Bruce Springsteen Mourns Loss of His Mother: Adele Springsteen Was 98

Bruce Springsteen has revealed that he is mourning the loss of his mother, Adele Springsteen who has died. She was 98. The legendary artist took to Instagram to share a throwback video of him dancing with his mother to some swing music, and he shared a memorial in the post’s caption, noting that she was born May 4, 1925 and passed away on Jan. 31, 2024.

“I remember in the morning mom hearing your alarm clock ring,” Springsteen wrote. “I’d lie in bed and listen to you getting ready for work, the sound of your makeup case on the sink. And the ladies at the office all lipstick, perfume and rustling skirts, how proud and happy you always looked walking home from work.” He added, “It ain’t no phone call on Sunday, flowers or a Mother’s Day card. It ain’t no house on the hill with a garden and a nice little yard. I’ve got my hot rod down on Bond Street I’m older but you’ll know me in a glance. We’ll find us a Little rock ‘n roll bar and we’ll go out and dance.” 

While he did not share a cause of death, Springsteen had previously spoken publicly about his mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s. “My mother loves to dance,” he told the audience during a 2021 Broadway show, per Today. “She grew up in the ’40s … (with) the big bands and the swing bands, and that was a time when dancing was an existential act.” He added, “She’s 95 and she’s 10 years into Alzheimer’s and that’s taken a lot away from us. But the need to dance hasn’t left her.”

“She can’t speak. She can’t stand. She can’t feed herself. But when she sees me, there is always a smile. Still a smile. And there’s still a kiss,” Springsteen shared. “And there’s a sound which she makes when she sees me. It’s just the sound but I know it means ‘I love you.’” He continued, “And when I put on Glen Miller and she starts moving in her chair – she does, she does – she starts reaching out for me, to take her in my arms once more and to dance with her across the floor.”

Springsteen then said, “This is an essential part of mom’s spirit, it’s who she is. It’s beyond language and it’s more powerful than memory. It’s the embodiment. This is what she has put her trust in and lived her life by and which, despite all she has suffered, she carries on with to this moment, as if life’s beauty never deserted her. I love her.” Notably, it has been 26 years since Springsteen lost his father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, who died in 1998.