Ahead of his Letter to You release this Friday, Bruce Springsteen paid a visit to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to talk about the new album and documentary. But the conversation also led to discussing the great work of a younger singer-songwriter.
When asked about an album that he’s listened to from start to finish, Springsteen said, “I listen to Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell album. I just love her writing. It’s cinematic. Her album’s great.” Springsteen previously praised Del Rey’s work during one of his SiriusXM DJ sets.
Colbert also grilled him about his top favorite Bob Dylan songs.
“You’ve got to put ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ in there just because it’s a history, culture-changing piece of music,” he said. “And it’s also really a fantastic rock and roll song. So that I’d have to put in there.”
He also named “Visions of Johanna” and “Ring Them Bells” as his two other faves.
On the topic of Letter to You, Springsteen and Colbert discussed how the film was a tribute to the E Street Band.
“I always tell people, imagine this: You’re going to high school right now,” Springsteen said. “When you’re 70 years old, those are the exact people you’ll be working with and will have worked with them for the past 50 years. The only place that happens is in rock & roll. And it doesn’t happen much for the very simple reason that people can’t stand it. They can’t stand each other for that long. It’s a miracle!”
“And the audience doesn’t always stick around for 50 years,” Colbert pointed out.
“No, they do not,” Springsteen said. “It’s a confluence of very, very special events, and some luck and magic involved, that allows you to have a long life and career that we’ve been blessed enough to have.”
Springsteen previously released “Letter to You” and “Ghosts.”
At the end of the chat, Colbert asked Springsteen if he’d play a little something, and he quickly obliged.
Watch Springsteen perform a snippet of “Last Man Standing” below.
