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Bruce Springsteen says his “guitar playing is underrated as a matter of fact”

The 73-year-old musician also admitted that he “can’t imagine retiring”.

Bruce Springsteen

Image: Al Pereira / Getty Images

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Bruce Springsteen is of the opinion that his guitar playing skills aren’t getting the credit they deserve.

The Boss was speaking during his debut appearance on The Howard Stern Show, where he sat down for a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour discussion about life, music, and everything in between.

“I’m a good guitar player,” Springsteen told Stern, who had, earlier in the interview, admitted to being “star struck”.

“My guitar playing is underrated as a matter of fact,” he added.

Asked if he harbours any thoughts about retirement, the 73-year-old musician was emphatic that hanging up his microphone is something he simply “can’t imagine”.

“If I got to the point where I was incapacitated, or something. But up until then — look at Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger. I played with Pete Seeger in Washington at Obama’s inauguration. Pete was 91 or 92, and he came out and sang This Land is Your Land.”

“I look at those guys, I don’t know if I’ll be playing three hour shows. The Broadway show, I could do the rest of my life in one form or another, if I wanted to. I can’t imagine retiring, no.”

As for his high-profile $500 million catalogue sale to Sony Music Group last December, Springsteen said that the decision was largely “a timing thing”.

“I just got to a point in my life where, you know, I’m 73 years old and it was going to Columbia [Records] who I knew was going to take really good care of it,” he explained. “And so it was just a timing thing and it was like, ‘OK, it makes sense.'”

Listen to Springsteen’s full interview with Stern on SiriusXM.

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