Bruce Springsteen is headed to court in the coming weeks over a DWI charge he sustained in November.
On Wednesday, it came to light that the legendary musician was arrested on November 14 at Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Brenda Ling, a public affairs spokesperson for the National Park Service, confirmed in a statement that “Springsteen was cooperative throughout the process.” The Colts Neck, New Jersey, resident was charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, and consuming alcohol in a closed area. According to TMZ which first broke the news, Springsteen has a court appearance coming up in the next couple of weeks, which will likely be heard in Federal Court in Newark. He has no prior DWIs or arrests in the state.
Unlike other rock stars, Springsteen spent the majority of his young life avoiding alcohol after seeing the effect it had on his father, Douglas Springsteen, who struggled with alcoholism. In his 2016 autobiography, Born to Run, the singer writes that he didn’t have his first drink until he was 22 as “My experience with my father had been enough. The terrifying, all-engulfing presence he became when he drank convinced me to never go there. He lost who he was.”
The news of his arrest also comes shortly after Springsteen made his first-ever commercial appearance on Super Bowl Sunday to promote Jeep. In the ad spot called “The Middle,” the singer can be heard in voiceover expressing a message of hope and unity while driving through an unspecified town in rural Middle America, promising “We will cross this divide. Our light has always found its way through the darkness and there’s hope on the road up ahead.”
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