Bruce Springsteen has COVID, misses Monmouth University fundraiser and birthday proclamation

The Boss has COVID.

Hours after performing a rollicking, three-hour homecoming concert at the Prudential Center in Newark on Friday, a show that closed out the first leg of his 2023 tour with the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa, both tested positive for COVID-19.

The diagnosis prevented Springsteen and Scialfa from attending the inaugural American Music Honors awards show Saturday at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theater. The star-studded event, hosted by Jon Stewart, is a fundraiser for the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.

“It broke our hearts around 6 a.m. this morning when I got a call that two of the most important people who were supposed to be here, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, unfortunately came down with COVID,” Bob Santelli, the center’s executive director, told the crowd, according to Variety.

The archives, which opened in 2011, serves as the official repository for Springsteen’s music, compiling photographs, periodicals, oral histories, rare recordings, films, and artifacts related to Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Stewart assured the crowd, telling them Springsteen and his wife were feeling well despite the diagnosis.

“They’re alive. Don’t overreact,” Stewart said, according to the Variety article. “You can still see them in concert. They’re home sitting by the fire eating French onion soup.”

» READ MORE: Best of The Boss: Bruce Springsteen’s 10 best Philadelphia shows

Stewart jokingly told the audience that Springsteen “with COVID looks better than me.”

Springsteen, 73, and his wife were feeling well enough to record two videos presenting awards to E Street Band member Steve Van Zant, and soul singer Darlene Love. The event also honored soul artist Sam Moore, the soul duo Sam & Dave, and singer-songwriter Steve Earle.

Gov. Phil Murphy was also in attendance to announce a new state proclamation declaring that Sept. 23 — Springsteen’s birthday — is now “Bruce Springsteen Day” in Jersey.

“Whereas, Bruce Springsteen will always be forever be remembered as the voice of the Garden State, signaling to the world that New Jerseyans were born to run,” the proclamation reads. Born to Run is the title of a Springsteen album.

On a more somber note, Springsteen dedicated the final song of the his show in Newark — an acoustic version of the ballad, “I’ll See You in My Dreams” — to his nephew Michael Shave. Fans later posted an online obituary showing that Shave had died earlier that day.

Springsteen is scheduled to begin the European leg of his tour in Barcelona on April 28.

Springsteen returns to Philadelphia in August for two shows at Citizens Bank Park.