The Bruce Springsteen biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere hit the theatres last Friday and features a few familiar faces for rock music lovers.
The biopic focuses on Springsteen's early life and the making of 'Nebraska'. During scenes depicting Springsteen joining a local band in New Jersey, viewers can see an all star lineup of musicians featured in the film. The band is made up of Jay Buchanan from Rival sons and Greta Van Fleets Jake Kiszka, Sam F. Kiska, Bobby Emmett from Jack White’s band, and Aksel Coe.
Jake Kiszka explained how they ended up in the film in a recent interview with Billboard. He explained that it began through Dave Cobb, who produced the last Greta Van Fleet album Starcatcher. "We were sitting around on the dock out by the water at his house in Savannah (Georgia) and he said, “I’ve just been working on this Deliver Me From Nowhere film about Nebraska and Springsteen,” and he said the director, Scott Cooper, was looking for a young band who could be the house band for the Stone Pony during this era of Springsteen. And Scott said, “I’m really looking for a young, sort of hop rock ‘n’ roll band like Greta Van Fleet.” And Dave’s like, “Well, I know someone… Why don’t we just ask those guys?” " Kiska said.
Kiska explained that the band were extremely busy with their new record and tour but featuring in the new biopic was something they "can't say no to" and "Bruce Springsteen is such a big influence on us. This is definitely not something we had foreseen happening, but it was irresistible."
When asked if he had given Jeremy Allen White any pointers whilst filming, he stated that he was "kind of asked by (Cobb) if I could teach Jeremy a bit of harmonica for the film, so I bought him a chromatic scale of harps to use. I’m not entirely proficient as most harmonica players, but I knew enough from my father playing blues harmonica, so I was able to show him some stuff," Kiska explained.
Kiska also spoke about his encounters with Springsteen whilst on set. He said that Springsteen often hung out with them and the extras on set. "He was going to catering and stuff, hanging out with everybody, with the extras and us. It was a really casual experience. He was really humble and sort of exceeded expectations of meeting one of your heroes… just the most beautiful and incredible human being," he said.
