Bruce Springsteen On His Mother’s Condition: ‘She Can’t Speak But There Is Always A Smile When She Sees Me’

E Street Band frontman and solo musician Bruce Springsteen opened up about his mother Adele Springsteen’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease during his recent Broadway show ‘Springsteen on Broadway,’ and according to Today, although his mother’s condition is getting worse, she can still recognize him.

For those of you who might not know, Bruce Springsteen was born in New Jersey where he spent his childhood with his parents and his two younger sisters. His father, Douglas Frederick ‘Dutch’ Springsteen worked as a bus driver in addition to other jobs. However, he suffered from mental health problems throughout his life which worsened in his later years. Mainly due to this, it was his mother, Adele Ann Springsteen who financially supported the family who worked as a legal secretary.

Growing up, Bruce kept listening to another singer from New Jersey on the radio, Frank Sinatra, through which he became interested in becoming a musician. It was once again his mother who supported him, starting from the young age of seven when Adele rented him a guitar from Mike Diehl’s Music in Freehold for $6 a week. In late 1964, Springsteen’s mother bought him his first guitar, a $60 Kent guitar, after taking out a loan to buy it.

Bruce Springsteen always openly spoke about his relationship with his mother to whom he has immense admiration and love since he takes his mother to his concerts. In fact, there was an extremely charming video that went viral a few years ago featuring the 91-year-old Adele dancing to her son’s songs at Madison Square Garden along with Bruce.

Unfortunately, Adele Springsteen has been struggling with Alzheimer’s disease for the past ten years, and during a recent show for his ‘Springsteen on Broadway,’ Bruce Springsteen opened up about his mother’s current health status, revealing although she cannot speak, stand on her own, or feed herself, she still has the dancing spirit within her whenever she hears a song.

In addition to this, the E Street Band singer revealed that despite her Alzheimer’s disease his mother recognizes who he is since whenever Bruce is around, his lovely mother Adele seems to smile and makes a sound that means ‘I love you,’ according to the musician who dearly loves his mother.

According to Today, Bruce Springsteen stated these:

“My mother loves to dance. She grew up in the ’40s … with the big bands and the swing bands, and that was a time when dancing was an existential act. She’s 95 and she’s 10 years into Alzheimer’s and that’s taken a lot away from us. But the need to dance hasn’t left her.

She can’t speak. She can’t stand. She can’t feed herself. But when she sees me, there is always a smile. Still a smile. And there’s still a kiss. And there’s a sound which she makes when she sees me. It’s just the sound but I know it means ‘I love you.'”

He continued:

“And when I put on Glen Miller and she starts moving in her chair — she does, she does — she starts reaching out for me, to take her in my arms once more and to dance with her across the floor.

This is an essential part of mom’s spirit, it’s who she is. It’s beyond language and it’s more powerful than memory. It’s the embodiment. This is what she has put her trust in and lived her life by and which, despite all she has suffered, she carries on with to this moment, as if life’s beauty never deserted her. I love her.”

You can see the adorable moments when Bruce Springsteen danced with his mother below.