MR. SPRINGSTEEN: This is, this is my favorite question.

MR. KOPPEL: I thought it would be.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: First of all, I don't even tell anybody anything. You know, you ask people to think about things together[?], you know.
Second of all, this is, it's an interesting question that seems to only be asked of musicians and artists, for some reason, you know. If you're a lobbyist in Washington, you're a business guy. Well, shut up and do business. Stay out of public policy, you know. Nobody complains about that. These big corporations, right, you influence the government your way, right? Labor unions influence the government their way. Farmers influence the government their way, right? Artists write, and sing, and think, and this is how we get to put our 2 cents in, and we do it right in front of people, not in secret meetings behind closed doors. We let people know what we think, and, you know, you can't really--and if there's a nut[?] there, you can't, like I say, I don't know if people go to musicians for their politics. I doubt that they do, you know, but you can rally people to think on serious issues together, and that's what we're trying to do.

MR. KOPPEL: This is clearly not the way you felt most of your professional life. Most of your professional life you have very carefully--you've spoken out about a lot of issues. When I say "spoken out," you've written the songs which express how you feel about a lot of social issues.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Right. Right.

MR. KOPPEL: But you've never gone partisan on us, at least not that, not that I was aware of.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Well, I've always felt I was partisan to a set of ideals, and that was my job, you know, whether it was economic justice, transparent government, how do we, you know, treat our weakest citizens, say, in foreign policy? When did we decide that it's all right to risk the lives of our very bravest young men and women? You know, I've written about these things for 25 years.
I stayed a step away from partisan politics because I felt it was always important to have an independent voice. I wanted my fans to feel like they could trust that. I wanted my fans to--also, I thought it was the artist's job to stay a step away from the seat of power and that that was how you best, best-served your audience.
But you build up credibility, and you build it up for a reason, you know, over a long period of time, and hopefully we've built up that credibility with our audience. And I have an audience that's Democrats, Republicans and everything else, you know. And I think there comes a time when you feel, all right, I've built this up, and it's time to spend some of this.
And I think it's one of the most critical elections of my adult life, certainly. Very basic questions of American identity are at issue: who we are, what do we stand for, when do we fight.
Also, I grew up in a generation where artists were an alternative source of information. That was just, you know, I think in the late '60s and early '70s that was, that was a part of how we received information that we weren't getting over the mainstream media. And, I mean, you know, if you're over at the cable stations, you've got a guy interviewing a limited amount of people, interviewing another limited group of people who then go on each other's shows and interview each other.
And you know you've got like G. Gordon Liddy may be a nice man, but his main claim to fame is his burglary, brought on as an expert in one thing or another, you know. And it's like what are the artists going to do, like ruin national discourse? I mean, it, it appears kind of, it appears kind of silly in the light of all of those, all of those facts, you know.

MR. KOPPEL: A lot of different areas to get in. But you, you point out that you've been, in effect, building up, stashing away in a bank account your credibility over the past 25 years, and you now feel it's time to spend some of that credibility.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Well, I feel I have over the years--

MR. KOPPEL: Because of what?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: No, I said I have over the years on a wide variety of issues at different times, you know. We've worked with grassroots organizations. Just about every night we're out on the road, you know. But this is, I feel this is different.

MR. KOPPEL: But you've gone, I mean, there's grassroots organizations. I'm aware of some of your work, you know, having to do with hunger, having to do with children. You know, that's, that's, that's about as nonpartisan as you can get. I don't know any Republican who wants to see hungry children or any Democrat who wants to see--

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Well--

MR. KOPPEL: Go ahead.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I want to say basically I feel that, as a nation over the past 4 years, we've drifted away from I think very mainstream American values. I think that in the question having large tax cuts for the richest 1 percent. Hey, that's great, you know. You know, corporate bigwigs, wealthy, you know well-to-do guitar players, but we've also watched services get cut, after-school programs for people that need it the most, we've watched rollback on environmental regulations, and a foreign policy that I think put at risk the lives of the very bravest young men and women under what ended up to be discredited circumstances.
I feel that we have moved far from the mainstream, you know, and these are basic fundamental issues. I feel the nation is in danger of devolving into an oligarchy. These are issues I've written about my whole life, probably since my late twenties I started to think about it, you know.
And I've had plenty of quarrels with past administrations, and if you go back to when I grew up during the Vietnam, and you see, hey, the Democrats are in the White House, the Gulf of Tonkin, we discredited[?] the Vietnam War. You know, it's not just a purely Democratic and Republican issue.

MR. KOPPEL: Fourty years ago last week.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: That's right. That's right. But what I do believe is I believe that John Kerry and John Edwards, I don't think they have all the answers, but right now for the problems we have, I haven't seen anybody who does, you know.
But I do believe that they're interested in asking, asking all these questions and that they're interested in working towards honest answers. And I don't feel that way about the current administration, not from what I've seen over the last 4 years.

MR. KOPPEL: If I said to you, Bruce, what is it about Kerry's policy on Iraq that differentiates him from George Bush, what would you point to?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: It's not--there is not a grave difference at the moment. That's absolutely true.

