Bruce Springsteen Forum

Springsteen: Silence Is Unpatriotic
Rocker Answers Critics Who Say He's Unpatriotic

Oct. 4, 2007

CBS) Rocker Bruce Springsteen answers critics who call his anti-war sentiments unpatriotic by saying the real sin against patriotism is saying nothing while your country is being harmed.

Springsteen discusses this and other topics, including why he's still writing songs and performing, in an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley this Sunday, Oct. 7, at 7:30 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT.

When reminded that his anti-war views, prominent on his new album, "Magic," will cause people to say he is unpatriotic -- as his critic have charged before -- Springsteen says "That's just the language of the day…the modus operandi for anybody who doesn't like somebody…criticizing where we've been or where we're going," he tells Pelley. "I believe every citizen has a stake in the course, direction of their country. That's why we vote…It's unpatriotic at any given moment to sit back and let things pass that are damaging to some place that you love so dearly and that has given me so much," says the 58-year-old musician.

In the interview, Springsteen points out the direction in which the U.S. is going, by his estimation. "I think we've seen things happen over the past six years that I don't think anybody ever thought they'd ever see in the United States," says Springsteen. "When people think of the Unites States' identity, they don't think of torture. They don't think of illegal wiretapping. They don't think of voter suppression," he tells Pelley. "They don't think of no habeas corpus," he says, referring to the people being held by the U.S. government in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Those are things that are anti-American," Springsteen says. "There's been a whole series of things that…I never thought I'd ever see in America," he tells Pelley.