Springsteen: The Interview

EW You once said that part of entertainment is to provide food for thought. For you, that seems to be very much about resisting complacency; the battle to not become cynical.

SPRINGSTEEN A certain amount of skepticism is necessary to survive in today's environment. You don't want to be taking everything at face value. But for that [questioning] to be worth something it has to be connected to an element of energy and creative thought -- that's the thing that's gonna have some impact.... So that's my approach: Try to be wise about the way the world works. But at the same time, you need to find some way to turn those insights about what's real and what's true into some creative process, creative action. That's what we try to pass on to our audience so [they] don't feel powerless.... Tommy Morello, the guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, said in an interview that history is made in people's kitchens, in living rooms, at night; it's made by people talking and thinking things through. That, I think, is true: You should throw your two cents in as best you can.

EW So much information comes from the top down. What do you say to people who feel like they don't have much say in what goes on in the world?

SPRINGSTEEN I'm always fighting against that feeling of helplessness. I can be overwhelmed by ambivalence, by the despair of the day. [But] that's what people use music and film and art for; that's its purpose. Its purpose is to pull you up out of that despair, to shine a light on new possibilities. And I think if you look at it pretty hard-eyed, it helps. That's where the living is, that's where life is. Regardless of what's going on externally, those are the powers that you find within yourself to keep going and change things. To try to make some place for yourself in the world.

''People continue to be taken with America, with its bigness and

[BOX]

''People continue to be taken with America, with its bigness and its drama, its myths and its values.''

''If I had to measure it all up, I don't think I've ever been as satisfied as I am right now....The band being present and everybody alive and accounted for -- only a few bands can say that.''

''If I was just coming up, I wouldn't want to be playing by the rules of the music business right now.''

About 'American Idol,' Bruce says, ''Ah, the great, terrible Darwinian spectacle!...The theater of cruelty that has everybody fascinated at the moment.''