In the first scenes of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, The band doesn’t play as fast as it used to. The documentary begins with rehearsals before they go on tour after six years apart.

Director Thom Zimny ​​had a crew film these rehearsals without knowing what the footage would look like. He told Yahoo Entertainment that he simply wanted to capture “special, unseen moments” – like when guitarist and musical director Steven Van Zandt requested extra practice time without the frontman because he feared the group wasn’t ready to perform.

“What I don’t want is for critics or audiences to look at us and say, ‘Well, it’s nice, but these old men just keep going,'” Van Zandt says in the documentary. “I want to go out and blow them away.”

Zimny ​​also filmed some of Springsteen’s European concerts, hoping to reflect “the spiritual element of the live show.”

“You laugh, you cry, you are in the pure joy of rock and roll,” he said. “The fan in me wanted to try to get as close to that magic as possible.”

Multiple generations attend the shows, from the fans who have followed Springsteen for decades to the children who have had his music passed down to them by their parents.

“You know, Born to run was recorded in 1975, but (time) doesn’t stop people from chasing this pinnacle of this music,” Zimny ​​said. “The beauty of these lyrics, which reflect a certain freedom. Through music, everyone has an understanding of their place in the world.”

He wanted to leave behind the clichés of music documentaries, such as shots of “tickets being snapped and the lights coming on,” and instead show faces in the crowd focused on the lights and eyes that “tell a story.”

“At the end of the night you leave exhausted, happy and emotional,” Zimny ​​said. “Something feels different that tells you that you can start the day again – you can restart, you can move on.”

Behind the scenes, Springsteen, now 75, struggles with mortality and the realization that he won’t always be able to deliver energetic live performances. His wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa revealed this in Road diary that she was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2018, which affected her performance. Springsteen also took a break from touring in 2023 because he was being treated for stomach ulcers.

Zimny ​​​​has been a fan of Springsteen since he was a teenager and has worked with him for more than 20 years, documenting performances and making music videos. He’s seen firsthand how time has changed Springsteen and how he speaks to the crowd.

“The theme of mortality and the consideration of time are different,” Zimny ​​said. “A lot of things are the same, but there is an awareness of time and hunger… acknowledging the past and looking at it while at the same time being very present.”

At the end of the documentary, Springsteen says that he has been on the road for 50 years and that he plans to continue touring “until the wheels fall off and as long as the band will follow me.”

“That’s the beating heart of my job, being there and just being there and playing for all the stakes that rock ‘n’ roll has to offer,” he continues. “I want to leave you with the possibilities of life, with energy that you can bring to the concert gates… the smile on your face and a feeling of love in your heart.”

“If I get there tomorrow, that’s fine,” Springsteen tells the crowd to cheers. “What a damn ride!”