JONATHAN CAIN Says BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Is 'An Annoying, Bitter Old Man' Who 'Should Shut Up' About Politics

In a recent interview with The Complete Disaster Network, JOURNEY keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who is married to Paula White-Cain, Donald Trump's senior advisor to the White House Faith Office, weighed in on whether celebrities should be outspoken about their political views. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're blessed to live where we live. And I'm obviously a conservative. I used to be a Democrat back in the old days, but I couldn't go there anymore. I thought [Barack] Obama maybe, but then I saw where he was going and I'm, like, 'Okay, we can't have this anymore.' So I'm a diehard conservative. And guys like Bruce Springsteen should shut up. Honestly, shut up, Bruce. Who's the other one? Robert De Niro. I mean, who cares, guys? Really? Do your art."

He continued: "I try to keep politics out of my music. Now I'm releasing this patriotic song ['The Winds Of Freedom: A Salute To America' in celebration of America's 250th anniversary] because I'm a diehard patriot. Like Kid Rock, who's my friend — we're a couple of patriots and … we love our flag and we love our nation. And we grew up that way.

"I think in the end we should do what we do and try to unify," Jonathan added. "I think our job [as artists] is unifying people. I mean, Paul McCartney said, 'Hey, when I sing 'Hey, Jude', Democrats and Republicans all sing together.' And I feel the same way with JOURNEY. We have our [political] parties out there in the audience, respective parties, and they're singing 'Don't Stop Believin''.

"Now people say, 'Well, you're a Christian and you're a conservative,' and I'm, like, 'So what?' I don't preach it on stage," Cain explained. "I don't spend 10 minutes talking about it. That's who I am. And that's okay. Again, I just don't think it's cool to have celebrities going there. It's a bad look. And Bruce, I mean, what the heck? I used to like him, and now he's just annoying. He's an annoying, bitter old man. I mean, stop it. Really. You were born in the USA, weren't you, dude? So act like it. But even that song [Springsteen's 'Born In The USA'], if you look at the lyrics, it's a kind of a diss to our country.

"Me and Kid Rock, we're probably on an island," Jonathan concluded. "There's a few of us, and I stand there with my flag on that island, and if anybody's got a problem with me, America and Jesus, then bring it."

In his 2016 memoir "Born To Run", Springsteen called "Born In The USA", the title track off his blockbuster seventh album, "a protest song," with the track's lyrics telling of a local loser who's railroaded into military service during the Vietnam War, scarred by his experiences in Southeast Asia, and completely forgotten about by his country when he returns home.

In June 2025, Springsteen ripped Trump during his "Land of Hopes And Dreams" tour, calling Trump a "treasonous" president who's "persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent." Springsteen later told The New York Times that Trump is a "moron", but only partially responsible for the "tragic" state of America. "I think that it was the combination of the deindustrialization of the country and then the incredible increase in wealth disparity that left so many people behind. It was ripe for a demagogue," Springsteen told The New York Times. "While I can't believe it was this moron that came along, he fit the bill for some people." He added, "It's an American tragedy."

In response, Trump has taken a number of his own shots at Springsteen, including calling for a MAGA boycott against Bruce's music and concerts.

"Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS," Trump wrote on social media. "The guy is a total loser who spews hate against a President who won a Landslide Election, including the popular vote, all Seven Swing States, and 86% of the Counties across America."

Cain isn't the only conservative rocker who has criticized Springsteen for voicing his anti-Trump political views. During an August 2025 appearance on "The Tucker Carlson Show", STAIND frontman Aaron Lewis said of the New Jersey-bred musician who became rock 'n' roll's voice of the working class: "I think that he is a disgusting display of not appreciating what was handed to him, in this country as being an American, the success that he has had. The fact that he duped us all with one of the most anti-American songs ever and called it 'Born In The USA' as some sort of celebration of how great it is to be born in the USA. I'm angry at myself for not seeing it for so long and actually giving him, in my mind, the credit of being a representation of blue-collar America."

Lewis continued: "I think that [Springsteen] has forgotten where he came from. I think that if you're not careful doing this, this career that that me and him have both been so blessed to have had, if you're not careful, it will consume you. And it's obvious that it creates a situation where you've lost sight of the reality of the country that you live in because you've lived such a cush… you've had so much, you have so much that it's really easy to take a stance that is so anti everything that you were lucky enough to have, lucky enough to create, lucky enough to change your situation in life. And he's just lost touch with the struggles. He's lost touch with the struggle."

Referencing the fact that Springsteen is a long and prominent supporter of Democratic presidential candidates, Aaron added: "It seems like most people who have lost touch with the true struggle of life, those are the people that vote for these fucking idiots. Those are the people that feel like they have to virtue signal. Those are the people that, somewhere along the way, they feel guilty for the success that they have had, so they somehow have to make it up with this nonsensical bullshit that… You grew up at the same time… I did. It was the most unracially driven... The verbal beating that we took over and over and over, our whole childhood of you don't judge a man by the color of his skin, you judge a man by the content of his character… It was the best that our country has ever been. And I think that that didn't work well for the Democrats and the Communists, because they thrive in the chaos. They want us at each other's throats. They want us bickering internally so that we have no sense of shared country pride, that we have no sense of shared morality because they've created so many things artificially for us to fight about."

Lewis previously called out Springsteen in his controversial solo single "Am I The Only One". The song, which took aim at liberals and touched on American flags burning and statues that had been removed in the country, saw Aaron criticizing Bruce at the end of the track, singing: "Am I the only one who quits singin' along every time they play a Springsteen song."

Asked during a 2021 appearance on The Daily Wire's "Candace" show why he chose to call out Springsteen in the song's lyrics, Lewis said: "Because he's always portrayed himself as the all-American middle-class guy. And during all of this craziness, he said that if one man is re-elected to the office of presidency that he was gonna move to Australia. How American is that? You're gonna bail on America just because you don't like the guy that may have gotten into office?"

Cain is a devout born-again Christian whose minister wife became the first female clergy member to pray at a presidential inauguration following U.S. president Donald Trump's latest victory and now serves as the first female primary spiritual adviser to a U.S. president.

Jonathan embraced faith-based music with 2016's "What God Wants To Hear" and released a Christmas LP, "Unsung Noel", the following year.

In 1976, Cain released his first solo record, "Windy City Breakdown". Three years later, he joined the band THE BABYS, and in 1980 became a member of JOURNEY, rounding out the songwriting genius behind the defining album "Escape".

JOURNEY recently extended its massive "Final Frontier Tour" with 40 additional North American dates this fall. Presented by AEG Presents, the newly announced leg begins Saturday, September 12 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California and concludes with a hometown finale show on Saturday, November 28 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California.

The "Final Frontier Tour" launched on February 28 in Hershey, Pennsylvania and has continued to deliver packed arenas, explosive performances and a hit-filled set celebrating JOURNEY's legendary career. Night after night, fans have experiences timeless classics, including "Don't Stop Believin'", "Any Way You Want It", "Faithfully" and "Lights".

Jonathan Cain press photo courtesy of Rick Hoganson of Hoganson Media Relations