Bruce Springsteen has more than earned his place as a legend in his own right. Still, despite his impact on music, he’s often compared to artists who had already made their mark long before he had his breakout. The Boss frequently draws parallels to Bob Dylan for their shared lyrical brilliance and borrows musical inspiration from 1950s and ’60s blues and rock and roll, even though his first album didn’t arrive until 1973.
Because of this, even though he’s now seen as being on par with those older music icons, Springsteen was considerably younger than them when he began rubbing shoulders with the very legends he had once idolized. So when he rose to fame in the mid-1970s, it must have felt surreal to find himself performing alongside the figures who had shaped his musical worldview.
There was one hero, though, who stood out far above the rest in Springsteen’s eyes. Sharing a stage with this performer was an experience he felt outshone any collaboration with other big names. During a 2012 keynote speech at the SXSW Festival, Springsteen spoke about the time he was invited to perform with James Brown—a man he not only admired as one of the greatest performers ever, but whose cultural impact remains celebrated around the world.
Recalling how out of place he felt performing after the Godfather of Soul, Springsteen joked with the crowd: “Oh, yeah, can you put me in the schedule somewhere after James Brown? Fuck, no. Get out. Go home. Save it. Don’t waste it, man.” Recounting the surreal moment when Brown introduced him on stage, Springsteen said he was brought on as: “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Mr, Mr. ‘Born in the USA,’” noting with a laugh, “I realised he didn’t know my name, so I ran my ass up there as fast as I could.”
“I can’t tell you, man,” he continued. “Standing on stage alongside of James Brown…it was like, ‘Fuck, what am I doing here?’” Completely awestruck by the moment, Springsteen praised Brown further, describing him as the embodiment of the best qualities from several musical greats all in one.
“He’s such an influence,” Springsteen said. “James Brown, underrated, still, today, underrated. He’s, He’s Elvis. He’s Dylan. Dylan from whom I first heard a version of the place that I lived that felt unvarnished and real to me.” While linking Brown with Elvis makes intuitive sense due to their electrifying performances, Springsteen’s comparison of Brown to Dylan is more unusual—but intentional.
Though James Brown is typically celebrated for his commanding voice and stage presence rather than his songwriting, Springsteen saw a deeper connection. For him, Brown and Dylan both wrote lyrics that reflected the pulse of American society at the time. Since Springsteen has always been a master of capturing the American experience himself, it’s easy to see why Brown’s influence ran so deep—both as a performer and as a writer. To call him Elvis and Dylan rolled into one was, for Springsteen, the ultimate compliment.
