When loving Bruce Springsteen is a family affair

Bruce Springsteen has long held multigenerational appeal for a wide range of ages, and that’s partly because there’s nothing quite like a family who loves Bruce together. We spoke to superfan families in the Philadelphia area who have seen dozens of shows across the country, even traveling as far as Italy, Spain, and Scotland to cheer for The Boss — and Philly still ranks as one of the best places in the world for a Springsteen show.

Even Steve Van Zandt agrees. “It is absolutely true that Philly was one of the first places to support the [E Street Band],” he said in a recent interview with The Inquirer. “That is not nostalgic self-aggrandizement.”

We initially interviewed these families in 2023 before Springsteen had to postpone several shows due to illness. Obviously, they have all made sure to rebook their tickets, even if they had to wait a year before seeing The Boss return to Philly this week.

Number of times they’ve seen Bruce together: 29. DeLucca has seen more than 50

Favorite albums: Trickey’s is The River; DeLucca’s is Born to Run

What Springsteen means to them:

Trickey first saw Springsteen with her dad when she was 14 years old in Philadelphia. “I’ve been hooked ever since,” she said. “I have never seen a Bruce show without him.”

Now they’ve traveled as far as Scotland to see The Boss, but Trickey says nothing beats hometown shows.

“Over the years, we have developed a fine-tuned process of buying tickets. Prior to Verified Fan [on Ticketmaster], we would have like eight laptops out and whoever got in first, we would take their tickets,” said Trickey. “When we were buying the Scotland tickets, I was the one to get up at four o’clock in the morning and buy the tickets.”

When she started dating her now-husband, she was very clear: “Listen, our family’s serious about Bruce, if you want in, study up,” Trickey told him.

Trickey gave birth to her daughter, Grace, earlier this year. Morning sickness kept her from reaching what would have been her 30th Springsteen show at MetLife Stadium last year, and she made sure to introduce her newborn to Springsteen on the ride home from the hospital. “She has already been initiated to Bruce,” said Trickey.

Favorite memory:

“My most memorable show was in 2012 at Penn State,” Trickey said. “My dad took me for my birthday and we were in the general admission, not up front, [but] in the back. We struck up a conversation with a lady from New Jersey who had seen Bruce a bunch of times … Later on, Bruce came out into the general admission and she grabbed me, put me in front of her, and said ‘I had my moment with him, now it’s your turn.’ I got to hold Bruce’s hand while he was singing [“Darlington County” and “Out in the Street”]. I was sobbing. Nothing could beat that concert for me.”

Number of times they’ve seen Bruce: Annie and Maggie: 4; Caroline: 7; Peggy: 24

Favorite songs: Peggy: “Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” and “Rosalita”; Annie: “I’m on Fire”

What Bruce means to us:

“Dad is the reason why we love him. Dad was a massive Bruce Springsteen fan; he had been to at least 30 concerts over the course of his career,” said Maggie Stohler about her father, Rich Stohler, who died in 2014. “All the memories I have as a kid are Bruce Springsteen music being played around the house and dancing as a family.”

Caroline vividly remembers being on her dad’s shoulders leaving her first show at Lincoln Financial Field in 2003. “And who drives by with his head out the window but Bruce? He waved to me directly!” she said.

Rich Stohler died unexpectedly from a heart attack at 51 years old. After he died, Caroline even wrote to Springsteen to thank him for being such a big part of her dad’s life.

“Now we see Bruce because we honor my husband’s memory that way,” said Peggy. “It’s much deeper than just going to a concert or loving his music or loving the experience. It’s part of the roots of our family.”

Favorite memory:

“My husband and I had dreamed of going to Italy for our 25th wedding anniversary,” said Peggy. “Just shy of our 24th year, it was Rich’s idea — he was like, ‘Hey, you know Bruce is in Italy, do you want to go?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you don’t have to ask me twice.’ So we created this whole trip [with the family], we went on a Mediterranean cruise and we went all over Europe, but the focus was Bruce. Ironically, Rich died the next year, so we would have never made it to a 25th wedding anniversary.”

Number of times they’ve seen Bruce together: 7

Favorite albums: The River and We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

What Bruce means to them:

Noah Lederman first saw Springsteen when he was 7 years old in northern Virginia for the Seeger Sessions tour. His father Marty, though, had already followed Springsteen around the country, even interviewing him back in 1980.

“My dad saw the very first River concert in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he went to school, in 1980. At the time, he wrote for the Michigan Daily. He and his buddies were basically trying to interview [Springsteen]. My dad is very obsessive and persistent. At the show, Bruce said, ‘Is there a Marty Lederman in the crowd? He left a note on my stage door or something. He wants to talk.’” (Marty did successfully interview Springsteen.)

“I was a history major [at the University of Wisconsin] and a lot of my research was about rock and roll,” said Noah. “I remember writing papers about The River. It was pretty meaningful for me to be listening to The River throughout college, thinking of my dad while he was in college, listening to the same album, going through the same emotions and thought processes.”

Favorite memory:

“The best show I’ve had with my dad was in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park in 2012 for the “Wrecking Ball” tour. I must have been 15 or 16. That was the first time I really had a sense of what music and rock and roll could be. We were in the pit, which was my first experience in general admission, which is unlike anywhere else in a Bruce Springsteen show. That was just a really raw and emotional experience.”

Number of times they’ve seen Bruce: Lisa and Gary: more than 80; Mariel: 16; Bryce and Vaughan: more than 10

Favorite album: Lisa’s favorite is Tunnel of Love

What Bruce means to them:

Lisa first saw Springsteen when she was 16 at the Spectrum for The River tour. She began dating Gary shortly after graduating college and found that they were both fans. “In our early stages of dating, I brought up that there’s a line from a Springsteen song that I had put in my high school yearbook. ‘But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn’t that be nice,’” she recalled. “He also used the same line in his yearbook! And we did not know each other.”

Now the Kramers have traveled across the country to see dozens of Springsteen shows, eventually bringing along their kids, who also love the music. Lisa has a six-hour rule: If it takes six hours or less to get to a tour stop, she gets a ticket.

“Bruce’s music, it’s cliché to say, has been a backdrop to our life, it really has been. I keep a document, which is weird. I copy and paste the review from [Springsteen fan website] Backstreets into my document and then I put a note of who I was with and where we sat,” said Kramer.

Her daughter Mariel has been particularly lucky — at 10 years old she went to her first show at the Atlantic City Convention Center and Springsteen gave her a guitar pick. (They still have it.) A decade later at another show, Steve Van Zandt gave her a pick, too.

They even named their dog, a boxer, Rosalita Jump a Little Lighta, referencing Springsteen’s “Rosalita.” Rosie, as they called her, used to “sing” along to The Boss, too.

Favorite memory:

“My greatest memory is when my husband and I went to Barcelona to see him. We saw him twice. We went with my husband’s sister, who is a huge Springsteen fan. He grew up as a fan by attrition, listening to Bruce because they shared a bedroom. That was the best Bruce crowd I’ve ever seen. I mean, they were into it. They were singing along. But then there were times when Bruce would do a quieter song. And where, in the United States, you might hear people chanting and stuff, 100,000 people just quietened down. You could hear a pin drop, and they just let him sing.”