The camps operate so differently. Bruce plans things far in advance. Neil just sort of flies by the seat of his pants. I'm really blessed to be part of two great bands - I never take that for granted," Lofgren says. "My joke is to go to management of both bands and say, 'Guys, I've spent 90 years here - more than 50 with Neil, 50 with Bruce and E Street. I've been a good boy and good musician. Can you just let me make the touring schedule for both of your artists for a couple of years?' And the managers just laugh at me and say, 'Get lost.'"

Nils Lofgren Recruits Famous Friends for ‘Mountains’ Album

The E Street Band reconvened in Red Bank, New Jersey, in early January. You guys hadn’t done any live work since early 2017. Did it take any time to shake off the rust or incorporate the new band members? It’s easy to forget that as well as being a stalwart of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band, Nils Lofgren is a solo artist of great renown. We’d both test and wear masks unless I was singing to keep it as safe as we could. I got Covid flying home after finishing World Record with Neil Young. I exposed Amy, but she didn’t get it, thank God. So I was very careful not to start having the traditional arrangement of, “Here’s five musicians, and they’re going to move in for three weeks.”But yeah, maybe Neil takes it a little further. We were doing a couple of shows in Winnipeg [in 2019]. We do a little vocal warmup before the show. So we’re sitting there singing like we’ve always done, Ralphie, Billy, me, and Neil. And he has a little Wurlitzer. We’re just about done and we’re going on in 20 minutes. So we’re like “Neil, give us a set list. I know we’re not going to follow it, but at least we can look at something.” My wife Amy, who’s this fierce social media fighter for women’s rights, kids’ rights, human rights, common sense, democracy…She’s really deep in it and has got a lot of fans for it. There has been a war on women my whole lifetime. It’s gotten a lot worse recently. So I thought, “Well, what if I wrote a song from the perspective of a fierce mother whose husband just came home from the Jan. 6 insurrection?”

Nils Lofgren – Mountains (2023, CD) - Discogs

Angel Blues” is an old, unfinished song, one of the few on this record from the past. But I loved the opening lines, “Lean your weary halo on my wing/And let the peace come/As your darkness dies in my light/Even angels falter now and then.”The album opens with “Ain’t the Truth Enough.” It’s an angry song where you sing, “Who filled your head with lies/You’re Kool-Aid hypnotized.” What inspired that? I left home Jan. 6. I had talked to Bruce and stayed in touch with most of the band guys anyway. He told me about the Only the Strong Survive album with these great soul hits. So I thought, “Oh man, maybe some of my old horn buddies will be there, like Ed Manion, Barry Danielian, Curt Ramm.” And sure enough, they were all there.