Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will launch their Land Of Hope And Dreams American Tour across the country this spring, kicking off at Minneapolis’ Target Center on March 31. The 20-date run will feature 19 arena shows, and a final night outdoors on May 27 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
Springsteen offered the following comments about the goals of the tour: "We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair — the cavalry is coming! Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will be taking the stage this spring from Minneapolis to California to Texas to Washington, D.C. for the Land of Hope And Dreams American Tour. We will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America — American democracy, American freedom, our American Constitution and our sacred American dream — all of which are under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, D.C. Everyone, regardless of where you stand or what you believe in, is welcome — so come on out and join the United Free Republic of E Street Nation for an American spring of Rock 'n' Rebellion! I’ll see you there!" — Bruce Springsteen.
The E Street Band's members are Roy Bittan (piano, synthesizer), Nils Lofgren (guitar, vocals), Patti Scialfa (guitar, vocals), Garry Tallent (bass guitar), Stevie Van Zandt (guitar, vocals) and Max Weinberg (drums); with Soozie Tyrell (violin, guitar, vocals), Jake Clemons (saxophone) and Charlie Giordano (organ, keyboards, accordion). They will be joined by The E Street Horns (Barry Danielian, Eddie Manion, Ozzie Melendez, Curt Ramm), The E Street Choir (Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, Ada Dyer, Curtis King) and Anthony Almonte (percussion, vocals).
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted artist, songwriter and activist Tom Morello will also join the E Street Band for the 2026 tour.
On February 11, a new “Born in the U.S.A.” video by filmmaker Robert Greenwald surfaced. Springsteen’s 1984 recording is heard with stories of American citizens who have been hassled, or fatally shot by ICE. The clip also implements Springsteen comments from the band’s 2025 European tour, where Bruce vocally criticized President Donald Trump's immigration policies. Springsteen then issued “Streets of Minneapolis.” It’s his reaction to the fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Written and recorded over a weekend, the song reached Number 1 on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales and Rock Digital Song Sales charts.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will release a five-LP set from his 2024 Asbury Park, New Jersey concert at the Sea. Hear. Now Festival for Record Store Day on April 18th. It will be also available as a three-CD set.
Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music has announced the Fourth Annual American Music Honors Recipients event to be held Saturday, April 18 on the campus of Monmouth University.
The 2026 honorees are: Dionne Warwick, Patti Smith, Dr. Dre, The E Street Band, and The Doors. This year’s event will also feature a special posthumous tribute to The Band.
Dionne Warwick is one of the most influential vocalists in American popular music, known for her elegant phrasing and emotional precision.
Patti Smith is a visionary artist and poet whose groundbreaking work fused punk, poetry, and rock into a powerful new language of artistic expression.
Dr. Dre is a pioneering producer, artist, and entrepreneur who helped shape the sound of hip-hop and launched the careers of some of the genre’s most influential voices.
The E Street Band is one of the most enduring and influential ensembles in American rock history, with a body of work that has given voice to working-class stories for over five decades.
The Doors were a defining force of late-1960s rock, blending blues, psychedelia, and literary ambition into music that challenged conventions and expanded the possibilities of the genre.
The Band—despite all but one member being Canadians—reshaped American roots music by drawing from folk, blues, country, and rock to create a deeply influential and distinctly American sound.
Brian Williams, journalist and veteran television news anchor, will once again host the American Music Honors.
“The artists we’re honoring this year didn’t just shape popular music—they helped define it,” said Robert Santelli, founding executive director of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music. “Their work reflects the creativity, risk-taking, and cultural exchange that sit at the heart of American music, and it’s a privilege to celebrate their legacies.”
American Music Honors will take place in Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre. Stevie Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul will again serve as the evening’s house band. Award presenters will include Bruce Springsteen (Dionne Warwick and Patti Smith), Jimmy Iovine (Dr. Dre), Jon Landau (The E Street Band), and Stevie Van Zandt (The Doors). Information: springsteencenter.org/american-music-honors-2026
Past honorees include Darlene Love, Mavis Staples, John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne, John Fogerty, Emmylou Harris, and Tom Morello.
The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music preserves the legacy of Bruce Springsteen and celebrates the history of American music and its diversity of artists and genres. As the home of the Bruce Springsteen Archives, the Center serves as the official repository for materials related to Springsteen and The E Street Band, including photographs, historic memorabilia, oral histories, and more. The Center also explores American music more broadly by producing exhibitions, concerts, and educational programming that interprets and honors the cultural impact of American music past, present, and future.
In the November 6, 1976 issue of Melody Maker, I interviewed Steven Van Zandt.
I mentioned to him I felt Bruce and the E Street Band were carrying on a rock and roll tradition, respecting where they came from, and encouraging fans to remember their musical history.
