Bruce Springsteen reveals the story behind the final quote from the ‘Road Diary’ documentary

A listening session with his wife, Patti Scialfait really helped Bruce Springsteen ignite your fire… your creative fire, that is.

The rock star is the subject of a new documentary, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which is now broadcast Hulu and Disney+. Springsteen wrote much of the narration and voiceover for the documentary, which ends with a Jim Morrison quote that speaks poignantly to the film’s meditation on mortality and creativity.

“O great creator of being, grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives,” the quote reads. It’s a haunting sentence from Morrison, who died at just 27, and a pertinent sentence from Springsteen as he refuses to slow down, even as he enters his 70s.

But the story behind how Springsteen found the quote and decided to include it is a sweet look inside his marriage. The musician realized that before he and Scialfa met, they both attended the same Doors concert at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1968.

“We weren’t together, but we were in the same room,” he explained after the documentary’s premiere in Los Angeles. “So one night we started talking about it and discovered that we could go online and watch the entire setlist of the 1968 Asbury Park Show. So we got into bed and said, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ recreate the whole show. I found live cuts of the Doors, we recreated the whole 1968 show and listened to it before we went to sleep.”

This listening session sent Springsteen down something of a rabbit hole. “I binged Doors and started reading several books,” he continued. “And I came across that quote, and it seemed like the perfect way to sum up what the band is about, what our relationship with our fans means, what we’ve been trying to do, and what our mission statement has been.” the last 50 years seemed to sum it all up in those four very, very short lines.

The film follows Springsteen and his legendary band E Street, many of whom have been touring with him for more than 40 years, on their ongoing tour in support of Springsteen’s 2020 album, letter for you (The pandemic delayed live tours a bit.) Follow the band from the first days of rehearsal and setting up the show to the tour, both in the United States and Europe, and the experience they aim to create each night for fans. Plus, it delves into the history of the band and their life on the road.

“It’s just a little idea of ​​how the show is put together, philosophically, technically and musically,” Springsteen said of the film. “It allows fans to get to know the band a little more.”

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Although Springsteen helped shape the film as a central figure and as a writer, his longtime collaborator Thom Zimny ​​directed it. “This is really Tom’s movie because all I told him to do was bring his camera and come to the farm,” the rocker added. “The narrative arc of the film is really all Tom’s, and he did a wonderful job.”

But Zimny ​​insists that the process is more mysterious than Springsteen lets on. “There was no thoughtful game plan that said, ‘The doctor will have this point of view, which then reflects the point of view of the live show,'” Zimny.previously previously said Entertainment Weekly. “But I take my cues from him and how the show feels emotionally. If anything, I’m kind of standing in the shadows and trying to absorb some of the energy that I’m witnessing. This show has moments of humor, reflection and pure rock & roll. I have to include all that in the documentary. I don’t come up with these ideas on my own, I witness how they develop.”