The Boss's Thunder Road to Riches

By Janice Castro

It may not fit neatly into a stocking, but Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live/1975-85 is sure to wind up under a lot of Christmas trees this year. Since Columbia released the landmark five-record album last month, it has been selling as quickly as stores can get it in stock. Springsteen Live became the first album to debut at No. 1 on Billboard magazine's best-sellers chart since Stevie Wonder put out Songs in the Key of Life a full decade ago. Retailers signed up for an unprecedented initial shipment of 1.5 million Springsteen record, tape and compact disc sets, but those copies sold so fast that the stores have ordered 1.85 million more. Since the 40-song package sells for $20 to $30, vs. about $8 to $10 for a typical record or tape, Springsteen Live is expected to bring in more revenues--perhaps $450 million--than any other album ever recorded.

That is an incredible and somewhat ironic financial feat for the man known as the Boss, a Freehold, N.J., native who learned how to play the guitar by listening to the radio. In the eleven years since he first gained national attention, the bus-driver's son and blue-collar rock poet who sings of hard times, dying towns and stubborn dreams has become much more than a legendary performer. Bruce Springsteen, 37, is one of the most potent money-making machines in the history of entertainment. His earnings possibly eclipse even Michael Jackson's income, which derives from records, videos, concerts, toys, dolls and Pepsi ads. But, unlike Jackson, Springsteen has always refused to do product endorsements, thereby forgoing at least $10 million worth of offers.

Exactly how much money pours into the pockets of Springsteen's trademark Levi's is one of the most closely guarded secrets in show business, but some estimates are possible. Record-industry experts figure that the Boss is entitled to royalties of between $5 and $6 for every copy of Live sold. If so, he made more than $7.5 million the first week it was out. Should the album meet industry expectations and sell 15 million copies, Springsteen will earn $75 million or more as his share. Fans are still buying Springsteen's seven previous albums, of which 38 million copies have already been sold. Born in the U.S.A., accounting for 18 million of the sales, has netted him $25 million or more.

Springsteen can gross as much as $1 million a day from live performances at invariably sold-out concert halls and stadiums. "There is no performer today who can sell more tickets than Bruce Springsteen," says Rock Promoter Bill Graham. The 15-month Born in the U.S.A. tour, which ended in October 1985, drew more than 5 million fans to 156 concerts in eleven countries, generating ticket sales of about $90 million. Springsteen's probable share: $50 million.

Gate receipts are not the only reward of touring. According to San Francisco--based Winterland Productions, which handles merchandising for Springsteen, fans at a U.S. concert spend an average of $5 to $6 on souvenirs. Among the items: $15 T shirts, $5 posters and $2 buttons. Total merchandising sales for the last tour were at least $25 million, of which Springsteen is thought to have received more than $8 million.

Even if he never cut another record or played any more concerts, Springsteen would go on earning substantial income as long as his songs are popular. As writer and music publisher, he earns royalties whenever his tunes are played on the radio, as music videos, in jukeboxes or by other performers. According to Gloria Messinger, managing director of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), which tabulates the airplay of songs and collects royalties for writers and publishers, Springsteen may ultimately earn more than $1 million in such fees from the songs on the Live album alone. Says Messinger: "He is one of the ten most-played songwriters. He is keeping company with Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and George Gershwin."

What does Springsteen do with all that money? For one thing, he has a well-developed social conscience. He donated $1.5 million of his earnings from the last tour to such charities as shelters for the homeless, an unemployed-steel-workers' group and food banks. A spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans of America says that the organization might not exist today if it had not been for Springsteen's early, generous and consistent support. Two weeks ago, Springsteen donated an undisclosed sum to a New Jersey food bank to pay for the distribution of free turkeys to the poor for the holidays.

Springsteen's known charitable contributions, substantial though they are, amount to only a small fraction of his income. What he does with the rest is a mystery to almost everyone except the staff of Breslauer, Jacobson and Rutman, the Los Angeles accounting firm that discreetly handles many of Springsteen's business affairs. At the firm's elegant quarters on Wilshire Boulevard, a TIME reporter was warned that he would be "thrown out of the office" if he persisted with questions about the Boss's finances.

The singer owns an apartment in Manhattan, an estate in Rumson, N.J., and a home in Los Angeles. But he apparently disdains yachts, private jets and most of the trappings of the super-rich. At the Los Angeles recording session for We Are the World last year, as the other rock stars were arriving with their entourages in limousines, Springsteen strolled up alone. The Boss had flown in from a concert in Syracuse and rented a car at the airport.

With reporting by Reported by Scott Brown/Los Angeles, Jeanne McDowell/New York