Bruce Springsteen inducted his wife and fellow N.J native, Patti Scialfa into the New Jersey Hall of Fame over the weekend.
The Boss called Scialfa his “secret weapon” as he presented her with the award, that he himself was honoured with in 2008.
The ceremony at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center marked Springsteen’s first public appearance since postponing his 2023 tour dates to recover from peptic ulcer disease.
Springsteen regaled attendees about the first time he met his now wife in the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.
“I met Patti at Stone Pony. Where else? She was sitting in with the house band, Cats on a Smooth Surface, and I heard that voice of hers and I wondered, ‘Who is that girl?’ I went to find out,” Springsteen said.
“She went on to record and produce with Steve Jordan, her second album, ’23rd St. Lullaby’, and third record, ‘Play as it Lays’, once again co-producing with Steve Jordan and Ron Anello, and both are wonderful pieces of work which if she hadn’t been married to some suck-the-air-out-of-the-room attention whore, they would have be much more widely known,” he added.
He also praised her “second to none” songwriting and “deft lyrical work” and “street-smart, fascinating, lovely, sexy, beautiful redhead with a sound completely her own.”
Scialfa, originally from Deal in N.J, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The E Street Band in 2014.
Her fourth solo album is due for release in 2024.
Scialfa won an Emmy Award in 2021 for producing the documentary, “Shelter Me: Soul Awakened” about reducing recidivism in prisons.
The documentary features the Paws for Life program which sees incarcerated men train shelter dogs to become service animals and led to the commutations of more than 20 life sentences.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame celebrates people who “have overcome every imaginable obstacle and challenge. They have survived war, overcome the bleakness of poverty, conquered fear and disability and rebounded from untold rejections and failure.”
Bruce Springsteen along with Patti Scialfa and the rest of The E Street Band return to Ireland in 2024.
Tickets go on sale Monday, 6th November at 8am from Ticketmaster.
Irish dates:
Boucher Road – Belfast – 9th May,
Nowlan Park – Kilkenny – 12th May,
Páirc Uí Chaoimh – Cork – 16th May
Croke Park – Dublin – 19th May.
