Springsteen promises party for halftime show
TAMPA, Fla. - Anybody who thinks it's tough playing the halftime show at the Super Bowl with 150 million people watching should try serenading Barack Obama with the majestic granite visage of Abraham Lincoln staring over your shoulder.
Bruce Springsteen did.
"It kind of was a good warm-up for this," Springsteen joked Thursday after arriving in Tampa with the E Street Band. "That takes some of the pressure off, you know."
In his first news conference in more than 20 years, The Boss was as cool as ever.
Wearing black jeans, a black crewneck sweater and black boots, Springsteen and his band charmed a standing-room-only crowd by joking about his lack of football knowledge, that the group is still together - and its members still alive - and the tremendous year he's having personally and professionally.
"Is there anybody from New Jersey? Don't give them the microphone!" the Garden State native called out before taking questions in his first large forum since a 1987 news conference for Amnesty International.
The band plays Sunday's halftime show of the Super Bowl, which is enjoying a run of booking major talent for the roughly 15-minute slot before the largest television event in the nation. Acts have recently included the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul McCartney, Prince and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The NFL said last year's halftime show with Petty was watched by more than 148 million viewers in the U.S.
Springsteen, for years, had turned down invitations to play the Super Bowl, unsure of the legitimacy of such a performance. But Springsteen said the opportunity to promote his new CD, and the upgraded production team that has given the invitation a prestige factor, changed his mind.
The performance is expected to be a teaser for the upcoming tour, and scores of Las Vegas sports books are taking bets on the set list.
Springsteen only offered one slight teaser, vowing to pack the bands' usual emotion and energy into their brief performance.
"We want it to be a 12-minute party," he said.