“I don’t wake up in the morning feeling I’m carrying on a tradition,” underlined Van Zandt. “We’re a roots-rock group. We’re conscious of it. I’m doing things not innovative, but we’re always modernizing the situation as much as possible.
“I think it’s a prerequisite that it’s derivative. It’s obvious where it comes from. I just worry it will be considered a throwback or an oldie. These words scare me. I know it sounds a bit silly, but I do believe rock and roll can change the world. It’s about bands, and for me, that suggests brotherhood, family, friendship, and community. I don’t mean to be blasphemous, but I look at rock and roll as a religion. People become part of this religion regardless of their age and have a certain common ground that I can’t explain but I know exists.
“Because that’s what we do, that’s the job description with a performing artist. You have to be that thing that helps to heal in times of suffering. Sometimes it’s there to celebrate . . . but you are sort of the ‘voice of the community,’ or the sounding board or whatever. In a funny way, I think that rock and roll became the church of the community. I know it has been for me.”
Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple (2024), an HBO Original documentary directed by Bill Teck, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival. The film debuted on the HBO channel on June 22, 2024, then streamed on Max. It features a wealth of never-before-seen footage and traces Van Zandt’s career as a producer, musician, songwriter, activist, actor, and helming Little Steven’s Underground Garage on SiriusXM satellite radio.
Launched by Stevie Van Zandt with the Founders Board of Bono, Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese, and Bruce Springsteen, Teachrock.org has provided free, standards-aligned resources to help teachers, students, and families succeed for more than a decade. More than 80,000 educators representing over 30,000 schools in all 50 U.S., England, Spain, Norway and elsewhere are registered with Teachrock.org.
In 2025, the sonic world of Springsteen’s Nebraska has been given more context and depth than ever before with the Sony Music release five-disc box set of Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition.
Featuring a trove of never-heard and previously-undiscovered recordings, the collection includes The E Street Band’s fabled Electric Nebraska sessions, solo outtakes from the era, a newly-shot performance film of Nebraska and a 2025 remaster of the original album.
On his official website, Bruce stated, “It’s radically different from anything I’d remembered. I think the box set is going to be a real surprise … because it surprised me. It’ll be fun for the fans to get a chance to hear it.”
Electric Nebraska was first previewed in early September of this year, with a trio version of “Born in the U.S.A” from late April 1982 — featuring Springsteen backed by Max Weinberg and Garry Tallent.
“We threw out the keyboards and played basically as a three-piece. It was kinda like punk rockabilly. We were trying to bring Nebraska into the electric world.”
Later in September 2025, fans got a look at Springsteen’s first ever performance of Nebraska in its entirety. Having never toured behind the initial album, Springsteen revisited these songs more than 40 years later — offering fresh insight through the subtleties of his live performance, while remaining true to the spirit of the original recordings.
Filmed without an audience, and with only light accompaniment from Larry Campbell and Charlie Giordano, the Thom Zimny-directed film is presented without narration, commentary or dialogue. “Only the voices of the characters are heard,” as Springsteen said.
In addition to Electric Nebraska and the Nebraska performance film, the set’s collection of “Nebraska Outtakes” unearths Springsteen solo rarities — including more songs from the original Nebraska home recordings, like “Losin’ Kind,” “Child Bride” and an early version of “Downbound Train.” Tracks from a one-off 1982 solo studio session include never-released titles “Gun In Every Home” and “On the Prowl.” “It’s like a psycho-gothic Jerry Lee Lewis tune,” Springsteen described the latter. “It was crazy.”
During October 2024, the Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere was theatrically released in theaters from Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios. Directed by Scott Cooper, and adapted by Cooper from Warren Zanes’ book Deliver Me From Nowhere, the film stars Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen and Jeremy Strong as his longtime manager and producer Jon Landau — alongside Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser, Gaby Hoffman, Marc Maron and David Krumholtz.
Deliver Me From Nowhere focuses on the Springsteen’s life during the making of his 1982 album Nebraska. Scott Cooper, known for films such as Crazy Heart (2009), Black Mass (2015) and The Pale Blue Eye (2022), directed the biopic.
“Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska has profoundly shaped my artistic vision,” offered Cooper. “The album’s raw, unvarnished portrayal of life’s trials and resilience resonates deeply with me.”
In support of his biopic, Springsteen gave a speech on October 18, 2025 at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles and played “Streets of Philadelphia,” “Atlantic City,” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
In December 1978 I was invited by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band members to their December 15th and 16th bookings at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
My brother Kenny and I drove up there in Bruce Gary’s van, who now enjoyed long-deserved record business success as the drummer of the Knack. Bruce had jammed with the Knack at The Troubadour. A true love of mine loomed inside the venue as the crowd collectively experienced the riveting event.
