Bruce Springsteen, 'Born To Run,' And The Lawsuit That Almost Ruined His Career

ENTERTAINMENT | May 18, 2023

Written by Jacob Shelton

With the 1975 album Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen looked like the new king of rock 'n roll -- "Thunder Road," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and the title track would become classic rock anthems -- but a lawsuit threatened deny him the throne.

Springsteen was hailed as the voice of a generation on the covers of Newsweek and Time magazines, but instead of capitalizing on his success and hitting the studio to record another album he put on a suit and went to court. He spent much of 1976 and 1977 -- important years in rock music that should have been important years for Bruce -- in a courtroom fighting for his professional life in a lawsuit against Laurel Canyon, Ltd., owned by his manager and publisher Mike Appel.

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Jacob Shelton

Writer

Jacob Shelton is a Los Angeles based writer. For some reason this was the most difficult thing he’s written all day, and here’s the kicker – his girlfriend wrote the funny part of that last sentence. As for the rest of the bio? That’s pure Jacob, baby. He’s obsessed with the ways in which singular, transgressive acts have shaped the broader strokes of history, and he believes in alternate dimensions, which means that he’s great at a dinner party. When he’s not writing about culture, pop or otherwise, he’s adding to his found photograph collection and eavesdropping on strangers in public.