Gov. Tim Walz sings the praises of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The River’

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz are on the campaign trail this week, and starred in a new promotional video where they discuss their interests, from taco recipes to favorite musicians.

When Harris asked Walz about his relationship to music, he immediately talked about Bruce Springsteen. “For me, the transformational piece of music was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The River,’ which is a journey, you know — you know all the tracks, and I’m that guy.”

Walz then talked about the summer of 1980, when he bought his first car, a 1973 orange Chevy Camaro, in which the previous owner left Bob Seger’s album Night Moves in the eight-track player. “It’s kind of the soundtrack of my life, of Detroit’s own Bob Seger,” he said. Walz has the same eight-track player in his car (now a 1979 International Harvester Scout) to this day.

Harris went on to talk about her mother’s love for Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder as well as her dad’s love for jazz greats Miles Davis and John Coltrane. She said one of her favorite musicians is Prince, who was from Walz’s home state of Minnesota, and added that while she’s “more of a hip-hop girl” her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, prefers Depeche Mode. “I’m sure you and he like the same music,” she told Walz, chuckling.

Emhoff made his own nod to The Boss a few weeks ago following a Harris rally when he posted photos on X asking, “Springsteen concert or Kamala Harris rally? I gotta tell you, the energy on the ground is electric right now.”

For Walz, it wasn’t the first time he shouted-out The Boss on the campaign trail. When the governor joined Harris in Philadelphia after she announced he was her VP pick, he talked about the time he went to see Springsteen with Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro (who had also been in the running for VP).

“I know this from experience,” Walz told the crowd at Temple University’s Liacouras Center. “There is no one you would rather go to a Springsteen concert in Jersey with than him!”

Turns out, it was New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy, who invited Walz and Shapiro to see The Boss at MetLife Stadium over Labor Day weekend in 2023. Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke came along as Walz’s guest. Murphy shared a photo of them on X.

“We knew Tim was a big Bruce fan,” Murphy told The Inquirer. “As one does at a Bruce Springsteen concert, we had a grand evening and a great time together. Great guys, great fun.”