Sponsored message
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Bruce Springsteen Wrote A Tardy Note For A 4th Grader After Concert Went Late

springsteen_la_sports_winter.jpg
Bruce Springsteen at the L.A. Sports Arena (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.


Bruce Springsteen wrote a note to the teacher of a 9-year-old boy, blaming the child's future tardiness on rock and roll. The Boss has been touring around the country playing the 1980 album The River in its entirety. In Los Angeles, he and the E Street Band booked three shows at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena. Two have already passed, but the final show will be on Saturday, March 19.

On the 15th, 9-year-old Xabi Glovsky was in attendance. Unfortunately, the 15th—being a Tuesday—was a school night. Springsteen shows, of course, are marathons. This particular sold-out show lasted three and a half hours, powering through 35 songs and ending just shy of midnight, according to TODAY. Needless to say, little Xabi stayed out past his bedtime.

Anticipating his tardiness at school the next day, Xabi held up a sign that read: "Bruce, I will be late to school tomorrow. Please sign my note."

When Springsteen saw the sign at the end of the show, he gestured to security to take Xabi and his father, Scott Glovsky, backstage. Glovsky told Springsteen fan site Backstreets that he personally has been a Springsteen fan for over 30 years and has seen him in concert over 100 times. He described the encounter in which the 66-year-old rock star wrote a letter to Xabi's fourth grade teacher, Ms. Jackson.

Bruce sat down on a couch and started to talk with Xabi, asking for the name of his teacher and how Xabi spelled his name, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen. As Xabi sat next to him on the couch, Bruce thoughtfully and artistically created this beautiful note. It was very interesting to watch the artist at work. They talked for a few minutes, and Bruce was incredibly nice, caring and generous.

The note reads: "Xabi has been out very late rocking + rolling. Please excuse him if he is tardy!"

Sponsored message

We're hoping Ms. Jackson found it within her heart to excuse Xabi, because as the Boss says in "No Surrender": "We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school."

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.

If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today