Bruce Springsteen 'on the mend' but won't return to tour until 2024
American rock legend Bruce Springsteen announced Wednesday, Sept. 27 that he will postpone the remainder of his 2023 tour dates until next year, as he recovers from treatment for peptic ulcer disease.
The 74-year-old singer "has continued to recover steadily" and will continue treatment for the rest of the year on doctor's advice, the statement said.
"Thanks to all my friends and fans for your good wishes, encouragement, and support, I'm on the mend and can't wait to see you all next year," he said in a statement.
The artist beloved as "the Boss" has been on tour with his E Street Band since the start of the year.
But earlier this month he announced he was postponing his September concert dates in the United States due to his illness. He also postponed two shows in August due to an unspecified illness.
"Rescheduled dates for each of the 2023 shows, including those postponed earlier this month, will be announced next week, all taking place at their originally scheduled venues," the statement said.
Anyone unable to attend on the new dates will be able to request a refund, it added.
The artist behind mega hits like Born to Run and Dancing in the Dark, Springsteen has sold more than 150 million records.
Peptic ulcers are open sores that develop on the inside stomach lining and the upper portion of the small intestine. The most common symptom is abdominal pain.
Speaking to AFP at the Manhattan film premiere of Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, Steven Van Zandt—a guitarist in the E Street Band—said his longtime friend Springsteen "was doing better every day."
Still pulling marathons
Springsteen's current tour is the first he's gone on with the E Street Band since 2017, and he's been on the road most of 2023.
He traversed the United States before taking on Britain and Europe, then returned stateside in August.
Just before announcing his ulcer, the Boss played a nonstop three-hour set in his home state of New Jersey under a full late-summer moon, at one point ripping his shirt open to the delight of tens of thousands of fans.
Springsteen is famous for his marathon shows, with the longest clocking in at more than four hours, a performance he pulled off in Helsinki in 2012.
At his final show before going on leave earlier this month, Springsteen performed the hits—including a majestic rendition of Jungleland, a Jersey favorite—and the deep cuts, including his rarely performed Detroit Medley.
The artist also injected the show with his newer music off his most recent studio album Letter to You, a meditation on loss and mortality from one of rock's ruminative stars.
The album fits neatly into his canon, with the layered guitars, dramatic percussion, and glockenspiel swelling into the signature sound he coined with his E Street Band, the group he's performed with since 1972. (AFP)