00:00Legendary rock star Bruce Springsteen is now a billionaire.
00:06The boss went from E Street to Easy Street by staying true to his humble roots, rolling
00:11up his sleeves and going to work.
00:14Despite his discomfort with the trappings of wealth, the Garden State's original guitar
00:18hero has amassed a substantial fortune over six decades, which Forbes conservatively estimates
00:23to be worth $1.1 billion, singing about his blue-collar roots.
00:29From his first major label LP, 1973's Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, Springsteen's
00:35brand of rock and roll spun tales of manual labor, finding love, and getting out of the
00:40town that, quote, rips the bones from your back.
00:43He would know, having been born in a Jersey shore town to working-class parents and living
00:48with his paternal grandparents in what he once described as their, quote, noticeably
00:52decrepit home.
00:54Getting out had taken him some time.
00:57Springsteen spent the 1960s playing in a variety of local bands, figuring out who he
01:01was as an artist before eventually signing with Columbia Records.
01:06For his debut album, Springsteen was backed by musicians who became the now-legendary
01:10E Street Band, guitarist Stevie Van Sant, drummer Max Weinberg, the late saxophonist
01:16Clarence Clemons, among others.
01:19They had all met playing local Jersey Shore clubs and, as a group, put the Stone Pony,
01:25also known as the house that Bruce built, on the map in the 1970s.
01:30Once Springsteen had the band, he turned to John Landau, a former rock journalist, to
01:34be his manager and record producer.
01:37When Bruce Springsteen returned to his native New Jersey in 1981, he finally had some financial
01:42security.
01:43Having just finished his first commercially successful tour supporting his fifth studio
01:48album, The River, he had significant money in his bank account.
01:52Still, the then-32-year-old boss chose to furnish his rented Colts Neck ranch house
01:58with cast-off furniture scavenged from the streets.
02:03Over the course of his career, Springsteen has dominated the charts, with 21 studio albums,
02:08seven live albums, and five EPs, selling over 140 million albums globally.
02:15He also told his stories in the No. 1 New York Times bestselling memoir in 236 sold-out
02:22Broadway performances.
02:24Along the way, he won 20 Grammys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes, a special Tony Award, and
02:31has earned a place in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
02:37The Man Who Sang About Finding the American Dream has also received the country's highest
02:42awards, accepting the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom
02:47in 2016.
02:50In 2021, shortly after his second run of Springsteen on Broadway ended, he sold his music catalog
02:56to Sony, earning a lump sum of $500 million for his life's work.
03:02At the time, Landau said the deal was deserved for the half-century Springsteen spent making
03:08music.
03:09And the glory days keep coming.
03:11In 2023, Springsteen's world tour sold more than 1.6 million tickets, generating $380
03:18million in revenue per Pulse star.
03:22With concerts scheduled through mid-2025 and no apparent plans to slow down, the heart
03:27of Heartland Rock remains, in his words, a gun for hire.
03:32Even now, at 74, he's out there touring and doing three-hour shows.
03:36Always a workman's workman, Bruce is still clocking in and rolling up his sleeves for
03:41fans around the world.
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