Bruce Springsteen autobiography reportedly gets $10 million advance

(Image credit: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)

last updated 11 February 2016

A long-rumored Bruce Springsteen autobiography is in the works, with sources telling Page Six the book sold to Simon & Schuster for an advance of over $10 million. The Boss had put off writing his life story four years ago when The Who's Pete Townsend and Neil Young both released their own autobiographies.

"I thought, f--k it, I'm not going to do one too," Springsteen told the Daily Mail at the time.

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In Born to Run, Springsteen describes growing up in Freehold, New Jersey amid the "poetry, danger, and darkness” that fueled his imagination. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized."Writing about yourself is a funny business," Bruce notes in his book. "But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this." [Bruce Springsteen]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.