Bruce Springsteen Drops a Bombshell: “I Was Looking for Something Darker”—The Boss Admits He’s Never Loved His 30-Million-Selling ‘Born In The USA’ Album

It’s the album that turned him into an icon and conquered charts around the globe—but Bruce Springsteen just stunned fans by revealing he’s never truly been satisfied with his mega-hit, Born In The USA. In a candid new interview, The Boss confessed that his world-famous 1984 album, despite selling over 30 million copies and spawning some of rock’s biggest anthems, “wasn’t the record I wanted to make” and didn’t “connect” like his other work.

As if that wasn’t enough news for die-hards, Springsteen’s revelations come with the unveiling of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, releasing June 27. This treasure trove features seven previously unheard full albums, containing 74 unreleased songs, all recorded between 1983 and 2018.

But it’s his honesty about Born In The USA, detailed in the liner notes and expounded in a Rolling Stone interview, that’s left the Springsteen faithful reeling. “It became the record I made, not necessarily the record I was interested in making,” Bruce admits. “I was looking to take Nebraska and build on that darkness. In my mind, ‘My Hometown’ and ‘Born in the USA’ were the bookends I wanted—but the rest? That’s just what I had at the time.”

He explains that the creative process behind Born In The USA veered sharply from his original vision. “From conception to execution, it wasn’t the record I planned on. Creativity doesn’t always go the way you want when you step into the studio. Sometimes, what you come out with isn’t what you went in to make.”

Even when Rolling Stone pressed him on the cohesive themes—many fans and critics have long seen the album as powerful commentary on those left behind in Reagan-era America—Springsteen stood by his view. “Maybe I was looking for something darker,” he said. “The themes of Nebraska are still in there, hidden inside the pop music—songs like ‘Downbound Train’ carry that feeling, even if it’s disguised.”

So, as Tracks II prepares to open up a new chapter for Springsteen fans, his surprising confessions cast Born In The USA in a whole new light. Did The Boss’s biggest album leave him cold even as it made the world fall in love? Fans will be diving into these lost tracks—and into the mind of rock’s greatest working-class poet—to try and find out.