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Anyone who wants to know what Lucy Dacus is passionate about will quickly come across one name: Bruce Springsteen. On Friday, she shared that she was finally able to introduce her father – himself an ardent fan – to the boss in person.
“I have fulfilled my purpose in life,” Dacus wrote on Instagram, along with a photo of the three of them backstage at Springsteen’s recent concert in Los Angeles. “I just had to tell you this because I know that at least thousands of you have met my father in person at shows and have some idea what that means to him – and to me. Maybe I made you sing him Happy Birthday, or you saw him come on stage to play ‘Dancing in the Dark’ on the guitar, or you joined me in wishing him a Happy Father’s Day.”
“I’m always trying to find ways to make this little guy happy – but I’ll never do better than that,” Dacus added. “I will always respect him and be grateful that he took the time to shake my father’s hand.”
Lifelong Springsteen worship
Dacus has been a Springsteen fan since she was a child and first met the New Jersey icon in 2024. At the time, she said his songs were “as much a part of me as the trees I grew up with” and: “Without him, I would write music differently – maybe not at all.”
In September 2019, Dacus honored Springsteen and gave her father a very special birthday gift: a haunting cover of the classic “Dancing in the Dark.” That year, she told Rolling Stone that Springsteen’s birthday should be a national holiday – “and in the Dacus household it definitely is.”
Experiencing Springsteen on his “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” was particularly moving, Dacus wrote in her Instagram post – not least because of his words about the current political and social climate in the USA.
“It felt good to see him lead an entire arena chanting ‘ICE Out Now’ and to hear him talk about police brutality, workers’ rights, immigrant rights, class divides and the failures of our government – just as he has for decades, in his songs or elsewhere,” she wrote. “He leads people out of narrow-mindedness throughout his life.”
