Bruce Springsteen Talks Religion on Colbert's ‘Late Show’

On September 23, Stephen Colbert interviewed Bruce Springsteen on his Late Night show.

Bruce Springsteen performs at Roskilde Festival 2012.
Bruce Springsteen performs at Roskilde Festival 2012. (photo: Photo credit: Bill Ebbesen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

On September 23, Stephen Colbert interviewed Bruce Springsteen on his Late Night show. Bruce told us about his new book, an autobiography titled Born to Run. In the book and in the interview, we learn about the Catholic faith of this rock legend.

“I didn’t actually know that you were raised a Catholic. I don’t know why I didn’t know that but I didn’t know it.”

“Oh yeah…”

The interview is hilarious, discussing… well, first discussing exactly what Stephen is referring to. (Bruce had a lapse in memory about his own book, which was absolute comedy gold). I was taken away to see the honesty and wit worked into the discussion of Bruce Springsteen’s adolescent years as an altar boy, and how his faith is worked into his music.

Bruce recalls, “[The gospel is] where I heard the music for the first time.” This is when he has a funny moment, blanking on what Stephen is talking about. But Stephen rescues him, “It’s a really good book, you should read it.” He continues, “Where is the Catholic in your work? It’s not overt.”

“It’s pretty overt”, says Bruce, reciting lyrics to his song ‘Lost in the Flood’. He continued with Colbert to discuss his childhood faith, “And the first [in Catholic school class] was religion.”

“Were you a good student?” asks Stephen.

“Eeeeee… uhh… no.”

I really loved seeing this musician discuss his faith. Some people might get a bit annoyed when he says he doesn’t know that transubstantiation is (which he defines aptly moments later), but I actually prefer to see that humility versus a showboat who supposes he knows the faith better than he does. Check out the full interview: