Bruce Springsteen Stuns Crowd at Zach Bryan Show — Watch the Viral Moment

Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance at Zach Bryan’s concert Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The pair teamed up to perform Springsteen’s 1982 track “Atlantic City” from his Nebraska album, much to the crowd’s delight. A fan-captured video of the duet quickly made the rounds online.

Although Springsteen and Bryan only met in 2023, Bryan has long considered the New Jersey icon a personal musical hero. He has a lyric from Nebraska’s “State Trooper” — “deliver me from nowhere” — tattooed on his arm. He’s also cited Nebraska as his favorite album of all time, drawing inspiration from its raw, minimalist sound in his own recordings.

This isn’t the first time the two have shared a stage. Back in March 2024, Springsteen joined Bryan for a surprise encore at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, where they debuted their duet “Sandpaper.” The track later landed on Bryan’s album The Great American Bar Scene, marking Springsteen’s debut on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Bryan’s appreciation for Springsteen goes well beyond Nebraska. He’s also performed “I’m on Fire” from Born in the U.S.A. and shared a quirky tradition he and his band have: when visiting bars with jukeboxes, they’ll play “Born in the U.S.A.” on loop to see who sticks around. “Those are the people we’ll hang out with,” Bryan joked in an interview with Rolling Stone.

A Tribute and a Friendship

Bryan holds Springsteen in the highest regard. When they first performed together, Bryan wore a Springsteen T-shirt and called him one of the greatest artists of all time. Springsteen, in turn, made the cross-country trip just for their duet—flying into Brooklyn mid-tour, learning the new song on the fly, and returning west for his own show in San Francisco.

A Star-Studded Moment on Stage

Sunday night’s MetLife performance was made even more special with another guest: Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon, who joined in on “Atlantic City.” But it was Springsteen’s appearance that brought the crowd to a frenzy. Introducing his guests, Bryan said:

“One of them is Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon, one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met — and one of the greatest men to ever exist… a New Jersey native… Mr. Bruce Springsteen!”

The audience was already chanting Springsteen’s name before he even stepped up to the mic.