Music News

Bruce Springsteen surprises at SXSW

By April MacIntyre Mar 15, 2012, 22:06 GMT

US musician Bruce Springsteen (L) and his wife Patti Scialfa (R) EPA/FRANZ NEUMAYR

Garden State hero and musician Bruce Springsteen appeared at South By Southwest (SXSW) to promote his new album, and share when he first realized that rock could help him create a "transformative self."

The Associated Press reported that Springsteen, 62, delivered a humorous lecture about his musical influences and icons. The Boss delivered a salute to Elvis, James Brown, Woody Guthrie to Johnny Rotten. He appreciated the diversity at SXSW and led a sing-a-long of “This Land is Your Land.”

He noted that the last band he remembered was Irish group U2, noting that the new groups today were "overwhelming" to keep track of.

Springsteen's memorable "genesis moment" in 1956 when Elvis Presley was booked on The Ed Sullivan Show.

"I realized I could create a transformative self," he said. "At any other moment in history, that could have seemed impossible."

The Boss also payed tribute to the ethereal vocal style of the late great Roy Orbison, was the "true master of the romantic apocalypse you knew was coming after you first whispered, 'I love you' to your new girlfriend. You knew you were going down."