‘Hopefully next year sometime’: Bruce Springsteen hints at Australian tour plans

Rock legend Bruce Springsteen has hinted at a return to Australia with the E Street Band next year.

Springsteen is currently on tour in Europe with the July 3 show at Milan’s famous San Siro stadium set to draw a line under more than two years on the road.

“I’m doing my best as we speak to get down there, hopefully next year some time,” he told Rolling Stone.

“I feel bad. I apologise to my Australian fans for not getting down [there] 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.”

The Springsteen and E Street Band 2023-25 tour, rebranded as the Land of Hope and Dreams tour for the current European leg, began in February 2023 in Florida. It was the band’s first date since 2017, the longer than usual lay-off caused initially by the Springsteen on Broadway solo performances and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final leg of that tour was in Australia and New Zealand, bringing to an end a fertile period for local fans after three visits in four years, the same amount as the preceding four decades.

“We had been off for six years,” Springsteen, who will next week release Tracks II: The Lost Albums — a collection of seven full-length, previously unheard albums — said.

“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.”

Earlier this week, fans got their first look at the biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, and with a release date in October, it looks like it’s priming for an Oscar campaign.

The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White will play Springsteen as a young man on the verge of superstardom as he sets off to make his seminal record Nebraska, which he recorded from his bedroom on a four-track.

It’s a formative moment in his artistry, as he contends with his changed fortunes, recognition and reconciling his sometimes-painful childhood.

The trailer features clips of White as The Boss as well as Jeremy Strong as producer and manager Jon Landau, Australian actor Odessa Young as love interest Faye, Paul Walter Hauser as engineer Mike Batlan, and David Krumholtz as a music executive.

There are also black-and-white flashbacks to his younger days, with Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffman playing Springsteen’s parents.

Nebraska remains one of Springsteen’s most beloved releases and features the tracks Atlantic City, Highway Patrolman and Johnny 99, while the trailer also features White singing other classics including Born to Run.

In January, Springsteen confirmed White does his own singing in the film, and endorsed it by declaring, “He sings well, he sings very well”.

With Wenlei Ma