Joe Grushecky and Bruce Springsteen join Strombo on Apple Music Hits to talk about 25 years of Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers’ album, American Babylon, produced by Springsteen.

Joe Grusheky on Bruce’s impact on him as an artist

“American Babylon in particular was a life changing piece of music for me because I was probably at the end of my career, and I would've kept making music, but I didn't know what I was going to do. I was sort of a bit burnt when Bruce graciously extended his helping hand to me. So American Babylon just really cemented our friendship as far as I was concerned. And I'm very thankful to this day he gave me that helping hand.”

Bruce Springsteen on the power of music

“My mother to this day, she's 95, she's had Alzheimer's for 10 years, but when I put on big band music or music that she was deeply connected to, she'll still want to dance. And she constantly drops 10, 20 years off her appearance and just, that's music, that's what it does for you. It's timeless. Its impact is timeless. And it's kind of one of the wonderful things about being a musician, which is a pretty incredible way to make a living. That's always at your fingertips. You've had access to that time machine, or whatever you want to call it, where it's very useful. It's a wonderful part of my life, and my moms too.”

Bruce Springsteen on how the collaboration with Joe came about

“And it was one of those records that it really kind of came out of our relationship. It was sort of a thing where we met, we kind of struck it up, we had a lot in common, and like I say, I'm not really a producer. I don't produce, I've produced a little bit of over the years, but not that much. And so it was really something I sort of did just, ‘Yeah, I love Joe, we have a great time together. Yeah, let's make a record.’ It pretty much came along like that.”