I have been a Bruce Springsteen fan since the mid-1970s. That is not a casual thing to say. That is a half-century of my life.

Born to Run got me through high school. Darkness on the Edge of Town hit me right in the chest at an age when everything felt urgent and unresolved. I graduated and The River was there waiting. Nebraska stopped me cold — a stark, sparse masterpiece that had no business being as powerful as it was. Born in the USA and that massive tour in the 1980s was an event, a cultural moment, something you felt living in New Jersey at that time. Tunnel of Love had a melancholy to it that took years to fully appreciate.

And then came The Rising.

If you wanted proof that Bruce Springsteen understood New Jersey — understood us — that album was it. I saw two shows on that tour. One in Philadelphia. One on a summer night at Giants Stadium that I will never forget. It started to rain during Mary’s Place. Not a drizzle. A real Jersey summer storm, lightning and everything. And when he sang “let it rain” the sky just opened up on cue. Nobody moved. Nobody left. That is what this music means to people from this state.

SEE ALSO: NJ’s Jake Thistle in American Idol top 20 

Springsteen Minneapolis

Springsteen Minneapolis

The soundtrack of a New Jersey life

For a lot of us, Springsteen is not just an artist. He is the soundtrack of our lives. The songs are tied to specific nights, specific people, specific moments that do not belong to anyone else. When a Bruce song comes on the radio, I stay. Every time. When I open Spotify and want to go somewhere familiar, I know exactly where to find it.

That is never going away. No matter what.  I’ve never had a problem separating the music from the politics.

Now Bruce has announced his Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour is going to be, in his own words, “political and very topical.” He told the Minnesota Star Tribune he is not worried about losing fans over it. “The blowback is just part of it,” he said. “I’m ready for all that.” He has already released a protest song targeting the current administration and is headlining a No Kings rally in Minnesota days before the tour kicks off.

He means it. This is not a stray comment between songs. This is the whole plan.

His right to say it, my right to skip it

Here is where I land on this. Bruce Springsteen has every right to say exactly what is on his mind. That is not even a debate worth having. First amendment. Full stop. And honestly, the man has never pretended to be something he is not. His politics have always been part of who he is. You knew what you were getting.

But I have a choice too.

I can choose which Bruce songs I listen to on Spotify. I can choose to go to a show or not. I can choose whether I want to spend a night hearing the music I love or stand there while half the set turns into something that feels more like a rally than a concert. On this tour, I am going to choose to stay home. Not out of anger. Not even out of disagreement, really. Just because I already know how I want to experience this music — and it is not that way.

Bruce can risk losing half his audience. That is his call and I genuinely respect it.

Me? I will be over here on Spotify. Born to Run is queued up. The rain at Giants Stadium still sounds perfect in my memory.

Proud to be New Jersey. Proud to have been born in the USA.

LOOK: See the Most Famous Musician Born the Same Year As You

Stacker identified musicians born in every year from 1920 to 2003 and determined the most famous born the same year as you.

Gallery Credit: Stacker