During Pearl Jam’s concert in Pittsburgh on Friday, frontman Eddie Vedder performed a solo cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins,” a pointed response to Donald Trump’s Truth Social rant threatening to keep Springsteen out of the country following the conclusion of his own European tour. Watch Vedder’s acoustic rendition of The Rising song below.
Vedder didn’t make any direct reference to Springsteen before covering his 2002 song, but on Springsteen’s current tour, the track has been preceded by a vehement speech that lambasts the Trump administration for corruption and its attack on civil liberties.
“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Springsteen proclaimed during The E Street Band’s tour’s kick-off on May 14th.
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Trump subsequently took to Truth Social on Friday, May 16th, to attack Springsteen for his remarks, calling him “dumb as a rock” and threatening to bar him from returning to the US after finishing his tour. “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States…Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” he wrote in his post. “Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’… This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Springsteen, for his part, seems unfazed by Trump’s threat, continuing to deliver the same blistering speeches denouncing the former president and his administration during a concert on Saturday night. “In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent,” Springsteen said in his speech prior to performing “My City of Ruins.” “A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government. They have no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.”
“The America l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and regardless of its faults is a great country with a great people. So we’ll survive this moment.”