All the Artists Supporting Him in Feud With Trump

In the music community, support and admiration for Bruce Springsteen isn’t remotely a scoop; he’s long been admired by his peers and those he’s inspired. But Springsteen’s recent onstage comments in Manchester, England, about Donald Trump — calling the administration “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous” — and the increasingly authoritarian state of America have drawn the president’s ire. Trump even threatened a “major investigation” into Springsteen for his endorsement of Kamala Harris. In light of Trump’s attacks, a slew of musicians have publicly reaffirmed their support for the New Jersey legend. Here’s a rundown of a list that will surely continue to grow.

Pearl Jam

Springsteen’s brand of tradition-soaked rock & roll may have seemed the antithesis of punk and its offspring grunge when Pearl Jam launched in 1990. But any notion of an oil-and-water chemistry dissipated as early as 2004, when Eddie Vedder appeared onstage during a Springsteen and E Street Band show for a version of “Better Man.” A decade later, the two teamed up for a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” during a Springsteen show in Australia.

During Pearl Jam’s May 16 show in Pittsburgh, Vedder showed where he stood in the Bruce-vs.-Trump war by playing a version of Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins.” Two days later, at the same venue, Vedder made his feelings even more evident, repeating some of Springsteen’s litany of Trump disruptions and Springsteen’s retorts (“That’s happening,” “That is also happening”). He continued, “Part of free speech is open discussion. Part of democracy is healthy public discourse. The name-calling is so beneath us. Bruce has always been as pro-American with his values and liberty, and his justice has always remained intact. And I’m saying this now to be sure this freedom to speak will still exist in a year or two when we come back to this microphone.”

In case no one got the message even then, Vedder posted a photo on social media wearing a “United States vs. Bruce Springsteen” baseball cap.

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Robert Plant

The same night Vedder spoke out in solidarity with Springsteen, the former Led Zeppelin frontman did something similar during a performance with his band Saving Grace at a show in Finland. “Right now in England, which is where we come from — not quite the land of the ice and snow — Bruce Springsteen is touring right now in the U.K., and he’s putting out some really serious stuff,” Plant told the crowd. “So tune in to him.” Addressing tensions between the U.K. and the U.S., Plant said, “Let’s all hope that we can be …” before going into a version of his former band’s “Friends.”

Neil Young

The Springsteen-Young mutual appreciation society dates back to at least the mid-Eighties, when Young, along with Crosby, Stills & Nash, took part in the first of Young and his then-wife Pegi’s Bridge School benefit shows in California. Since then, they’ve shared a stage more than a few times, playing Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Down by the River.”

Addressing Trump directly, Young posted on his website on May 19: “Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America. You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us. You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made. Taylor Swift is right. So is Bruce. You know how I feel.”

It’s not the first time Young has gone after Trump: In 2020, he posted an open letter to the then first-time president, calling him “a disgrace to my country” and demanding Trump stop using “Rockin’ in the Free World” at rallies. Given that Trump was a fan at one point — he was in the audience at a CSNY reunion show in New York in 2006 — the pro-Bruce remarks may sting.

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Tom Morello

Musically and politically, the former Rage Against the Machine guitarist shares plenty in common with Springsteen, down to joining the E Street band on their High Hopes Tour in 2014. At the Boston Calling Music Festival on May 25, Morello told the crowd, “Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality. And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a bigger audience. Fuck that guy.” Morello then played Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

Mike Ness (Social Distortion)

In a 2018 interview, Ness expressed surprise that Springsteen was an admirer of his band Social Distortion, whose influence is documented in the new book Tearing Down the Orange Curtain. “I became a Springsteen fan later on, much later,” Ness said. “I was not getting turned on to Springsteen when I was a kid. His live shows are what I really like. You know, we just kind of became friends. He was a big supporter of Social Distortion in the early Nineties. I was like, ‘How did this guy even hear of us?’”

The two wound up on a few mutual stages, including a New York-area Social D show in 2019. At the Punk Rock Bowling Festival in Las Vegas on May 26, Ness made his admiration for Springsteen even more apparent, talking about how “freedoms being taken away from us” and adding, “I’m good friends with Bruce Springsteen…. All I’m saying is, pay attention.” He also told the crowd he had warned them in the past about “T-rump,” who is the “worst [president] we ever had.” (Watch at the 31:00 mark above.)

Bono

The U2 singer and Springsteen also go way back, starting at least with Springsteen joining the Irish band onstage in Philadelphia in 1987. In 2002, Bono hopped onstage during a Springsteen Miami show for a version of “Because the Night,” and later on, Springsteen inducted U2 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Asked about the Trump back-and-forth by Jimmy Kimmel on May 27, Bono succinctly summed up whose side he was on: “There’s only one Boss in America.”

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Jason Isbell

The Americana singer-songwriter has never held his tongue when it comes to speaking out about political and social issues and has often cited Springsteen as an influence on his songwriting. So it’s no surprise that Isbell would be in Springsteen’s corner here.

On social media, he planted his flag, and took a shot at Trump’s petulance, writing: “Just want to make sure everybody knows Bruce Springsteen is an incredibly nice and kind and generous dude who has made some of the greatest albums of all time and sorry big baby but there’s only one Boss.”