At 66, Bruce Springsteen is as busy as ever: He’s in the midst of a tour that has him playing hours-long sets, and he has a memoir, Born to Run, out later this month, and a new album coming out sometime next year. Always one to do his due diligence, Springsteen’s on the cover of Vanity Fair, where he discusses his tour and reflects back on his life, specifically his experience with clinical depression. In past profiles, Springsteen has emphasized his depressive episodes in past decades — he’s been seeing a therapist since 1982, after feeling suicidal while working on Nebraska — but here he focuses on more recent history. “I was crushed between sixty and sixty-two, good for a year and out again from sixty-three to sixty-four,†Springsteen writes in his memoir. “Not a good record.â€
Springsteen goes on to say that his bandmates have been mostly unaware of his illness, even when they recorded 2012’s Wrecking Ball, “though, he grants, the song ‘This Depression’ might have been a tip-off.†His wife, Patti Scialfa, meanwhile, has helped him work through his worst episodes. “Patti will observe a freight train bearing down, loaded with nitroglycerin and running quickly out of track,†he said. “She gets me to the doctors and says, ‘This man needs a pill.’â€