Bruce Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfaprotected their three children from his superstardom when they were younger.

In a recent interview with The timesSpringsteen, 75, opened up about why he and Scialfa, 71, initially “didn’t expose” their children — Evan, 34, Jessica, 32, and Samuel, 30 — to his fame.

“When they were little, whenever they heard me on the radio, they would say, ‘Bruce Springsteen!’” he recalls. “It was their way of separating their father from this abstract character who also seemed to be a part of their lives. Often we just haven’t exposed them to it.”

Springsteen continued, “They came to concerts a few times before going back to their room to play video games, and didn’t know much more about it than what they might have read.”

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As the children got older, they became more involved and “wanted to bring their friends” to see their father perform. “But beyond that, they chose their own lives, developed their own work, found their own partners and families, all at a nice distance from the strangeness of my work,” he added.

Springsteen’s onstage persona also kept his distance from his marriage. “As soon as I leave the stage, I’m the driver who takes the kids to school at 6 a.m.,” he teased.

Springsteen and Scialfa married in 1991, a year after welcoming their first son, Evan. The couple had a long history before their relationship eventually turned romantic. (Scialfa has been a member of Springsteen’s E Street Band since 1984.)

“I’ve known Pats on and off since she was 17, and we had a steady relationship as friends until we got together as a couple in 1988, when I was 38 and she was 34,” Springsteen said. The times. “It turned out pretty well…except for the fact that I tend to take up a lot of space.”

Despite being one of the most famous names in music — Springsteen has sold more than 140 million records worldwide and won 20 Grammy Awards over his decades-long career — The Boss previously admitted that his children have never been his biggest fans.

“They had their own musical heroes, they had their own music that they were interested in,” he said The New York Times in 2023, he joked that Evan, Jessica and Samuel tended to “show a healthy disinterest” in his career. “They would be pretty blank if someone mentioned the title of a song of mine.”

For Springsteen, the disinterest was a positive sign. “I always saw that as us doing a good job. … I know a lot of kids who wouldn’t mind 50,000 people booing their parents. But I don’t know how many people would want to see these people cheering on their parents,” he teased. “It’s just not right!”

Springsteen’s family has been in the spotlight for years, and fans recently gained new insight into their lives when Scialfa revealed in 2018 that she had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The revelation came in the documentary Rock Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Bandwhich premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

“They caught it early and she has very good doctors who helped a lot. But it does tire her, very intensely, and that is a problem,” Springsteen said The times. “I’m doing a three-hour show, which is tiring for me and I’m pretty much at the peak of my health. But she’s been great.”

He continued, “We’ve worked out that she can come out and sing a few songs, and it’s important that the fans know what’s going on because they haven’t seen her in five years. Patti decided she owed that to her audience.”