MR. KOPPEL: No difference.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Absolutely true, you know. But I believe that in the area of foreign policy, I feel the president's burned his bridges in a lot of ways, and I feel that he's eroded trust in a large segment of American voters, and that, hey, we need somebody else in there to try and regain some of our stature internationally. I think we need a new face, and I think that would make a difference. I think that'll make a difference.

MR. KOPPEL: If, in fact, he has eroded trust among a significant portion of the American people, why do we need a bunch of rock stars and country western singers to tell us about it?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Well, you know, this goes back to our first, our first question, you know.

MR. KOPPEL: Right.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Number one is we're citizens, you know, we're citizens. And I think that, as I say, lobbyists, labor unions, farmers, everybody has a way of putting their input in, you know.

MR. KOPPEL: But they're openly and patently doing it for their interests. If I have Company X that makes widgets, I want the legislation out of Congress to be as widget friendly as it can possibly be.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Right.

MR. KOPPEL: What does Bruce SPRINGSTEEN want? You're not doing it for yourself, are you? or are you?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Well, I think, of course, I'm doing it for the kind of country that I want my kids to grow up in, you damn straight, you know, absolutely. You know, I think, hey, you're the father of three little, three little kids, and you're looking at the way the government's moving, I've got young sons, you know, and one's 14. He's going to be 18, 19 soon. And I am concerned about our approach to foreign policy, you know? I want a more deliberative approach. I want more foreign policy that asks questions first, shoot later and only if it's absolutely necessary, you know.

MR. KOPPEL: Is this a, is this a pro-John Kerry thing or an anti or anybody but George Bush thing?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I like John Kerry, and I like John Edwards, you know. It's not an any--I don't believe it's an anybody but Bush thing, you know.
I don't know. I, you know, I feel that there's real clear choices between what Kerry and Edwards, the way, the direction they want to move the country in and the direction that we've been going. And I think there are clear choices on health care. There's clear choices, environmental choices, you know.
I think there's a big dif--this is, this is not an election where, you know, you hear very often, oh, the two parties, they're pretty much the same thing, you know. They're really kind of--it's really, it's not that big a difference, you know. And if you get caught up in that, you're missing a big part of the picture.
First of all, there's going to be the Supreme Court justices are going to be retiring eventually, you know? I think you look at the way the Supreme Court could move, these are all issues where I think, I think that John Kerry and John Edwards would ask more honest questions and move the country back towards a certain set of ideals that I feel that I've tried to stand for and sing about for my whole life.

MR. KOPPEL: I want to know whether you think this is going to hurt you, but I'll ask you that when we come back. I'm with Bruce SPRINGSTEEN at his home in New Jersey, and we'll be back in a moment.

[Technical interruption.]

MR. KOPPEL: We're here with Bruce Springsteen, and we've been talking about this 30 or 40-concert tour--

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Right.

MR. KOPPEL: --that you and a bunch of other famous musicians are going to hold in October just before the election in the battleground states, 10 of them.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: That's right.

MR. KOPPEL: 40 cities, 30 concerts, or 30 concerts, 40 cities, I forget. But it's a lot of concerts, lot of cities. And to put it bluntly--it's a late night broadcast--you're going to piss a lot of people off.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Oh, yeah.

MR. KOPPEL: Yes.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: That's for sure. We, who are about to be lambasted, salute you, you know?

MR. KOPPEL: Is it going to--I mean is it going to hit you hard? You know, you're, you're one of the older fellows. You're one of the veterans here. You're probably well enough off that you can, you can afford not to work another day the rest of your life. What about these other folks?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I hope I'm allowed to. But I think you have, you have a bond with your audience, and it's, it's very particular because you've put your fingerprints on their imagination. It's really intimate. We've done it for a long time.

MR. KOPPEL: Right.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: People really invest themselves in you, and you invest yourself in them. And a part of that bond is you're looking at the audience and you see yourself. The audience looks on stage and they see themselves. That's at the core of the rock experience, you know.
And I think for a percentage of my audience, this may feel like a severance of that bond, you know. But basically I feel like the relationship is more complicated than that, you know, that we're one, but we're not the same, you know.
And I guess the example I would give would be I've been inspired and found tremendous comfort in John Wayne's movies for my whole life, you know. I've always found something beautiful in them, you know, and beautiful in him and in his acting. I was going to say and his politics.
Basically, I would hope that I'm going to clarify some of the things that I stand for, and that clarification enriches my relationship with all parts of my life. I welcome everybody to our show, and I would always want everybody to feel, you know, to always feel welcome.
But, you know, we've had a long adult and complicated relationship. Those are the kind of songs I write. For the most part, I think if you followed me for the past 25 years, or even for a base amount of time, you have a pretty reasonable idea where I stand on, on most issues. And we've done things before that--where there's been controversy.
And the song American Skin, you play that song, some people boo it, which is excellent, they boo that one. Some people, the night we played it, we stood on stage and received the New Jersey State salute from a few folks, you know. And--

MR. KOPPEL: Is that a one-finger salute or--

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Yes, it is. And, you know, and so that's, that's part of the whole thing. That's part of the whole thing. And, you know, the audience aren't lemmings. I'd almost, you know, they don't, they don't follow you wherever you go. That is a myth, you know. They come to you for rejoice and inspiration, and sometimes they'll come and maybe you'll make them angry or you'll disappoint them, or you'll, or you'll excite them. And that's how I see my job, and I--

MR. KOPPEL: But you're intent to do what to them? I mean, obviously, you're doing this because you think it's going to make a difference in the election.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Yes, we do.

