the new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey this week (June 4 and 5). Theinstitution officially opens on June 13.
The shows celebrated 250 years of American music, with the first night focusing on pioneering artists such as Robert Johnson,WoodyGuthrieand Hank Williams, while the second saw performances of songs byElvis Presley,Bob Dylan,Dionand Public Enemy.
The latter two artists were on hand, as wereDarlene Love,Sheryl Crow,Jackson Browne, NilsLofgrenand Gary Clark Jr., whileLittle Steven’s Disciples of Soul served as the house band.
Springsteen covered Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Burnin’ Love’ and joinedSherylCrow for Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’andGaryClarkJr.for Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s ‘Further UpTheRoad’.Jon Bon Jovi then took to the stage for a version ofChuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’,his first time singing in his home state since 2018.
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Bon Jovi, JacksonBrowneand Public Enemy joined forces for a rendition of Eddie Floyd’s ‘Raise Your Hand’,while Springsteen brought the show to a close witha solo version of ‘LandOfHopeAndDreams’.
“My God,” Springsteen told the crowd. “At 19, I was on this campus…not going to school. But played here on the steps over at the big building they have over there. If you had told me then, in 1969, that anything like this would ever, everoccur, Iwould’vesaid, ‘You are out of your fuckin’ mind, my friend’.”
Springsteen has playing onhis ‘LandOfHopeAndDreams’ tour in recent months, using his time on stage to mount criticisms of theDonald Trumpregime.It was prompted by the killing of two Minneapolis citizens by ICE agents earlier in the year, with the Boss saying that US citizens are “living through some very dark times” as the “American values that have sustained us for 250 years are being challenged as never before”.
In response,Trump has labelled Springsteen as a “pushy, obnoxious JERK” and a “dried out prune of a rocker”,although the musiciantook a principled stand in the wake of a recent assassination attempt on the President.