Bruce Springsteen was a surprise guest at country star Zach Bryan‘s concert last night at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. See the new friends play “Atlantic City,” from Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska, in fan-shot video below.
They only met last year, but Bryan is a long-time fan: He even has a Springsteen lyric – “deliver me from nowhere” from the Nebraska song “State Trooper” – tattooed on his left arm. “That’s my favorite record ever written,” Bryan later admitted, after taking a similarly stripped-down approach on his own studio projects.
This isn’t Springsteen’s first surprise guest turn with Bryan. They debuted a duet called “Sandpaper” as part of a two-song encore in March 2024 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The song then appeared on Bryan’s Great American Bar Scene LP a couple of months later, scoring a first-ever appearance for Springsteen on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
READ MORE: Bruce Springsteen Albums Ranked
Bryan’s love for Springsteen’s music goes well beyond Nebraska. He has also covered “I’m on Fire” from 1984’s Born to in the U.S.A. – and admits to a very specific jukebox litmus test.
“To this day, we have this bit, me and my band, where we’ll go into a bar — there’s TouchTunes now, right?” Bryan told Rolling Stone. “We’ll go in, and we’ll put “Born in the U.S.A.” on repeat 200 times – and we’ll see who leaves. The people who stay around, we’ll hang out with them.”
Watch Zach Bryan Meet Bruce Springsteen
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Bryan memorably wore a Springsteen T-shirt on the night he performed with his hero for the first time. The admiration was clearly mutual: Springsteen was in the midst of a West Coast tour back then, so he flew into Brooklyn, learned “Sandpaper” and performed with Bryan, then flew back for his own San Francisco show.
Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon also sat in on Sunday night for Bryan’s version of “Atlantic City” – but Bryan’s joy in sperforming with Springsteen again was contagious. Introducing them on stage, Bryan said: “One of them is Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon, one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met – and one of the greatest men to ever exist … a New Jersey native … Mr. Bruce Springsteen!”
The crowd was already shouting Springsteen’s name.
Watch Bruce Springsteen and Zach Bryan Play ‘Atlantic City’ in Concert
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Longtime fans will tell you his studio records are only half the story – concert performances are the other, and maybe more essential, part.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
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