Sam Fender is as surprised as anyone that he’ll be supporting Bruce Springsteen on The Boss’ upcoming tour with The E Street Band in Europe this summer.
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Fender is slated to support Springsteen at two shows in Italy (in Ferrara and Rome) in May, to which he wrote on social media, exasperated and grateful, “What the fuck is going on?”
“I’m thinking about the moment [Springsteen’s] music first resonated with me when I was a teenager! Next year I’m opening up for him in Italy,” Fender wrote. “What the fuck is going on?”
Fender, who will release a live album, Live From Finsbury Park, along with a deluxe version of his LP, Seventeen Going Under, is slated to play the opening slot for Springsteen at the Parco Urbano G. Bassani on May 18 and at Circo Massimo on May 21. See below for more details about the shows as well as Fender’s new song “Alright.”
Springsteen has come under some fire regarding the ticket prices for his tour, to which he said that if anyone is unhappy after the show, they can get their money back.
Fender, who is also known by the nickname “Geordie Springsteen,” said in a 2021 interview with NME, “I don’t feel worthy of that tag. The first time I heard it, I was like, ‘That’s fucking sick,’ but you don’t want to be riding off the coattails of The Boss for the rest of your life. I can write my own songs, they’re different and my voice doesn’t sound anything like Springsteen’s. I don’t have his growl; I’m a little fairy when I sing.”
He added about his idol, “I guess my biggest hero, Springsteen, he never ever stopped singing about his home. He never stopped writing about people. I think that’s the reality—just because things are going good here doesn’t mean that I have to completely lose connection with the human experience.”
See his tweet below.
Photo by Steve Jennings/WireImage
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