Bruce Springsteen, 74, opens up about future of his career after painful health battle: 'It was kill

January 2024 · 4 minute read

The "Born in the U.S.A." singer was forced to postpone the Springsteen and E Street Band Tour

Bruce Springsteen returned to the stage earlier this week at Phoenix, Arizona's Footprint Center after months away from touring, following it up with an appearance in Las Vegas on Friday.

The singer, 74, announced in September that he was postponing shows from the till 2024 due to symptoms of peptic ulcer disease.

The Mayo Clinic describes the condition as "open sores that develop on the inside lining of your stomach and the upper portion of your small intestine," saying that the "most common symptom of a peptic ulcer is stomach pain."

During an interview with Sirius XM's E Street Radio host Jim Rotolo after his comeback show, Springsteen opened up further about his condition and how it affected his ability to sing and perform.

"Once I started singing, you know, you can rehearse singing, but your voice isn't the same in rehearsal," he shared, adding that the disease left him unable to actually sing. "You don't have that edge of adrenaline that really pushes it into a better place and the thing when I had the stomach problem, one of the big problems was I couldn't sing."

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"You sing with your diaphragm…My diaphragm was hurting so badly that when I went to make the effort to sing, it was killing me, you know?"

The inability to sing lasted for months. "So, I literally couldn't sing at all, you know, and that lasted for two or three months, along with just a myriad of other painful problems."

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However, the "Dancing in the Dark" singer confessed that his greatest fear was whether he'd be able to ever sing and perform again while also battling the other problems peptic ulcer disease created.

"I was, during the course of it, before people told me, 'Oh no. It's gonna go away, and you're gonna be OK,' you know, you're thinking like, 'Hey, am I gonna sing again?' and you know, this is one of the things I love to do the best, the most, and right now I can't do it," he said.

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However, through the reassurance of his doctors, he found his way back to the stage. "It took a while for the doctors to say, 'Oh no. You're gonna be OK.'" 

"At first, nobody was quite saying that, which made me nervous, you know, and at the end of the day, I found some great doctors, and they straightened me out, and I can't do anything but thank them all."

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He gushed about finally making his comeback in Phoenix, saying: "A wonderful crowd we had, and the band just played great, you know, and I thought they might be tired, you might be a little fatigued, you might be a little rusty. No."

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will continue around the world, performing in 17 countries over 52 shows, and will finally conclude on November 22 in Vancouver, plus a hometown show in Asbury Park, New Jersey on September 15 at the Sea.Hear.Now Festival.

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