“We’d do these crazy shows with 16-inch glitter boots tacked to the piano and Neil screaming into the mic. It was like pre-punk. Audiences hated it”: Nils Lofgren’s wild stories of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards and more

Nils Lofgren posing for a photograph in 1975.

Nils Lofgren was just 18 when Neil Young came scouting for someone to play on his 1970 album After The Goldrush. Between then and now he’s fronted his own band Grin, played with some formidable names (he’s the only guitarist to back both Cab Calloway and Bart Simpson; no mean claim) and has been an integral part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band since he joined in the 80s. “It wasn’t premeditated,” he told Classic Rock in this interview from 2009, in which he looked back at some of the musicians he‘d encountered, befriended and played with. “I just grew up to be a team player.”