Bruce Springsteen, whose already-high profile shot even higher Sunday with his “The Middle” Super Bowl ad for Jeep, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in a New Jersey recreation area last November.
The “Thunder Road” rocker, 71, was hit with three citations during his November 14, 2020, arrest, for suspicion of DWI, reckless driving and consuming alcohol in a closed area, a National Parks Service spokeswoman told The Times. Springsteen was “cooperative” during the process, she said via email.
The Boss has a court date in the next few weeks, according to TMZ, which first reported the arrest Wednesday. It was unclear why the news was revealed only now.
Springsteen was pulled over that November Saturday in Gateway National Recreation Area near Sandy Hook, New Jersey. In addition to its Sandy Hook property, the 27,000-acre park includes two “units” in New York’s Staten Island and Jamaica Bay that comprise various historical spots.
Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa live mainly on a 400-acre horse farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey, to the southwest of the park’s Sandy Hook Unit. It’s just east of Freehold, New Jersey, where Springsteen spent his childhood. The “Born to Run” singer joked about his choice of home base in his 2017 stage show, “Springsteen on Broadway.”
“My home, New Jersey — it’s a death trap. It’s a suicide rap. Listen to the lyrics, all right. I had to get out, I gotta hit the highway, I’m a roadrunner, man. I got the white-line fever in my veins. I am gonna bring my girl and I have had enough, of the [expletive] that this place dishes out. I am gonna run, run, run, and I’m — well, I’m never coming back,” he says in the show, which can be seen on Netflix.
“I currently live 10 minutes from my hometown. But, uh, born to come back, or uh — who would’ve bought that ... ? Nobody.”
On Sunday, Springsteen’s ad for Jeep premiered during Super Bowl LV. In it, he drove through a wintry landscape and urged Americans to come together (with his guy in the White House). “There’s a chapel in Kansas standing on the exact center of the lower 48,” he intones in a voice-over. “It never closes. All are more than welcome to come meet here — in the middle.”
