Bruce Springsteen has fans by the millions, but you won't find many bigger than Steve Yzerman. The boss of the Red Wings will never forget his first time seeing The Boss in concert, "right when The River album came out," Yzerman said.
Springsteen, already a global icon, was playing sold-out arenas across North America. Yzerman, 15, was playing Tier 2 junior hockey in Ontario when he went with Darren Pang and a couple other teammates "and saw Bruce at the Ottawa Civic Center," he said.
And when Yzerman's hockey career ultimately led him to Detroit, where he was drafted fourth overall by the Red Wings in 1983, he caught Springsteen whenever he could in Michigan.
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"I saw him in the summer of 1984 at Joe Louis Arena, I saw him at The Palace, I saw him at the Silverdome, which is no longer there, I saw him at the Fox Theatre on The Ghost of Tom Joad Tour when he was just playing an acoustic set," Yzerman said this week on the Agent Provocateur podcast.
Yzerman even saw him, though not on stage, some 15 years ago at a horse-jumping competition in Washington D.C. in which their daughters happened to be competing. Springsteen, like Yzerman, was just another face in the crowd.
And Yzerman, like any other starstruck fan, froze at the chance to say hello.
"Lo and behold, Bruce is there watching his daughter. He’s leaning over the rail and I’m right there and I’m like, I gotta go talk to him — because he used to go to the Rangers games a lot — and I just couldn’t work up the nerve to go talk to him," Yzerman laughed. "But it was pretty cool, he’s just sitting there minding his own business watching his daughter ride her horse. It was pretty amazing."
Springsteen, now 73, plays his next show in Detroit March 29 at Little Caesars Arena. The Red Wings will be home at the time and the face of their franchise is hoping to be there, one Hall of Famer watching another: "I kind of grew up with him," said Yzerman, now 57. "So I might have to catch that show."
Question is, can he score tickets?
"I hope I can get in, right?" Yzerman joked. "I may not get great seats, but I’ll get in the building."
Maybe he'll even say hello.
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