British GQ - 09.2019

At the time, I barely considered the possibil-

ity that it would ever reach Springsteen. But

three years later I learnt that he was coming

to London for a screening of The Promise, a

documentary about the making of his fourth

album, Darkness On The Edge Of Town. It was

at a drinks reception ahead of the screening

that Springsteen saw me, walked over and

told me that he had read and loved my book.

It was one of those “Is this really happening?”

moments – the man whose work had meant

so much to me was telling me he appreciated

something I had created. I’d attended the event

with the film director Gurinder Chadha and it

was hearing Springsteen say that he loved my

book that made us think about the possibil-

ity of a film adaption. Chadha and I worked

as a team: she brought years of filmmaking

experience and I began brainstorming ideas

for plots and scenes and started working on

the screenplay.

The film would be a rites-of-passage story

that would have at its heart my relation-

ship with my father. He had died when I

was 22, but when he was alive we had had a

sometimes difficult relationship. He was an

emotionally distant man: I don’t remember him

ever hugging me, he was prone to losing his

temper and I defined myself in opposition to

him. In writing the script I sought inspiration

from the way Springsteen had written about

his father in songs such as “Independence

I

was 16 years old the first time I heard

Bruce Springsteen. It was the autumn of

1987 and I had just started sixth-form

college. Growing up in Luton as the son of

a working-class Pakistani family I had never

previously assumed that Springsteen’s music

was for the likes of me. It was only when a

college friend handed me a couple of cas-

settes and instructed me to listen that I came

to realise how wrong my initial dismissal of

Springsteen had been.

It was not long before I was a confirmed fan,

repeatedly listening to his songs and study-

ing his lyrics. In my twenties and thirties my

Springsteen devotion deepened. I travelled

across the country, and later the world, to see

him in concert. When I was at the front by

the stage he would begin to recognise me and

point and smile when he saw me in the crowd.

By now I had, thanks in part to the hope

I had heard in his music, left Luton and was

working as a journalist. When a literary agent

contacted me to ask if I had a book I wanted

to write I knew it would be something that

explored how Springsteen had affected my

life. My memoir, Greetings From Bury Park,

was published in 2007. It was intended as a

thank you to Springsteen, but also to demon-

strate the power of his music and words and

the importance of choosing the right hero. It’s

hard not to feel sorry for those whose Eighties

hero was Michael Jackson or Morrissey.

Day” – with generosity and empathy. I began

working in 2012 and after five years Chadha

and I had a script about which we felt confi-

dent. Filming started the following year and

Blinded By The Light had its world premiere at

the Sundance Film Festival in January.

L

ater, at an afterparty in New York

following a special screening, I ran into Jon

Landau, Springsteen’s longtime manager, who

told me how moved he was by the film and

in particular the way it reveals the parallels

between my father and Springsteen’s. I was

aware of the parallels between Springsteen’s

relationship with his father and my relation-

ship with mine, but it was not until I read his

memoir and saw his Broadway show in New

York that I started to notice the parallels

between our fathers themselves. Springsteen

was nearing 70 years of age and still obsessing

and processing that troubled relationship. “All

we know about manhood,” he said during the

show, “is what we have seen and learned from

our fathers.” In a later interview, Springsteen

revealed his father had never told him he

loved him.

I learnt these insights into Springsteen’s

father at the same time as I was writing the

screenplay – an extraordinary synchronicity

that could never have been anticipated. What

is also extraordinary is the way my relation-

ship with Springsteen has changed over the

decades. It began as a simple fan relationship,

but I am now in the deeply weird situation of

knowing that not only does he know I exist,

but he also respects my work.

Watching him on stage on Broadway and lis-

tening to his latest record, Western Stars, I was

also reminded why Springsteen remains a role

model for me and why listening to his music

is not a simple act of indulging in nostalgia. I

don’t listen to him just to remind myself of

the glory days of my youth – he continues

to inspire me now that I am a middle-aged,

married father of two. Unlike his fellow Eighties

icons, he is still producing work that feels

fresh and vital. He has been married to the

same woman for almost three decades and

when he steps on stage with The E Street Band

he is playing with musicians he has known

since they were all in their twenties. To be

creating great work with friends of old, to

have sustained a long marriage and to have

remained, despite great fame and fortune, a

fundamentally grounded and decent person

is remarkable. I feel privileged that of all his

millions of fans, it is me who has had the

opportunity to share their story with the world.

From New Jersey to Bedfordshire, The Boss’ cultural reach is vast.

Now, a story about growing up in Eighties England brings it to life

I set my Springsteen

biopic in Luton... obviously

Film

Story by Sarfraz Manzoor

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT IS OUT ON 9 AUGUST.

GREETINGS FROM BURY PARK (BLOOMSBURY, £15)

IS OUT NOW.

Semiautobiographical coming-of-age comedy Blinded By The Light stars Viveik Kalra (right)

09-19DropSpringsteen.indd 132 10/07/2019 10:49

128 GQ.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2019