Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to Perform During Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIII Halftime Show

NEW YORK, Sept 28, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND will perform in the BRIDGESTONE SUPER BOWL XLIII HALFTIME SHOW on NBC at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Sunday, February 1, the NFL and NBC announced tonight.

The Super Bowl halftime show is annually the most-watched musical performance. More than 148 million viewers in the U.S. watched last year's show. The Super Bowl and halftime show will be broadcast worldwide in more than 230 countries and territories.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band join an esteemed list of recent halftime acts that includes the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul McCartney, Prince and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The BRIDGESTONE SUPER BOWL XLIII HALFTIME SHOW is an NFL NETWORK PRODUCTION and will be executive produced by Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of WHITE CHERRY ENTERTAINMENT and by DON MISCHER PRODUCTIONS. Don Mischer also will serve as director.

http://www.brucespringsteen.net

Now this is really something. Bruce, as an artist has always been somewhat of an advocate and practitioner of artistic integrity over album sales and world wide recognition (expect for that crazy little period in the mid 1980s). Now he's playing the biggest fifteen minutes an artist can ever get to play in their lives without anything to support. Magic will be almost a year and a half old and half of the band is in really bad shape (Max has a tight schedule, Nils is undergoing hip replacement surgery, and Clarence is getting really up there in years so recording will have to be done really quickly to be out prior to February 3rd. Also if there will be a tour after the fact, it will have to be cut short by Max Weinberg going to Los Angeles to start his new job as house band for The Tonight Show, probably the most prestigious position a TV house band can get. Without a tour or an album, it would seem like he's doing it just for more money and albums sales, which in all honesty, would be a completly uncharacteristic move for The Boss.


















Now I'm not saying any of this impossible. A new album and a tour behind it could be on the way, but at this point it seems unlikely, which really leaves me scratching my head. That being said, I will be there and entirely excited for the event. A much as I love Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and U2, Bruce Springsteen is my all time favorite artist, so this will certainly be a lot of fun.

-Chris