Bruce Springsteen has long wrestled with the anchor of New Jersey. But the artist who yearned to pull out of \u201ca town full of losers\u201d in the 1975 anthem \u201cThunder Road\u201d has always managed to find his way back home.<\/p>\n
Now, with the opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, the reluctant-turned-exuberant ambassador of New Jersey is planting a flag of permanence in his home state. The 30,000-square-foot space \u2014 located on the campus of Monmouth University, just a mile from the Jersey Shore boardwalk \u2014 will offer visitors a deep exploration of American music when it opens June 13<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s in New Jersey because I\u2019m from here \u2014 I live here,\u201d Springsteen, 76, said with a laugh in a backstage interview.<\/p>\n For those who might question why New Jersey should play host to a comprehensive collection of artifacts and materials pertaining to American music, he had a more definitive retort: \u201cWhy not!\u201d<\/p>\n Housed in a $50 million building designed by CookFox Architects of New York, the center is a new frontier for an artist whose seven-decade career has included hundreds of songs, thousands of concerts, a Broadway show, an autobiography, a Hollywood biopic and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/p>\n Given his cultural imprint, the center could easily have morphed into a monument to Springsteen. But that wasn\u2019t what the Boss had in mind.<\/p>\n \u201cFrank Sinatra\u2019s tuxedo was pretty cool, you know?\u201d he said, referring to a garment once worn by another son of New Jersey. The tuxedo is one of the hundreds of items on display, more than half of them related to artists other than Springsteen.<\/p>\n Indeed, just as the sound of the E Street draws from many American musical strands, so too does the center include the many genres unique to the nation.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how I see myself,\u201d Springsteen said. \u201cI\u2019m a small link in a big chain. I\u2019m the guy that came along and kind of picked up the flag. That\u2019s the way it works. You run with it for a while, and you pass it on to the next guy. I think the center reflects that.\u201d<\/p>\n Having his name on the side of a building may have been new for him, but the opening festivities returned to him to his place of comfort \u2014 the stage.<\/p>\n On Thursday night, at the 4,100-seat arena on the Monmouth campus, Springsteen traded verses with Kenny Chesney on Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land is Your Land,\u201d marched down the aisles in a New Orleans-style second line with Trombone Shorty, and ripped through a punk anthem with Guthrie lyrics alongside the Dropkick Murphys.<\/p>\n On Friday, Springsteen channeled the spirit of Elvis Presley as he snarled through \u201cJailhouse Rock.\u201d Then he took a seat to watch as Sheryl Crow crooned her way through Patsy Clines\u2019s \u201cI Fall to Pieces\u201d and Mavis Staples offered a soulful interpretation of \u201cThe Weight\u201d by the Band.<\/p>\n Jon Bon Jovi<\/a> and the E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren pushed their amplifiers to the breaking point during their rendition of Neil Young\u2019s \u201cRockin\u2019 in the Free World.\u201d Other artists who took the stage included Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Public Enemy, Gary Clark Jr., Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 and Valerie June.<\/p>\n Robert Santelli, the center\u2019s founder and executive director, served as the emcee. The performances came shortly after a number of artists announced that they would not take part<\/a> in this summer\u2019s Freedom 250 event, a series of concerts organized by President Trump that is scheduled to take place on the National Mall in Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that Bob set up these two nights, which is taking you through the history of American music, with all these artists who have generously donated their time, is really what should have been happening nationally, and should have been happening on the Mall,\u201d Springsteen said. \u201cSo it\u2019s nice that it\u2019s happening, period.\u201d<\/p>\n Politics have been central to Springsteen\u2019s music and concerts in the past year. Enraged by the actions of the Trump administration, including the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development<\/a>, he was pushed to the edge by the killings<\/a> of two Americans by federal agents in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n \u201cAlex Pretti<\/a> died on a Saturday morning, and I get a call: \u2018We\u2019re going to Minneapolis,\u2019\u201d said Jon Landau, Springsteen\u2019s longtime manager. \u201cI said, \u2018No, we\u2019re not going today. Let\u2019s wait.\u2019 I said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you go write a song?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Within five hours, Springsteen sent along the lyrics to \u201cStreets of Minneapolis.\u201d<\/a> He recorded it two days later.<\/p>\n The song, a blunt condemnation of the administration\u2019s actions in Minneapolis, inspired Santelli and Eileen Chapman, the center\u2019s director, to mount an exhibition on protest music. Called \u201cChimes of Freedom: Protest, Patriotism and the Power of Song,\u201d it spans songs from \u201cYankee Doodle\u201d to the civil rights and antiwar anthems of the 1960s, ending with \u201cStreets of Minneapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve written a lot of music that has political implications, and what I would call critically patriotic, which is really my definition of a patriot,\u201d Springsteen said.<\/p>\n Although \u201cStreets of Minneapolis\u201d stands as a rare musical rebuke to the current Trump administration, Springsteen believes the genre will continue.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s there, it\u2019s alive, it\u2019s present, it\u2019s living and it\u2019s having its impact,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be something to protest in the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n The performances ended with Bon Jovi joining Springsteen and the E Street guitarist Stevie Van Zandt for \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Go Home,\u201d an unofficial anthem of the Jersey Shore and its signature venue, the Stone Pony in Asbury Park<\/a>. That was where Springsteen, Van Zandt, Southside Johnny and others used to play beer-soaked covers until sunrise.<\/p>\n Bon Jovi and Springsteen, two Jersey-born totems of American rock, are not often on the same stage together. Their performance (with added hype from Flavor Flav of Public Enemy) amounted to a proclamation of New Jersey\u2019s vital place in music history while also demonstrating the chip-on-the-shoulder spirit that has animated American musical movements from soul to punk, from hip-hop to bar-band rock.<\/p>\n Discussing their set list before the show, Springsteen asked Bon Jovi about joining together for \u201cRaise Your Hand,\u201d a soul staple by Eddie Floyd.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Of course I know it, because I learned it down the Shore in the late \u201970s,\u2019\u201d Bon Jovi said. \u201cWe could cut our teeth and learn about different styles of music and experiment. And with the success of Bruce and the Jukes, the kids like me could come down here and play original music.\u201d<\/p>\n As Springsteen\u2019s fame grew, the need for an archive became clear.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years, he was just sending boxes to his mom\u2019s house,\u201d Landau said.<\/p>\n Still, the Boss was hesitant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed too auspicious,\u201d Springsteen said. \u201cLike, hey, do you really want your name on a building? Who knows what you might do?\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of a permanent archive has bedeviled other stars of his ilk. Sir Paul McCartney only recently warmed to the idea of museum<\/a>. Bob Dylan has reportedly never visited<\/a> the Bob Dylan Center<\/a> in Tulsa, Okla.<\/p>\n Opening an archive can also signal the end of career. But Springsteen is not done yet, having just wrapped a 20-date tour at sold-out arenas across the country with an expanded E Street lineup.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the best the band has ever sounded,\u201d Landau said.<\/p>\n