MR. KOPPEL: Otherwise, why do it?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Absolutely. So the tour has a very basic intent. It's intent is to change the direction of the government, change administrations in November, to mobilize, progress the voters, and get them to the polls come election time. So it's a very, it's a very practical, practical purpose.

MR. KOPPEL: Let's talk about the practical part. This was all sort of put together or organized by MoveOn.org, and its sister organization?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Well, actually, it was--the way it came about was it was a--John and some of the managers of the other groups that are involved got together. There were a variety of groups who wanted to go out and, and try to have some impact on the election in November. And then I think John got in contact with MoveOn and America Come Together, and that's how we ended up with those organizations. MoveOn presents it and America Come Together is the beneficiary of the money we raise.

MR. KOPPEL: And, and there should be--I mean if we're talking about 40 concerts and a lot of big name stars, you should raise a ton of money. And you--

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I would hope so.

MR. KOPPEL: And you guys are all--you're going to contribute everything, you're getting nothing.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Correct.

MR. KOPPEL: Right? So we're talking theoretically about some tens of millions of dollars that might be available here at a very critical stage of the election, and one of the things that liberal Democrats are complaining about more than anything else in the world is the influence of big money on the political process.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Right.

MR. KOPPEL: Right? Well, here we've got a lot of big money at the most vulnerable time in the political process. You got any thoughts about that?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Yeah. I think if you get into the area of campaign finance, that, that's such a big area of discussion, and--

MR. KOPPEL: Well, that's where we are. That's when the campaign's going to need money, right?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: All right. Basically, hopefully it will be a substantial sum, you know? And the point is, is we're able--actually, it's people going out and we're trying to level the playing field with a lot of the kinds of corporate donations things that the Republicans can raise, you know. And the idea here, we're trying to infuse, you know, the campaign with a certain amount of cash at that time. It's going to enable foot soldiers to go out and go door to door, and activate voters, and get people to the polls, and, and--

MR. KOPPEL: I mean it can't go directly into the campaign as I understand, but--

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: No. It's not.

MR. KOPPEL: But you can certainly buy commercials, issue commercials on television, right?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: That's right, that's right. It's not--you're not, you're not directly connected to the Democrats.

MR. KOPPEL: Do you know George Soros? I mean he is one of the guiding forces behind--

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I know of him and I know what he does, yeah.

MR. KOPPEL: Good. You're feeling in some, in some sense maybe he's using you guys? I mean I should point out that he is the billionaire who, who has been sort of the moving force behind MoveOn.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I understand that, you know. And I think we've got--in this particular instance, you've got a wide variety of people who have disparate ideas about a lot of, in some ways, fundamental things, you know. Most of the groups you've got guys who, who campaigned for Nader last time out. You've got folks who have already done Democratic fund raising, you know. And guys like me, who previously have been unaffiliated. And there's a very specific goal that we're--that we feel is worth accomplishing.
And so that's really, that's really the bottom line as far as--

MR. KOPPEL: I want to suggest that that goal is beating Bush.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Yes, it is.

MR. KOPPEL: Well, a few minutes ago, when I asked you whether it was supporting Kerry or beating Bush, you were, you were on the supporting Kerry side, and my instinct all along has been that maybe what's uniting Democrats this year more than anything else, is less a passion for Kerry than, as Michael Moore puts it, a "white right sock" rather than George W. Bush.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Yeah. Well, I think that, you know, in the sense that the--I think people have been unified by the President's policies in a way that I haven't seen I a long time, you know.

MR. KOPPEL: Unified against them you mean?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: That's right, that's right, you know. But, I, I feel, I feel very strongly about John Kerry and John Edwards, and I think that, that on the second week in November there's going to be a lot of people with a lot of different ideas about, about how the job should be done. You know, there's a wide coalition of people in this, in the organization that's going to be--go out there and plan, you know.
And I suspect that I'll be on the outside looking in again, you know, which is maybe where, you know, and I'll have plenty to criticize, I'm sure, about the way that, that they move down the road, you know. And that's--to me, that's--the musician is fundamentally--you're the canary in the coal mines, you know. That's one of the best jobs that--I think that's one of the, one of the functions you play among--

MR. KOPPEL: You realize you're never going to be a virgin again?

[Laughter.]

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: That's a good one, you know. Yes, that's right. Well, hey, I'm 55, so.

MR. KOPPEL: Time for you to lose that innocence, is it?

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: I think so, you know.

R. KOPPEL: Well, appreciate. You're nice to have had us at your home again. Thanks very much.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming.

MR. KOPPEL: I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.

MR. SPRINGSTEEN: My pleasure.

MR. KOPPEL: That's our broadcast for tonight. I'm Ted Koppel in New Jersey. For all of us here at ABC News, goodnight.