Bruce Springsteen doubted he'd sing again after peptic ulcer disease. In a Thursday SiriusXM E Street Radio interview with Jim Rotolo, the Boss said so. “I had the stomach problem and one of the big problems was I couldn't sing,” Springsteen, 74 replied. Use your diaphragm to sing. It was killing me to sing because my diaphragm hurt so much. I couldn't sing. For two or three months.”
The iconic rocker postponed the E Street Band's September gigs to cure his peptic ulcer ailment. He rescheduled shows for the year a few weeks later. Before, people told me, 'Oh, it's going to go away' and 'You're going to be OK,'" Springsteen told the radio station.
Your thoughts are, 'Hey, am I going to sing again?' One of my favorite things to do isn't possible right now. I can only thank my amazing doctors for fixing me up." Springsteen's health difficulties flared at the Foxborough, Massachusetts, and East Rutherford, New Jersey, gigs in late August and early September.
The last four shows, I was playing really ill,” Springsteen confessed. Foxborough was a tremendous show, and the three Meadowlands shows were the band at its best in front of great New Jersey and Boston audiences. My health was poor.
A little medication got me up there and kept me up there all night. Whatever happens onstage, you let go. You played hard and got amazing shows. But when I came off after the last Meadowlands event, I knew it was my last while sick.” The Springsteen and E Street Band tour last year was postponed multiple times.
Springsteen's social media accounts reported two Citizens Bank Ballpark gigs were postponed in August due to "having been taken ill." Three more 2023 shows—March 9 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio; March 12 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut; and March 14 at the MVP Arena in Albany, New York—were postponed due to an unidentified sickness.
COVID-19 sickened band members on the 2023 tour. Van Zandt, Lofgren, Clemons, Tyrell, and Lowell missed concerts.
“When we started that tour, others were out every night. I walk into soundcheck and find out who's missing, then I have to modify the stage or all the song arrangements to cover for them, Springsteen remarked. Eddie Manion played saxophone for Jake Clemens. Steve Van Zandt couldn't make it, so I brought Anthony Almonte up. Nils (Lofgren) couldn't last another night
One after another, Lisa (Lowell) and Susie (Tyrell) skipped nights. "We only lucked out that Max Weinberg didn't fall. Tallent avoided falling. Your rhythm section. Our two keyboardists attended. If we had such personnel, we could perform.”
Springsteen sees the 2024 tour as a fresh one, not a continuation of the 2023 tour. That gives setlists more freedom, he noted. “I'll keep some things from last year's tour that relate to mortality and life in the set, but I'll move around the other parts more. So the song selection will expand "said.
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