Bruce Springsteen

He was voted the 23rd Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.

His song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was inspired by the John Ford film The Grapes Of Wrath (1940).

He was inspired to take up music when he, at the age of seven, saw Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948). When he was thirteen he bought his first guitar for 18 dollars. His mother took out a loan when Bruce was 16 and bought him a Kent guitar for 60 dollars.

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born September 23, 1949 in Long Branch, New Jersey, USA. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, worked as a bus driver, and was of Irish and Dutch ancestry. His mother, Adele Ann (Zerilli), worked as a legal secretary, and was of Italian descent. He has an older sister, Virginia, and a younger sister Pamela Springsteen. Bruce was raised as a Catholic.

Says his favorite film as a kid was The Searchers (1956).

One of his most famous songs, "Thunder Road", was inspired by the Robert Mitchum movie of the same name, Thunder Road (1958). Cappy Van Dien has the same birthday as Springsteen and is named after his great-grandfather Robert Mitchum and his father Casper Van Dien - Casper Robert Mitchum Van Dien.

In 1965, he became the lead guitarist in the band "The Castiles", he would later become lead singer in the band. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township, New Jersey.

From 1969 to 1971 he performed with Steven Van Zandt, Danny Federici and Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez in a band called "Child", that was renamed later to "Steel Mill" when guitarist Robbin Thompson joined the band.

Was occasionally confused with Bob Seger in the 1970s and 1980s. They have similar raspy singing voices, utilize saxophone players in their music, and often write songs about the working-class common man.

In 1972, he signed a record deal with Columbia Records and released his debut album, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N. J.

", with his New Jersey-based colleagues, who would later be called "The E Street Band", In January, 1973.

The album had critical success and so did their second album, "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle", released in September, 1973, but had little commercial success.

In 1975, after more than 14 month of recording, their third album was released, "Born to Run", which had both critical and commercial success for Springsteen and the band.

In 1977, he returned to the studio, after a two-year legal battle with former manager Mike Appel, and produced the album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town", released in 1978 and became a turning point musically for his career.

In 1980 came the release of "The River", the album sold well and he followed up with the album "Nebraska" which had critical success but had little commercial success. Springsteen came back with a bang with the release of the album "Born in the U. S. A.

Springsteen's album "Nebraska" (1982) was famously recorded in his home studio on a Tascam 4-track tape recorder using a pair of Shure SM57 mics.

" in 1984, which sold 15 million copies in the U. S. alone and had seven top ten singles. It became one of the best-selling albums of all time. After the huge success of the "Born in the U. S. A.

His song "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" was covered by David Bowie during his "Station to Station" sessions and has appeared on some Bowie compilation albums. In 1985, while he was in recording sessions for his single "Absolute Beginners", Bowie was also recorded doing an impression of Springsteen's singing voice (this surfaced following Bowie's death in 2016).

1986: Winner of the British Phonographic Industry Award for International Solo Artist following the success of his multi-million selling album "Born in the USA".

" album he released a more calm and sedate album in 1987, "Tunnel of Love", which included songs about love lost and the challenges of love, after the break-up with first wife, Julianne Phillips.

He inspired and is referred to in the Prefab Sprout song "Cars and Girls" (from their 1988 album "From Langley Park to Memphis").

Their marriage ended in 1989.

He then married Patti Scialfa on June 8th, 1991, They had lived together since the separation between him and his first wife and they had a child before they married.

The albums released in 1992, "Lucky Town" and "Human Touch" were also popular, Human Touch being the most popular of the two, hitting the number one spot of the best-selling albums in the UK.

His Oscar-winning song "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia (1993) was ranked #68 on The American Film Institute's list of "The 100 Years of The Greatest Songs".

In 1994 he won an academy award for the song "Streets of Philadelphia" featured in the film Philadelphia (1993).

In 1995, he released the album "The Ghost of Tom Joad", which was mostly a solo guitar album and was inspired by "Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass," a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Dale Maharidge.

He refused to play "The Angry Game" with Kristian Luuk when he appeared on Sen kväll med Luuk (1996), a Swedish talk-show. The game is a staring contest, during which the contestants are not allowed to laugh.

1997: Awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award.

Father, Douglas "Dutch" Springsteen, died in 1998. Mother's name is Adele. Has two sisters, Virginia and Pamela Springsteen.

1999: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Bono of U2 gave the induction speech. When U2 was inducted in 2005, Springsteen gave their induction speech, returning the favor.

After being apart from the E Street Band for several years they reunited with a successful tour which ended in Madison Square Garden in New York in the year 2000.

In 2002 he released the first studio album with the full band in over 18 years, "The Rising", and it became a critical and commercial success.

2004: He participated in the Vote for Change concert tour organized to encourage the defeat of George W. Bush in the U.S. presidential election, an effort that ultimately fell short as Bush was re-elected on November 2, 2004.

In 2005 he released his third folk album (after "Nebraska" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad"), "Devils & Dust" It was followed by "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" in 2006 and "Magic" in 2007.

Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2007 for his services to music and entertainment (inaugural election). Official induction ceremonies held in May 2008.

His 16th album will be released on January 27, 2009 and is called "Working on a Dream". He married for the first time at the age of 35 to actress Julianne Phillips. The marriage helped boost her acting career, but his traveling took it's toll on the marriage and the final blow came when she found out his affair with the American singer/songwriter/guitarist Patti Scialfa.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Barack Obama, in a live televised ceremony held in the East Room of the White House, on November 22, 2016, along with twenty other recipients, the the largest, and final Medal of Freedom ceremony of Obama's presidency. At this ceremony, the twenty-one recipients, in alphabetical order, included: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elouise Cobell (posthumous award given to her son), Ellen DeGeneres, Robert De Niro, Richard Garwin, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Frank Gehry, Margaret Hamilton (as Margaret H. Hamilton), Tom Hanks, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (posthumous award given to her niece), Michael Jordan, Maya Lin, Lorne Michaels, Newton Minow, Eduardo Padron (as Eduardo Padrón), Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Vin Scully, Bruce Springsteen, and Cicely Tyson.