VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen Returns to the Stern Show … With the Heart-Stopping, Earth-Quaking, Legendary E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen might be one of the most cherished rock and roll stars in the world who at this point tours it with great comfort and luxury, but it didn’t start out that way. As pointed out in his upcoming Hulu documentary, “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band,” the early years were spent on a basic bus. “The beds would just tilt completely over in the aisle. I’d come face-to-face with Steve Van Zandt in his bunk, and I’d have to push my bunk back … it was all part of it,” he told Howard Tuesday morning in his return to the Stern Show studios. “You’re young, you’re on the road, you’re staying in these little $6 hotels and Holiday Inns that are still better than your apartment — I always considered myself fortunate.”

Before the band — which includes his wife and longtime E Street band member Patti Scialfa — joined Bruce live in-studio to chat and perform a mini concert, the Boss discussed some of the fun he’s had as their boss over the years. “Torturing the band is the bandleader’s prerogative,” he laughed. “I used to keep them playing for hours during a soundcheck while I walked around the entire arena making sure every seat had the optimum sound.”

‘It Takes a Red Headed Woman’

While Bruce is the Boss in concert, that all changes when the band is off the clock. Scialfa made that clear as she explained their dynamics to Howard. “I always tried not to be a wife onstage,” she noted. “But as soon as I get my foot off the stage …”

“It’s over, baby,” her husband added. “I’m only Boss [for] three hours and then I surrender the title, happily.”

Collectively, the couple made a point of not bringing their work home with them. “You walk into our home, especially when the kids were growing up, you wouldn’t know what anybody did for a living — there was nothing [that] indicated there’s somebody famous in the house,” Scialfa revealed.

Their oldest of their three children, Evan, didn’t know what his parents did for a living until he was in the second or third grade. “’Hey Dad, “What’s ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out?’” Bruce remembered him asking.

In fact, the Springsteen brood have occasionally gotten annoyed with the very talents that got their parents into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “I think what we do that the kids would sometimes complain about is, instead of talking, we’d sing everything back and forth to each other,” Patti said before demonstrating in song, ‘I’m making the pancakes!’”

Sometimes You Can’t Start a Fire

With hundreds of songs in his catalog, Springsteen is known as one of America’s most prolific songwriters ever. That doesn’t mean the process is easy or predictable. “It’s really hard … 90 percent of the time you’re writing stuff that’s either mediocre or worse … The only good thing is I’ve learned to recognize what’s mediocre and worse sooner,” he admitted. “I’ve gone for two years without writing a song and then written an entire album in three weeks.”

With the exception of 2009’s “Surprise, Surprise” — which literally came to him in a dream — Springsteen said songwriting has always been a grind. “You’re soul mining, is what I call it,” he explained. “You’re down in the soul mines, and just like any mine, you’re chippin’ away looking for a vein. I’ve been lucky. I’ve hit a lot of veins in my lifetime, but you do not know if you’re going to hit another one.”

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“Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band” debuts on Hulu Friday, Oct. 25.