When Bruce Springsteen's tour was put on hold in 2023, fans were worried about the Boss because of his health condition. The "Streets of Philadelphia" singer was diagnosed with a peptic ulcer, which caused him to postpone and cancel some of his concerts with the E Street Band.
As Springsteen returns to touring, he has opened up about when he almost couldn't sing.
Bruce Springsteen Health Update
In September 2023, Bruce Springsteen postponed eight of his shows scheduled that month because he was undergoing treatment for peptic ulcer disease.
According to The Mayo Clinic, Peptic ulcers are open sores that develop on the stomach's inside lining and the small intestine's upper portion. The most common symptom of a peptic ulcer is stomach pain.
Days after his initial postponement, dates up until December 2023 were also pushed back to give Springsteen time to recover. All in all, 29 dates were postponed last year and were rescheduled for 2024.
Talking about his diagnosis, Springsteen recalled a particularly harrowing time in his life last year (via SiriusXM).
"When I had the stomach problem, one of the big problems was that I couldn't sing," Bruce remembered. "You sing with your diaphragm. My diaphragm was hurting so badly that when I went to make the effort to sing, it was killing me. So I literally couldn't sing at all."
According to Springsteen, that diaphragm pain lasted for two months. "During the course of it -- before people told me, 'Oh no, it's going to go away and you're going to be OK' -- you know, you're thinking, 'Hey, am gonna sing again?' This is one of the things I love to do the best, most. And right now, I can't do it," he added.
READ ALSO: This Day in Music History: Bruce Springsteen Wins an Academy Award, Performs on Oscar Telecast
Bruce Springsteen Tour 2024
After recovering, Springsteen is approaching the rescheduled dates like a new tour. "There will be some things from last year's tour that will hold over; some of my basic themes of mortality and life. Those things I'm gonna keep set, but I think I'm gonna move around the other parts of the set a lot more. So there'll be a much wider song selection going on," he added.
Check out the dates of Bruce Springsteen's 2024 tour here.
READ MORE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Returns to 2024 World Tour After Singer's Health Crisis
