Bruce Springsteen has spoken publicly for the first time about his $20,000 donation to the families of striking miners in the 1980s.
Opening up in the upcoming BBC documentary, When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain, Springsteen finally spoke about the large donation for the first time in 40 years.
‘The Boss’ presented two miners’ wives with a $20,000 cheque backstage at a show in Newcastle in 1985, addressed to the Northumberland and Durham Miners’ Support Group.
Miners had been battling for over a year with the government as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher looked to shut down mines up-and-down the country.
Speaking in the new BBC film, Springsteen said: “My parents were working class people and I watched them struggle their whole lives.
“I’d been reading about it (the strike) in the newspapers and so it was just something that felt it would be a good thing to do. It wasn’t a big thing, it was just a good thing to do at the time.”
Although it may not have been a “big thing” for the ‘Badlands’ rocker, it was life-changing for the support groups he was helping out.
Anne Suddick and Juliana Heron, who both ran mining support groups, were at the St James Park concert together, with Mrs. Heron saying in the documentary that a man tapped her friend on the shoulder and asked if she could “please come and meet Bruce Springsteen.”
Recalling the pleasant surprise, Mrs. Heron said: “She was about half an hour and she comes back and she says, ‘You’ll never believe this’. She just hands us this cheque and said ‘Look’.
“I said ‘That says $20,000’, and she saiid, ‘Yes, it’s for the Northumberland and Durham Miners’ Support Group. I said ‘But he doesn’t know us’, and she said ‘Yes, but he knows what we do’.”
This heroic story will feature in the new documentary, When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain, due to be shown on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer at 9:30pm this Saturday (31 May).
The film will be part of a period of celebration at the BBC for the legendary Rock icon. Other shows will include Bruce Springsteen at the BBC which will include archival footage from him playing on Top Of The Pops.
Springsteen has recently been touring the UK where he made headlines when he called out US President Donald Trump, calling him an “unfit president” leading a “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration”
This led to Trump describing The Boss as a ‘dried-out prune of a rocker” and “not a talented guy”.
Just this past weekend, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello came to the support of Springsteen, saying on stage at Boston Calling: “Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality. And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a bigger audience. Fuck that guy!”
Finally getting around to posting some photos and videos from Boston Calling 2025. A damp but fun weekend once again! pic.twitter.com/Rkhqa1yMA8
— Kevin Slane (@kslane) May 26, 2025
Springsteen is currently touring through Europe before returning to the UK next month for two massive shows at Anfield in Liverpool. Details for the upcoming shows and any remaining tickets can be found here.
