The rocker has been performing energetic shows sometimes lasting four hours for more than 50 years

Bruce Springsteen, with the E Street Band, on stage at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, during his 2023 tour.Credit : Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty

He may have 20 Grammy Awards under his belt and more than 140 million records sold, but even Bruce Springsteen still gets stage fright.

The beloved rocker, 75, revealed that despite his 50-plus-year career, he “always” gets a bit nervous before performing.

“[It’s] what I call anticipatory anxiety. You’re about to test yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually,” Springsteen said on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast on Thursday, May 1. “Every night you’re going to call on all those parts of your personality and you’re going to relive them and be as alive as you can be, which is, I believe that’s what the audience pays for, how alive you can be on any given night, more than what song you’re singing or what song you don’t sing.”

Springsteen has long been known for his energetic sets, which can sometimes last more than four hours. Once he gets rocking, his anxiety mostly dissipates, he explained.

Bruce Springsteen (L) performs on stage with guitarist Steven Van Zandt during a concert of Springsteen with the E Street Band in Vienna, Austria on July 18, 2023.HANS KLAUS TECHT/APA/AFP/Getty

“It’s how present you are. So there’s always some anticipation before I go out on stage, which pretty much disappears the minute I count in the band,” he said.

The “Thunder Road” singer currently has 16 European shows coming up, starting in May and running through July.

In August, he balked at the idea of ever slowing things down after more than five decades with his E Street Band.

“We ain’t doing no farewell tour bulls—. Jesus Christ. No farewell tour for the E Street Band!” he told the crowd during a performance in Philadelphia.

“Hell no… Farewell to what? Thousands of people screaming your name? Yeah, I wanna quit that,” Springsteen added. “That’s it. That’s all it takes. I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”

Bruce Springsteen performing on the Born in the U.S.A. tour in New Jersey in 1985.Gary Gershoff/Getty

Guitarist Steven Van Zandt also shut down retirement talk during a conversation with The Telegraph in July 2024, explaining that stepping back is not in the cards.

“I don’t see the end anywhere in sight, to be honest, especially in Europe, where we’re bigger than we’ve ever been,” he said. “I think we can play every summer for evermore, man.”

In April, Springsteen announced the release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, a collection of seven never-before-heard albums featuring music recorded between 1983 and 2018.

According to a press release, The Lost Albums “fill in rich chapters of Springsteen’s expansive career timeline — while offering invaluable insight into his life and work as an artist.”

It’s set for release on June 27 via Sony Music.