Actionable solutions
Bruce Springsteen, talking with President Barack Obama.
Then came the country music in my late 20s and 30s. Looking for other solutions than Rock music provided. Rock music was a great music and there was some class anger in it and that agreed with me. Ah, then there was a beautiful romanticism and melodies, a lot of energy. But as you were getting older, it didn't address your adult problems.
So I went to Country music. Country music was great, incredible singing and playing, but it was rather fatalistic. You know?
So, I said well, “Who's trying to play…Where is a music of hope?” And when you went to Woody Guthrie and Bob [Dylan], you know... They were spelling out the hard world that you lived in, but they were also providing you, somehow, with some transcendence and some actionable solution to societal, and your own, personal problems. You could be active.
That drew my attention because I was now a relatively big rock star. I was interested in maintaining ties to my community. I was interested in giving voice to both myself and folks in my community. I was also interested in being active to a certain degree, taking some of what I was earning, putting it back into the community […] And that was where I found my full satisfaction and that's how I put all the pieces together.