A former longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer says The Boss ought to respect the president — after the woke rock legend slammed Donald Trump as “our wannabe king.’’
Showman lefty Springsteen known as the White Home a “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous administration” throughout his current anti-Trump “Land of Hope and Goals” tour.
However unique E Road Band drummer Vini “Mad Canine” Lopez informed The Put up, “You gotta have respect for the president.
“Trump is the president of america — everybody ought to have respect for him,” the Rock and Roll Corridor of Famer informed The Put up from his winter residence in Largo, Fla.
“He’s the president of america. And if I used to be standing there speaking to him, I might have mucho respect for the person,” Lopez stated, including with a chuckle, “I wouldn’t speak to him about something that’s occurring” politically.
In contrast to Springsteen, a New Jersey native who makes each live performance lately really feel like a tedious political rally, the percussionist stated he takes a special method along with his present group, The Fantastic Winos.
“My band, no matter we predict, we don’t go there in our music,” stated Lopez, 77, who has performed with about 30 music teams over time.
The drummer performed with Springsteen for six years — together with on the famed document “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” — earlier than the pair parted methods as a result of Lopez was “too jazzy for what [Springsteen] needed to do,” he stated.
Lopez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame together with Springsteen’s E Road Band in 1999.
The drummer stated he’s no ideological diehard, though he copped to voting Republican, from Metropolis Council to US Congress.
Lopez stated he caddied on golf programs for years and as soon as met Trump at his Bedminster, NJ, golf course earlier than he was president and fortunately shook his hand, understanding his conservative politics.
“He was very good to me. He was very inquisitive and launched me to Melania,” Lopez stated.
He stated that as he was leaving that day, Trump requested to do him a “large favor.
” ‘ Inform Bruce I’m his greatest fan,’ ” Lopez stated Trump informed him.
The president has since known as for a boycott of Springsteen, who he refers to as a “dried-up prune.”
Lopez stated he nonetheless helps the Boss’s freedom of speech, even when it consists of polarizing rhetoric about “our wannabe king” and Trump’s “rogue authorities.”
“I’m not towards what Bruce is saying now,” Lopez stated.
He stated he simply doesn’t imagine politics ought to tear People aside.
“Possibly once I was 20, I used to be a bit of extra excessive, however I’m 77 now, so the extremities are gone,” Lopez stated.
“It’s so divided, the political half. It’s a tricky one on me.”
Lopez added that he’s nonetheless hopeful of Trump’s insurance policies, saying, “I might like to see one thing good come out.”
The drummer stated he and Springsteen are in the meantime on “good” phrases and that the 2 often nonetheless join.
“If he needs me to do one thing, he’ll name me” Lopez stated.
“Typically it’s simply because he hasn’t seen me for some time. And he’ll name me and say. ‘Hey, come round right here,’ ” recalled the Jerseyite. “And more often than not it’s horrible once I name him as a result of it’s when one in every of our crew died and he doesn’t know that. That’s taking place increasingly.”
Lopez doesn’t plan on seeing Springsteen’s present tour however caught his former band in Philly just a few years in the past.
“I don’t even assume he knew I used to be there,” Lopez stated. “I used to be sitting over within the nook.”
