Bruce Springsteen is sorry he didn’t let Bono use his song for a charity ad.
The 76-year-old star issued a public apology to the U2 frontman for refusing to allow him to use the track Girls in Their Summer Clothes for a charity partnership between clothing brand GAP and Bono’s AIDS foundation (RED).
Bono brought up the incident while presenting Springsteen with the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the Tribeca Festival and Springsteen replied: “That was a big mistake. I should have said yes.
“That was just a song that I love. D*** it, I still think back: ‘Bono asked you to put this thing on a commercial on television.’ I should have f****** done it! People would hear it like a hit, you know? So I have to [say sorry].”
After Tribeca Festival founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal introduced Bono, to present Springsteen’s award, Bono went on to praise his fellow musician as “America”.
He said: “Bruce Springsteen is America. Bruce made poetry from the voices of the people and set that poetry to music.”
The pair also spoke on the ability of rock stars to connect with the working class, with Bono saying he feared that the left “lost a little bit of it”, and that “the accusations of elitism that are out there for people like me are not inaccurate”.
He asked Springsteen: “Has it cost you? Do you feel torn at all thinking there’s people in this town that used to come see my shows who don’t now? Or have you made peace with that?”
Springsteen replied: “I’m not sure. You have to do two things. There’s the classic folk song, Which Side Are You On?, you have to make your stand and follow your beliefs, and you have to have the faith in them that they will be explicable and understandable by your fellow citizens. And you have to believe that America is a sacred argument and a compromise.”