The former manager of legendary rock musician Bruce Springsteen has been “called to work” with The Boss this winter.
Mike Appel, who produced both Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, has not worked with Springsteen since those first two albums. Appel signed Springsteen to a production contract in 1972, but by 1976, the two were locked in a lengthy legal battle. The pair’s relationship had soured during the making of Born to Run, with Appel replaced by John Landau as both manager and record producer. It appears Appel and Springsteen will be working together again this year, with an announcement from The Official Chiller Theatre Club confirming the producer’s appearance at the venue has been cancelled. The reason given for Appel’s cancellation is “work with Springsteen in the fall”.
Their announcement reads: “Mike has been called to work with Springsteen in the fall and will appear at Chiller on a future date.” Appel had been scheduled for an appearance in October. What capacity this work is in, and for what project, is not yet known. Fans are delighted to see the pair will be working together for the first time in several decades, though.
A post to the r/BruceSpringsteen subreddit saw fans react to the news of the pair working together. One person wrote: “Well, that’s nice to see. I know Bruce and he eventually patched things up on a personal level years after the lawsuit, but I don’t know that I ever expected to see them working together, even in a limited context.”
Another added: “Makes perfect sense. He’s portrayed in the new movie right? I’m sure there’s going to be different press tours and other interviews.” A third shared it was only right the pair reconciled given the influence Appel had on Springsteen’s career in his formative years.
A fan wrote: “I mean, Appel basically got Bruce the interview with John Hammond that let to his signing by Columbia. He believed in Bruce and fought for him when he was a nobody and guided him through to his breakthrough. He was absolutely essential to Bruce’s success, and Bruce admits that.”
Springsteen would reflect on his relationship with Appel in his autobiography, Born to Run. He wrote: “The irony is that I myself had much to do with the pitching and existence of this tent here in the corner of my personal little carnival.
“Mike shouldn’t have been so overreaching, but my young fears and refusal to accept responsibility for my own actions also brought much of this into being.” At the time of the pair’s lawsuit, Springsteen was unable to record new music. He had released Born to Run in 1975, and the next release from The Boss would not be until 1978 with Darkness on the Edge of Town.