The KSAN-FM radio broadcast of Winterland has circulated for nearly a half century. It’s now streamed and can be purchased as an official concert audio.
Bruce’s guitar solo in Prove It All Night was other worldly.
Afterwards at the Miyako Hotel, I told Bruce and Steven that the Mill Valley-based guitarist Michael Bloomfield would be very proud of their expertise on the instrument.
“I talk a lot about Bloomfield on the radio,” Van Zandt later enthused in a 2004 interview with me. “Oh, my God: one of the greats, the single most unsung guitar hero. Really, [Bloomfield is] right there alongside the holy trinity of [Eric] Clapton, [Jeff] Beck, and [Jimmy] Page. Probably next in line, as far as influence and importance in our early youth growing up, would be Bloomfield. Extremely important.”
On October 21, 2024, the Academy Museum/David Geffen Theater in L.A. hosted a special pre-release presentation of the Thom Zimny film, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, an original Hulu documentary that premiered four days later on Disney+.
Professional shot footage from their 2023-2024 tour followed them through their preparation and performances at arenas and stadiums across the world. Sharing fly-on-the-wall footage of rehearsals and moments backstage, as well as Springsteen waxing on the topic of live performance, the film continued this century’s trend of artist-initiated and controlled portraits: more hagiography, less documentary. Zimny began his editing career in the analog world, and Road Diary exhibits his directorial efforts using the latest digital technology.
“One of the technical things working with a small crew on this documentary was that I was very influenced by the 1960s style of filmmakers like D.A. Pennebaker,” Zimny told me on the red carpet before a showing of the movie.
“Like the placement of songs in Dont Look Back. I’m really homing in using everything I can with modern technology and the language. The beauty of having the experience of cutting in film editing is that you develop your rhythm. I started off with a Steenbeck or Moviola, and it’s reflected in my editing today as a director-editor. That was the grounding and my education in film.”
After the screening, John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, moderated a Q&A discussion with Zimny, the movie’s producer and Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau, E Street Band musical director Steven Van Zandt, and Springsteen.
Zimny described how the project developed: “I think it evolved every day that I was experiencing the band, filming, and seeing what was going on. I think it’s a conversation that happens with Jon and Bruce from day one, and I just stay really open to what I’m experiencing. The first day of rehearsals, I was just so blown away by that sense of everyone’s happiness and knew I wanted that to come across, that sense of gratitude that they can perform again. By the time I reached the American concerts and Europe, the film had evolved. I think the big thing is to be open, not have a set POV. I go for the adventure.”
Springsteen, who wrote and narrated the film, reinforced his connection with the fans: “On stage, you have to mentally project yourself into the audience.” He ended the documentary with a quote displayed on screen from ‘An American Prayer’ by the Doors’ Jim Morrison.
At the gathering on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Fairfax Ave., Springsteen revealed the backstory of Morrison’s lyrics in Zimny’s film.
Bruce and Patti both attended the Doors’ concert at the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey, on August 31, 1968. They didn’t meet then but were in the same room, as they discovered years later.
On a more recent evening, they reminisced about the Doors show and found the setlist online.
“We got in bed and said, ‘OK, we’re going to recreate the entire show,’” Springsteen recalled. “I found live Doors cuts and we recreated the entire show from 1968 and listened to it before we went to sleep. . . Suddenly, I sort of went on a bit of a Doors binge. I started reading several books and came across the quote, and it just seemed like the perfect way to sum up what the band is about, what our relationship to our fans means, what our mission statement has been for the past fifty years. It just seemed to sum it up in those four very brief lines.”
It was a full circle moment for Springsteen because on this October 21, 2024 night, the Doors’ drummer John Densmore was in Bruce’s room.
In a 2007 interview with Densmore for MOJO magazine, John told me of an encounter with Springsteen in Century City, CA. when the Doors were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 12, 1993: “Bruce came up to me and said, ‘I like your drumming. It’s so quiet, and then you drop a bomb.’ Thank you, Boss.”
(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love.
Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 they wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.
Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) was published on February 6, 2026 by BearManor Media.
Harvey spoke at the special hearings in 2006 initiated by the Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation.
In 2017, he appeared at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in its Distinguished Speakers Series and as a panelist discussing the forty-fifth anniversary of The Last Waltz at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles in 2023.
During 2025, Kubernik was interviewed in the Siobhan Logue-written and -directed documentary The Sound of Protest,airing on the Apple TVOD TV broadcasting service. The film features Smokey Robinson, Hozier, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Two-Tone's Jerry Dammers, Angélique Kidjo, Holly Johnson, David McAlmont, Rhiannon Giddens, and more).
Photo courtesy of Shore Fire Media
