Bruce Springsteen Reveals the “Lifelong Relationship” That Began at Hollywood’s Sunset Marquis — and How Those Formative Years Became Entangled With the Remarkable History Behind ‘Born in the U.S.A.’

Bruce Springsteen Was Reading A Book On His Way To Los Angeles — Then A Stranger Beside A Hotel Pool Said Six Words That Helped Inspire ‘Born In The U.S.A.’

Bruce Springsteen was sitting beside a Los Angeles hotel pool in the mid-1970s when an almost unbelievable coincidence changed the course of his songwriting.

The future rock legend had just traveled across the country with a book that had completely consumed him: Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July.

Springsteen was still thinking about what he’d read when he arrived at the Sunset Marquis, the legendary West Hollywood hotel that had become a favorite hideaway for musicians.

Then he noticed a young man in a wheelchair sitting at the other end of the pool.

Springsteen had the book with him.

The stranger saw it.

And then came the introduction Springsteen could hardly have expected.

“Man, I wrote that book.”

The man was Ron Kovic himself.

Their chance encounter became the beginning of a lifelong friendship — and ultimately helped set Springsteen on the path toward one of the most famous songs of his career, “Born in the U.S.A.”

Springsteen Had ‘Devoured’ Kovic’s Book

Springsteen revisited the remarkable meeting in the documentary If These Walls Could Rock, which explores the history and mythology surrounding the Sunset Marquis.

His encounter with Kovic began before Springsteen had even reached California.

“I bought a book called Born on the 4th of July and I devoured it on the way to Los Angeles,” Springsteen recalled.

Kovic’s memoir tells the story of his experiences as a Vietnam War veteran and his life after returning home paralyzed.

The book stayed with Springsteen throughout the journey.

“And I was still under its spell when we pulled into the Sunset Marquis hotel, the rocker’s hideaway on Alta Loma Road,” he said.

He couldn’t have known that the author whose story was occupying his thoughts was waiting just yards away.

‘Man, I Wrote That Book’

Once Springsteen settled near the hotel pool, he noticed Kovic.

“And I’m sitting by the pool, and there’s a young guy in a wheelchair sitting down the other end,” Springsteen recalled.

He still had Born on the Fourth of July with him.

“And I had the book with me, and he said, ‘Man, I wrote that book.’”

It was the kind of encounter that sounds almost too perfectly scripted to be real.

Springsteen had traveled across the country reading Kovic’s story.

He arrived in Los Angeles still thinking about it.

Then, without arranging a meeting or seeking him out, he found himself beside the author.

The two began talking.

That conversation didn’t end at the hotel.

Ron Kovic Took Springsteen Somewhere He Wouldn’t Forget

Springsteen and Kovic struck up a friendship, and Kovic later invited the musician to accompany him on a visit to a veterans hospital.

That experience had a profound impact on Springsteen.

The men he encountered and the realities surrounding veterans returning from war would become part of the inspiration behind the song that eventually emerged as “Born in the U.S.A.”

The title would later become one of the most recognizable phrases in Springsteen’s catalog.

But the chain of events leading toward it began with something far quieter: a book, a hotel pool and an unexpected introduction.

“And I’ve had a lifelong relationship with Ronnie,” Springsteen said.

“And that all started, one of the many things that started, at the Sunset Marquis.”

‘Born In The U.S.A.’ Became One Of Springsteen’s Defining Songs

The eventual song would become inseparable from Springsteen’s career.

Its enormous chorus and explosive production gave it the sound of an anthem, while its story centered on a Vietnam veteran returning to a country where life had not unfolded as promised.

That contrast became essential to the song’s identity.

And behind it was the friendship that began after Springsteen happened to carry the right book into the right hotel at exactly the right moment.

But Kovic’s story wasn’t the only piece of Springsteen history connected to the Sunset Marquis.

According to Steve Van Zandt, another pivotal chapter in Springsteen’s career also ended up in the hotel’s swimming pool.

Literally.

Bruce Apparently Threw ‘Born To Run’ Into The Pool

Van Zandt recalled the famously difficult process of making Springsteen’s breakthrough album, Born to Run.

“The Born to Run album was a very tough record to make,” he said.

Eventually, producer Jimmy Iovine arrived at the Sunset Marquis carrying an acetate of the album.

For most artists, hearing a nearly finished record after such a difficult process might have been a moment of relief.

Springsteen’s reaction was considerably more dramatic.

“And Bruce hated it so much,” Van Zandt recalled.

“He threw it into the pool.”

The story captures just how much pressure surrounded an album that would eventually become one of Springsteen’s defining works.

At the time, however, Springsteen wasn’t hearing a future classic.

He was hearing something he apparently disliked enough to send straight into the water.

Then ‘Time’ And ‘Newsweek’ Put Him On Their Covers

The success that followed created another kind of discomfort.

Van Zandt remembered a period when Springsteen, still adjusting to his rapidly growing fame, suddenly appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek.

For a musician who had spent years fighting for control over his work and identity, the attention was overwhelming.

“Bruce, who’s still very much an unknown, ends up on a cover of Time and Newsweek,” Van Zandt recalled.

The magazines were apparently available in the hotel’s lobby.

Rather than celebrating, Springsteen became uneasy about what the attention represented.

“He felt like control of his own life is kind of slipping away here,” Van Zandt said.

Springsteen apparently knew exactly what to do with the magazines.

“And they also ended up in the pool also.”

The Hotel Became Part Of Springsteen’s Story

For countless musicians, the Sunset Marquis has accumulated decades of stories involving fame, excess, creativity and chaos.

For Springsteen, its place in his history is unusually significant.

One visit brought him face-to-face with the author of a book he had just spent days reading.

Another moment saw an acetate of an album destined to become a classic reportedly thrown into the swimming pool.

Then came the magazine covers that represented his sudden transformation from ambitious musician to national celebrity.

Those went into the water, too.

Yet the most consequential event required no rock-star theatrics at all.

It was simply two young men sitting near the same pool.

One Chance Meeting Led To A Lifelong Friendship

Springsteen couldn’t have planned his introduction to Kovic.

He didn’t travel to Los Angeles specifically to meet him.

He had simply picked up Born on the Fourth of July, become absorbed in its story and carried the book with him.

Then the author appeared.

Kovic subsequently introduced Springsteen to experiences that would deepen his understanding of what some Vietnam veterans faced after returning home.

Their friendship lasted far beyond that first conversation.

And Springsteen eventually turned some of what he encountered into music.

The Sunset Marquis has hosted more than its share of famous rock ‘n’ roll moments.

But few could have had consequences quite like this one.

Springsteen arrived with somebody else’s story in his hands — and left with an experience that would eventually help shape one of his own most enduring songs.