Socialist rocker Bruce Springsteen has declared himself a “patriot” for travelling around the world and trashing the United States in front of foreign audiences.
“I believe in critical patriotism,” Springsteen told PBS NewsHour in a recent interview, after being asked, “You said before that loving your country means telling the truth about it. How has that guided your work?”
The Born In the U.S.A. singer, who was interviewed on the PBS special, Bruce Springsteen: Finding America in Song, added, “I believe that’s the definition of a patriot, you know?”
“That you love your country so much, that you are willing to look at it clearly, recognize its faults, encourage it to be a better place, and believe that you carry in your heart the country that is waiting,” Springsteen said.
“I was very angry,” the 76-year-old rocker said of his new protest song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote after the fatal shootings of ICE agitators Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and later performed at an anti-Trump “No Kings” rally.
“And usually, I write songs that have a lot of political implications, but very often are not directly political,” Springsteen added.
Springsteen, who recently wrapped up his anti-Trump “Land of Hope and Dreams American” tour, went on to say that Rage Against the Machine guitarist told him “you gotta kick ’em in the teeth.”
“In this case, I wrote a protest song,” the “Glory Days” singer said. “I thought, ‘Gee, maybe this is a little broad,’ you know?”
“But then I had my buddy Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine, and he says, ‘No, no, no, Bruce, nuance is great, but, sometimes, you gotta kick ’em in the teeth,’” Springsteen continued.
“And, so, that was a moment when you had to kick ’em in the teeth,” the “I’m On Fire” singer added. “It was a song written for a moment. I wrote it, recorded it, released it in three days. It’s a song of its times.”