Bruce Springsteen says he 'couldn't sing at all for 2 or 3 months' due to peptic ulcer disease

By Andrea Dresdale

Bruce Springsteen is speaking out after relaunching his tour with the E Street Band following a six-month break to deal with a diagnosis of peptic ulcer disease.

"The Boss" revealed that during the worst stages of his condition, he wasn't able to sing at all.

Calling into Sirius XM's E Street Radio on March 21, Springsteen said, "You sing with your diaphragm. You know, my diaphragm was hurting so badly that when I went to make the effort to sing, it was killing me, so I literally couldn't sing at all, you know? And that lasted for two, three months, along with just a myriad of other painful problems."

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Bruce Springsteen performs at Footprint Center on March 19, 2024 in Phoenix, Ariz.

"It took a while for the doctors to say, 'Oh, no, you're gonna be OK,'" he said. "At first, nobody was quite saying that, which made me nervous, y'know?"

Now that Springsteen is back in good shape, he said he and the band consider their return to the stage a "whole new tour."

"There'll be a much wider song selection going on," he said. "Some of the second half of the set is built so solid, so a lot of it'll stay. The opening ... I'm not sure what's going to happen up top, but it'll shift around. I'm waiting to see myself where the show is going to take me."

"But ... for us, it's a new tour, a new day, and we're approaching everything like that," he continued. "We're looking forward to having a lot of fun."

The band currently has dates scheduled through November.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, "a peptic ulcer, or stomach or duodenal ulcer, is a sore on the lining of your stomach or duodenum."

Acid from the stomach can cause sores or other types of injury or damage to the esophagus, stomach or small intestine.

"The most common causes of peptic ulcers are Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) [such as aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen]," the NIDDK states, adding the "common symptoms of peptic ulcers include pain or discomfort in your abdomen, feeling full too soon during or too full after a meal, nausea, bloating, and belching."

Doctors may recommend proton pump inhibitors, H2 blockers or other medicines to treat the condition and help ulcers heal.

"If your peptic ulcers aren’t caused by H. pylori infection or NSAIDs, doctors will check for uncommon causes," the agency states. "Depending on the cause, doctors may recommend additional treatments."