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Bruce Springsteen has been receiving an increasing number of death threats during his new tour.
“This tour has been a little bit different because of the high security,” Steven Van Zandt, Springsteen’s longtime guitarist in the E Street Band, shared with the Daily Mail. “It’s a very specific political theme to this tour and there’s been a lot of threats, death threats. Usually there’s always some, but this time it’s been increasing.”
The legendary rocker’s politically-charged Land of Hope and Dreams Tour sees Springsteen, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, regularly speaking out against the current US administration’s actions, including the war in Iran and ICE immigration enforcement.
On 31 March, at the opening night of the tour at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Springsteen told the audience: “The America that I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years, that’s been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration.”
He added: “Tonight we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, unity over division, and peace over war.”
His outspoken views have apparently angered the MAGA crowd, leading Springsteen’s team to “beef up security”.
“It’s not like we’re saying something that’s not true or we’re saying something that’s so really particularly controversial, but it’s specifically political,” Van Zandt continued. “So the FBI and others have been really watching things and been overly concerned about it, as they should be.”
He added: “We want the fans to be safe and feel safe. So we really go the extra mile with extra security for that reason alone.”
Springsteen and Trump have regularly exchanged barbs in recent years. Previously, the Boss described Trump as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous”.
Trump presidentially responded by calling Springsteen a “pushy, obnoxious JERK”.
Earlier this year, Springsteen released an anti-ICE protest song, the haunting ‘Streets of Minneapolis’.
The song features the lines “We’ll remember the names of those who died / On the streets of Minneapolis” and names the victims of both tragedies: “Two dead left to die on snow-filled streets / Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”
Springsteen also takes aim at Trump advisor Stephen Miller and now ex-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, both of which peddled falsehoods about Good and Pretti, accusing them of being “domestic terrorists”.
“Their claim was self-defense, sir / Just don’t believe your eyes / It’s our blood and bones / And these whistles and phones / Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies.”
He performed the song on the penultimate episode of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, during which he said: “I’m here in support tonight for Stephen, because you are the first guy in America who lost his show because we got a president who can’t take a joke… And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want.”
“Stephen, these are small-minded people,” he added. “They got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.”
Bruce Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams tour is scheduled to conclude on 30 May in Philadelphia.