I was a guitar player on the streets of Asbury Park and already a member in good standing amongst those who lie in service of the truth - artists with a small A. But I held four clean aces. I had youth, almost a decade of hardcore bar band experience, a good group of homegrown musicians who were attuned to my performance style, and a story to tell.

And at the time, for one of the few times in my life I didn't have a band, I just had myself and the guitar, so I was going to have to do something with just my voice, just the guitar and just my songs that was going to move someone enough to give me a shot. So I wrote songs that were very lyrically alive and lyrically dense. And they were unique, but it really came out of the motivation to - or I understood it was - I was going to have to make my mark that way.

I took a month long vacation in the stratosphere, and you know it's very hard to hold your breath.

I told a story with the E Street Band that was bigger and better than I could have done on my own.

At the end of every hard day, people find some reason to believe.

Politics and life go hand in hand.

All I try to do is write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it.