Bruce Springsteen has won 20 Grammy awards over his long and storied career as the rocking crooner keeping a look out for America’s heartland. A party isn’t complete unless you hear either “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” or “Glory Days” (and if your crush doesn’t kiss you while “Secret Garden” plays in the background, you’re not meant to be. Thems the rules). Now he has released a new documentary called
Letter To You on his career and his collaboration with the famous E Street Band, so he chatted with Trevor Noah on
The Daily Show (Mon-Thurs 11pET on CTV Comedy) about how his arguably most famous song, “Born in the USA,” is far too often misinterpreted.“This is my cross to bear,” he laughed via video-chat from his recording studio
on Monday night's episode, “so I try to bear it with a smile.”
When Trevor pointed out that the
lyrics of the song are critical of America’s involvement in the Vietnam war, yet so many people think it’s about extreme patriotism, The Boss agreed. “I think the issue is that the key to some of my music is that you need to be able to hold two contradictory ideas in your mind at the same time, which is a bit of a measure of adulthood," he said. "So you need to be able to deal with the fact that a song can be both prideful and critical.”“That idea is very central to a lot of my music,” he continued. “Because that’s how I feel. I’m proud of my country—I’ve had an amazing life and gotten the best out of it through living here, but there’s a lot to continue to be critical about. So, both of those things are going into my music.”[video_embed id='-1']RELATED: Bruce Springsteen brought 'Blinded by the Light' to life after a chance encounter [/video_embed]This is why Bruce and
The Daily Show go hand in hand—both are critical of the state of affairs in the states. In fact, the last time Bruce was on
The Daily Show was to
serenade Jon Stewart’s last show with a big concert in the studio, and heaven knows Jon had some choice words for Donald Trump on that show (famously nicknaming Trump “F***face von Clownstick”).Springsteen has spoken on the complicated duality in "Born in the USA" (and a lot of his music) on several occasions before, but it's top of mind right now for many Americans ahead of the Nov 3 election, especially when people still seem to ignorantly use it as an anthem for American patriotism, including when it comes to
supporting Donald Trump. So when Trevor mentioned that Bruce was quoted in the media recently saying he’ll
move to Australia should Trump win another term, Bruce needed to set the record straight.“I don’t think I’m gonna move there, but we’ll see,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll be glad to see him go. I think he’s gonna lose. And I’ll be glad to see that happen.”The
Letter To You documentary coincides with the new album of the same name, and is available on Apple TV+. Funny enough, it's actually Springsteen's second documentary in as many years, coming after the 2019 film,
Western Stars (stream now on Crave) which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.Watch
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Mon-Thurs 11pET on CTV Comedy.[video_embed id='-1']BEFORE YOU GO: Red fox laughs in excitement while being scratched by human friend [/video_embed]
