Springsteen admits he's made peace with his 'Boss' nickname
The rocker was initially called 'Boss' by his band and crew members
May 02, 2025
Bruce Springsteen has some say on his moniker “the Boss.”
In a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the rocker candidly talked about his nickname which he does not like being called.
“‘The Boss,’ which dogged me my whole life, still does,” Springsteen confessed. “I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve given up and gotten used to it, I suppose.”
The 75-year-old singer recalled some history behind his moniker, sharing that it came out as he used to pay his members and crew.
“‘Hey, boss.’ You know? ‘Are we getting paid this week?’ ‘Sure,’” he remembered. “And then some DJ heard it and started using it on the radio and it, you know, went viral, as they say. And so there it is.”
In Springsteen's 2012 biography, Bruce, written by Peter Ames Carlin, the E Street Band member, Stevie Van Zandt, said in the book that at first Springsteen was called Boss only by his band members and inner circle until a journalist overheard the nickname and he made it public.
“I remember people calling him that and not taking it seriously. Not ‘til I started calling him the Boss. Then they took it seriously because I was a boss, too. So when I started calling him the Boss the vibe was, ‘If Stevie’s doing it, there’s something to this!’” Van Zandt noted.
