Bruce Springsteen’s troubled relationship with his father, in his own words

19 June 2025, 13:18

The ‘Born to Run’ singer has spent a lifetime working out his feelings about his dad in his songwriting.

Bruce Springsteen’s father was his “hero,” but the ‘Born in the USA’ songwriter also believes his dad was his “greatest foe.”

This was the reflection Bruce shared about his difficult relationship with his father, Douglas ‘Dutch’ Springsteen, in his 2018 concert-residency Springsteen on Broadway.

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Bruce’s troubled relationship with his father was also a huge focus in his 2016 memoir Born to Run, and the topic is also expected to play a big role in this autumn’s Bruce-focused biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere, on which the singer has been close collaborator.

Watch the Deliver Me from Nowhere Official Trailer

In the film’s first trailer, Bruce (Jeremy Allen White)’s poor relationship with his father (Adolescence's Stephen Graham) is shown to be the main factor which influenced his early music-making.

And indeed, throughout his music-making career, ‘The Boss’ penned many songs which dwelled on themes of troubled father-son bonds; songs such as ‘Adam Raised a Cain’, ‘My Father’s House’ and ‘Independence Day’.

“Those songs were ways that I spoke to my father at the time, because he didn’t speak and we didn’t talk very much,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

In this interview, Bruce also admitted his relationship with his dad was often “more complicated” than how his musical reflections presented it.

So what else has Bruce said about his relationship with his dad?

Adam Raised a Cain

In Born to Run, Bruce opened up to his fans about his dad’s struggles with mental health and alcoholism, and how these factors led to Dutch bullying his young son.

“My father used to call me an outcast, misfit, weirdo sissy boy,” the singer revealed in his autobiography.

Such constant put downs from his father led to the artist seeking his dad’s approval in his 20s by attempting to mirror the kind of man he felt his father wanted him to be.

As Bruce reflected in his and Barack Obama’s 2021 book and podcast series Renegades: Born In The USA: “When we can’t get the love we want from the parent we want it from, how do you create the intimacy you need?”

Young Bruce’s answer was to try and channel his father. He began working out to become a bigger built man, and appeared on stage in “workmen’s clothes” – despite in his own admission of “never [having] worked a job in my life.”

In his 30s, Bruce sought therapy to help him work through his identity issues and troubled past, leading him to realise he was replicating his father’s most destructive behaviours while neglecting his “true self”.

This turned the musician’s life around, and by his 40s, the singer was reevaluating his understanding of his father.

“He loved me, but couldn’t stand me,” Bruce described in Born to Run.

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However, in the book, Bruce describes a moving moment an older Dutch helped a sympathetic Bruce reconcile their relationship after the birth of Bruce’s first son, Evan, in 1990.

After surprising Bruce and his wife Patti Scialfa at their home in Los Angeles, the 66-year-old new-grandad reflected to his son over a few beers: “Bruce, you’ve been very good to us.”

He then added, after a pause: “And I wasn’t very good to you.”

Springsteen on Broadway – second album trailer

Bruce said in his memoir: “That was it. It was all that I needed, all that was necessary,” to help patch up their difficult past.

And while he told Vanity Fair that he was never able to get an “I love you” from his father, (the “best you could get” was reportedly a “me too” response), it is evident ‘The Boss’ managed to significantly work through his complex relationship with his father before Dutch’s death in 1998.

It remains to be seen how Deliver Me From Nowhere will continue Bruce’s reflections on his and his father’s troubled relationship, but the film is expected to be an emotional one.

After a visit to the set, the ‘Dancing in the Dark’ singer sent a moving message to Stephen Graham, who portrays Dutch in the film.

It read: “‘My father passed away a while ago and I felt like I saw him today. Thank you for giving me that memory.’”