‘All Hell Is Breaking Loose in the United States’

Bruce Springsteen attended a screening of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere on Wednesday evening at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles. At the end of the night, he performed “Atlantic City” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.” He also endorsed the growing No Kings movement in his prepared remarks. 

“Outside, all hell is breaking loose in the United States,” Springsteen said. “For 250 years around the world, despite all the faults we had, the United States stood as a beacon of liberty and democracy and hope and freedom.”

He continued: “I’ve spent 50 years traveling as kind of a musical ambassador for America, and I’ve seen firsthand all the love and the admiration that folks around the world have had for the America of our highest ideals. Despite how terribly damaged America has been recently, that country and those ideals remain worth fighting for. I’m going to send this out as a prayer for America and for our unity and No Kings.”

He also praised Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere director Scott Cooper. “He did an incredible job writing and directing the picture,” Springsteen said. “I can’t thank him enough. It’s filmed so beautifully. He put the stories together so beautifully. I just love you a lot, Scott.”

The movie hits theaters on Friday. And Springsteen has spent the past couple of weeks promoting it at events and media appearances across England and America. Reviews have been largely positive. “It’s probably the only movie about a rock star in which the payoff isn’t gold records but going to therapy and seeing a grown man sit on his elderly dad’s lap,” wrote Rolling Stone‘s David Fear. “The money shot isn’t a fist held high in the sold-out arena air. It is a moment in which, to paraphrase the Bible: Bruce wept.”

Alongside the movie, Springsteen is finally releasing the famed Electric Nebraska sessions. “As America attempts to reclaim its pride by whitewashing its unflattering histories,” writes Rolling Stone‘s Will Hermes, “Springsteen’s struggle to balance light and dark on these pointedly American recordings is tremendously poignant.”

Springsteen’s future plans are unclear, but he did tell Rolling Stone earlier this year that he has a new solo album pegged for a 2026 release. He’ll also return to the road at some point. “Rather than do a 130-show stretch,” he said, “which we did this time because we had been off for six years, so I had to get back in touch with my audience, and it was fun playing with the band … in the future, I think we’ll probably play more often and less dates.”

He also hopes to return to Australia at some point. “I’m doing my best as we speak to get down there, hopefully next year sometime,” he said.  “And I feel bad. I apologize to my Australian fans for not getting down on this stretch, but I want them to know that we are planning to get down there as soon as feasible, probably in the next year sometime.”