Bruce Springsteen Speaks Out on Depression

Bruce Springsteen Speaks Out on Depression

Bruce Springsteen has been seeing a shrink for the past 30 years — and it’s all part of his long-term battle against depression.

The Boss, now 62, told The New Yorker magazine that his famously long and energetic live stage performances are fueled by “pure fear and self-loathing and self-hatred.”

“Look, you cannot underestimate the fine power of self-loathing in all of this. You think: ‘I don’t like anything I’m seeing. I don’t like anything I’m doing, but I need to change myself. I need to transform myself.’ I do not know a single artist who does not run on that fuel.”

Bruce recalled his own father’s war with depression. The elder Springsteen was possibly bipolar and frequently refused to take his meds.

“My dad was very nonverbal — you couldn’t really have a conversation with him. My parents’ struggles, it’s the subject of my life,” he added. “It’s the thing that eats at me and always will. My life took a very different course, but my life is an anomaly. Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose.”