Bruce Springsteen slowly pieced together his new memoir over a seven year period.
The American singer-songwriter released his autobiography titled Born To Run last week (ends02Oct16), which recounts his troubled relationship with his father, growing up in New Jersey, the rise of the E Street Band, memories of raising his children with wife Patti Scialfa as well as his history with depression.
As part of his accompanying tour to promote the book, the Born in the U.S.A. rocker told a sold-out crowd in San Francisco that it took him around seven years to complete the 508-page work.
According to the Associated Press, Bruce wrote when ideas came to him, and proceeded to dictate one section at a time to an assistant “who would put it in the computer.”
He would edit and rewrite the prose until he figured, “Well, that’s as good as I can do without somebody’s help.”
The 67-year-old also shared that he used music to deal with his depression, as he found playing long shows, to the point in which he became exhausted, actually helped him to take his mind off of his problems.
“I found that the experience of playing cleared my mind and gave me a brief moment of respite from the things that tended to disturb me,” he explained. “I found out that exhaustion was my friend. Because if I got myself tired enough, I was simply too tired to be depressed.”
Born to Run has already risen to the top of the book charts, debuting at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list for non-fiction titles.
But Springsteen doubts he’s got a sequel in him, saying, “I think this is my swan song. I can’t imagine writing another one.”
