Howard Stern returned to the air with a bang — and a Boss. While Stern was on break from his eponymous gig at SiriusXM, the King of All Media took in Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show, Springsteen on Broadway. Jujamcyn’s Walter Kerr Theatre, where Springsteen trods the boards on the Great White Way, is only about 60 miles from Asbury Park where Springsteen grew up. But it’s a world away in another sense — and that’s part of what makes this show and Bruce’s journey resonate.
Stern, like Springsteen, is a guy who came from modest beginnings an hour or so from Manhattan and who reached the pinnacle of his profession doing it his way. The two entertainers have a lot in common. Springsteen, at 68, is just four years older than Stern and they’ve lived through the same cultural upheavals. Stern isn’t reluctant to paint Springsteen as a hero, and at the show — which was an exclusive event for SiruiusXM listeners and bigwigs — Stern says he was so moved he got tongue-tied when it came to talk to the Boss afterwards. Stern told his radio audience:
“I got a little bit tongue-tied. Like, I was so moved by the show. It wasn’t like I was alone with the guy. I don’t know what to say.”
Stern succinctly summed up what got him so emotional about the show. He says that in the show Bruce gets to “go back and visit his parents and visit his neighborhood. You know, he’s able to go there emotionally. You can see the guy’s onstage and he’s pouring his heart out.”
Anybody who’s seen Stern’s autobiographical movie, Private Parts, knows he’s a big softy, and that kind of journey moves him every time.
