Bruce Springsteen Laments Lack Of Industry Support For Young Artists: “It’s A Death Cult”

After last week’s tragic news that former One Direction star Liam Payne had passed away at age 31, Bruce Springsteen has slammed the music business for putting “enormous pressures” on young artists, lamenting the “death cult” of the industry.

Springsteen made his comments in a new interview with The Telegraph. Stating that he’s unfortunately seen many people pass away young (“That’s not an unusual thing in my business”), he said, “It’s a normal thing — it’s a business that puts enormous pressures on young people.”

Being interviewed alongside his producer, Jon Landau, the pair discussed musicians who passed away too soon. Landau brought up Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, while Springsteen called back to Kurt Cobain.

Springsteen elaborated on those thoughts by saying that young people entering the music industry “don’t have the inner facility or inner self” to protect themselves from the risks associated with success and fame.

“They get lost in a lot of the difficult and often pain-inducing [things]… whether it’s drugs or alcohol to take some of that pressure off.”

Revealing that he wasn’t speaking without experience, Springsteen mentioned that he’d “had my own wrestling with different things”, and E-Street Band member Danny Federici “certainly” did. But the addictive nature of drugs and alcohol has become a boundary for the Born To Run singer.

“There was a boundary,” he continued. “I stayed out of your business, but if I was on stage and I saw that you were not your complete self, there was going to be a problem. And so, it made a bit of a boundary around that stage, where people had to be relatively sober and at their best. I always say, one of the things I was proudest of is that if one of my fellas passed on, they passed on of natural causes.”

The Boss added, “People continue to fall to it, [but] it’s a death cult. It’s a grift, man. That’s a part of the story that suckers some young people in, you know, but it’s that old story. Dying young – good for the record company, but what’s in it for you?”

Liam Payne passed away last Wednesday (16 October) after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The exact cause of his death is unknown.

Springsteen joins Payne’s X-Factor alum, Katie Waissel, in criticising the industry for not protecting young artists enough. On social media, she said the industry needs to provide more “care and support for young artists.” Meanwhile, all of Payne’s One Direction bandmates paid tribute to him last week.