The pair were also joined by Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill
Zach Bryan closed out his three-night run in New Jersey with a bang. Before the musician hit the stage on Sunday, July 20, the Bruce Springsteen record “House of a Thousand Guitars” blared throughout MetLife Stadium. It was a hometown homage to the veteran artist (“I’m Goin’ Down” opened the previous show), but also a preview of what the night had in store. Toward the end of his set, Bryan welcomed Springsteen to the stage alongside Kings of Leon‘s Caleb Followill.
“One of them is Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon, one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met,” Bryan told the audience while introducing his special guests for the night. “And one of the greatest men to ever exist, a New Jersey native, Mr. Bruce Springsteen.”
Falling into a rhythm together, the trio performed “Atlantic City” from Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska. A few songs later, Springsteen joined Bryan once again to close out the show with an encore performance of “Revival.” Bryan and Springsteen previously performed “Atlantic City” this past August, as well as their collaboration track, “Sandpaper” from The Great American Bar Scene.
“I’ve lived here in this place my whole life, around a group of people I cared about, and I wanted to write music that I felt would simply remain meaningful,” Springsteen told Bryan in Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians issue in 2024. “I didn’t want to lose touch with who I was, where I came from. I thought that these things were essential to my sanity. Not necessarily to my success, but to my own personal sanity, to my own personal well being… And so that’s what kept me on a certain path for a long time.”
For Bryan, Springsteen has served as a roadmap for how he imagines his own future as a musician. “That’s where I’m at in my own career right now. I love country music, but I also love an assortment of stuff — Kings of Leon, Jason Isbell, all those guys,” Bryan said. “I don’t want to be a country musician. Everyone calls me it. I want to be a songwriter, and you’re quintessentially a songwriter. No one calls Bruce Springsteen — hate to use your name in front of you — but no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician, which you are one, but you’re also an indie musician, you’re also a country musician. You’re all these things encapsulated in one man. And that’s what songwriting is.”
