Bruce Springsteen's Guitar Tech Misses Signature Guitar Throw & Gets Hit In The Head

Bruce Springsteen has done his signature guitar throw with his Telecaster for many years and has rehearsed the move alongside his guitar tech, Kevin Buell, thousands of times.

However, at a recent show in Atlanta, Georgia, Buell wasn't ready for the throw and was hit in the head. In a YouTube video captured by user Darrin Lightner, Buell falls over after he gets hit, and Springsteen rushes over to check on his mate. Buell then goes backstage to receive medical attention.

Springsteen's current tour has attracted backlash surrounding its "dynamic pricing". In July last year, the pricing structure made headlines when several tickets to The Boss’ tour were listed for up to $5,000 US. While fans were outraged, the ticketing giant clarified that “overall, 18% of Springsteen’s US tour tickets sold for under $99, and only 1% of tickets sold for more than $1,000 US”.

“Promoters and artist representatives set pricing strategy and price range parameters on all tickets, including dynamic and fixed price points,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson told The Music.  

Last week, the Springsteen fanzine, Backstreets, ended its 43-year run in protest of dynamic pricing.

Christopher Phillips, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, announced the end of the zine in an editorial.

"After 43 years of publishing in one form or another, by fans for fans of Bruce Springsteen, it’s with mixed emotions that we announce Backstreets has reached the end of the road," Phillips wrote.

Phillips added, "If you read the editorial Backstreets published last summer in the aftermath of the US ticket sales, you have a sense of where our heads and hearts have been: dispirited, downhearted, and, yes, disillusioned. It's not a feeling we're at all accustomed to while anticipating a new Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour. If you haven't yet read that editorial ("Freeze-out," July 24, 2022), or the crux of Springsteen's response to Rolling Stone in November, we encourage you to do so; we don't want to rehash those issues, but we stand behind our positions and points.

"There’s no denying that the new ticket price range has in and of itself been a determining factor in our outlook as the 2023 tour approached — certainly in terms of the experience that hardcore fans have been accustomed to for, as Springsteen noted, 49 years. Six months after the on-sales, we still faced this three-part predicament: These are concerts that we can hardly afford; that many of our readers cannot afford; and that a good portion of our readership has lost interest in as a result."