Bruce Springsteen Doc Director Knew He Was Capturing 'Deep Love' Between The Boss and Wife Patti Scialfa (Exclusive)

• Travel Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is a new documentary that follows the legendary rockers as they prepare and embark on their first tour in seven years
• Director Thom Zimny ​​opens up to PEOPLE about working with The Boss and his bandmates
• Zimny ​​says one scene in particular, when Springsteen and Scialfa sing “Fire,” shows their “deep love”

There is a scene Travel Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band where The Boss and Patti Scialfa, his wife of 33 years, take the stage together to sing “Fire”.

The chemistry between the two is palpable; as the rockers exchange flirtatious glances and gentle touches, it almost seems as if watching the performance is somehow a violation of their privacy.

Filmmaker Thom Zimny ​​knew that by filming “Fire” for his new documentary (now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu), he was giving the world a glimpse into the incredibly strong relationship between Springsteen, 75, and Scialfa, 71.

“When she sings ‘Fire,’ just in the way they look at each other, I see deep love,” he says. “But I also see two great performers at that moment embracing life, which is a big theme in the film. She brings out a playfulness that you can only really see if you’re with Bruce and Patti offstage. I recognize the work ethic and focus in both of them, and that’s what I’ve always connected with.”

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Bruce Springsteen in ‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’.

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The performance scene is just one of Zimny’s many glimpses into the inner workings of the E Street Band as they prepare for their first tour in seven years. The director has been Springsteen’s collaborator for the past 24 years, earning the star’s trust, giving him unprecedented access to his creative process.

“The conversation with Bruce was always the same at the beginning of the project. It’s either Bruce or Jon [Landau] he called me on my cell phone and said, you know, ‘Next Thursday, Friday and next Monday, the band is going to have rehearsals. We thought it would be good for you to drop by,’ he says. “And I’ll say, ‘Okay, for filming?’ And they will say, ‘Yes.'”

Zimny ​​continues: “It’s a fantastic gig, but what comes with that freedom and that confidence is that I’m going to be invisible. There is no pre-planned discussion… Everything was spontaneous and I just got a lot of time to talk about the band so they could flesh out some of the things I recorded and explain them.”

Director Thom Zimny ​​at the premiere of the documentary in Los Angeles on October 21.

Disney/Stewart Cook

The main line of the documentary is a series of moving voice-overs courtesy of Springsteen that reflect on everything from the fine mechanics of putting on a three-and-a-half-hour show, to broader ideas like “life, death and everything in between,” the rocker says in the doc.

“I plan to keep going until the wheels come off and as long as the band keeps me going,” adds Springsteen. “There is one thing I know. After 50 years on the road, it’s too late to stop now.”

The core of the film, however, is the friendship between the bandmates, plus the ease and flow of watching friends and colleagues whose lives have been intertwined for 50 years. Saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died in 2011, and keyboardist and organist Danny Federici, who died in 2008, appear repeatedly in archival footage, something Zimny ​​says is meant to bring viewers into a “dream space.”

At a pivotal moment, Scialfa reveals for the first time that she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2018.

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Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Van Zandt in ‘The Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’.

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Zimny ​​says the discovery came “organically in conversation” as we talked about music and touring.

“It’s a great moment in the doctor because you see the beauty and the power of her performance, but she also gave me a sacred trust about her current situation and explained it to me,” he says. “I’m really excited now that he’s doing new music, and I’ve heard the album and it’s really amazing. So I hope to continue my journey with her in the next film.”

Zimny ​​recorded hundreds of hours of footage and included archival footage. Nothing was scripted – and that’s exactly how he wanted it.

“It was wonderful to document because if you’re a casual or an uber fan, you got to see the internal process and some of the beautiful moments that are small, with the band gathering in a circle before a show, what it means to Bruce,” he says.

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Source: HIS Education