GROSS: You write about redefining what it meant to you to be a man, that you'd learned about the rigidity and the blue-collar narcissism of manhood '50s style from your father. And you learned to always withhold something - you do not lower your mask. Did you consciously rethink what it meant to be a man?
Transcript
GROSS: You write about redefining what it meant to you to be a man, that you'd learned about the rigidity and the blue-collar narcissism of manhood '50s style from your father. And you learned to always withhold something - you do not lower your mask. Did you consciously rethink what it meant to be a man?,br.
SPRINGSTEEN: These are hard questions. FRESH AIR is difficult.
(LAUGHTER)
SPRINGSTEEN: Let me think (laughter). Well, you know, you're young and you're always in pursuit your young manhood. You know, you're trying to figure out - what does that mean? What does - you know, there's a lot of pressure on young men to sort that out. And, you know, we tend to gravitate towards one-dimensional iconography as far as what it means to be a fully grown man. And you can get lost in so much of it out there. But, you know, part of my on-stage creation was someone trying to sort that out. I think initially, our audiences were filled with young men. You know, our initial audience was a lot of young guys who I think were trying to - who you played a bit of a big brother role for and were trying to sort out a lot of the same things right - soon as "Born To Run" hit, you know? So it was something that I worked pretty hard on.
