The revealing, wildly entertaining, and bestselling memoir from the legendary Bruce Springsteen, one of the greatest songwriters and performers of any era. Born to Run is the greatest rock ânâ roll story ever told.
Essential reading for 2025âs 50th anniversary of Springsteenâs seminal album âBorn to Runâ and coinciding with the highly anticipated film âDeliver Me From Nowhere,â starring Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong, about the writing and recording of Springsteenâs classic âNebraskaâ record.
Following his 2009 Super Bowl halftime performance, Bruce Springsteen privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life. The result is âan utterly unique, endlessly exhilarating, last-chance-power-drive of a memoirâ (Rolling Stone) that offers the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.
He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as âThe Big Bangâ: seeing Elvis Presleyâs debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work.
Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (âThunder Road,â âBadlands,â âDarkness on the Edge of Town,â âThe Riverâ âBorn in the USA,â âThe Rising,â and âThe Ghost of Tom Joad,â to name just a few), Bruce Springsteenâs autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.
âBoth an entertaining account of Springsteenâs marathon race to the top and a reminder that the one thing you canât run away from is yourselfâ (Entertainment Weekly), Born to Run is much more than a legendary rock starâs memoir. This book is a âa virtuoso performance, the 508-page equivalent to one of Springsteen and the E Street Bandâs famous four-hour concerts: Nothing is left onstage, and diehard fans and first-timers alike depart for home sated and yet somehow already aching for moreâ (NPR).