Hear Jeff Tweedy’s Hilarious Bruce Springsteen Fib on ‘Colbert’

“This is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Jeff Tweedy told Stephen Colbert. “I’ve never done this before.” Indeed, you probably wouldn’t have seen Tweedy looking jovial laughing it up on late night TV during Wilco’s earlier days. But Tweedy looked right at home chatting with Colbert, a huge fan, about his excellent new memoir Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), out now, and his debut solo album, Warm.

During the sit-down, Tweedy talked about one of the book’s funniest moments: when he was in the third grade, he told his friends that it was actually him singing on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” “I recorded it off of the radio and I put my name on it,” says Tweedy. “I told them. ‘that’s me.’ They did not buy it.’”

Tweedy also talked about one of his band’s most surprising moves: calling their 2015 album Star Wars. Tweedy said that the band were aiming to get George Lucas to sue them, which would result in a lot of publicity, but Lucas didn’t take the bait.

Tweedy also played one of his new solo songs, “Let’s Go Rain,” a Woody Guthrie-influenced anthem about Noah’s Ark. Tweedy called the song “a joyous plea for the sweet relief of death” as Colbert comforted him.

Jeff Tweedy Book Tour Dates

November 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Murmrr Theatre with Community Bookstore
November 14 – Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre with Brookline Booksmith
November 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Free Library of Philadelphia
November 16 – Cincinnati, OH @ Walnut Hills High School with Joseph-Beth Booksellers
November 16 – St Louis, MO The Pageant with Left Bank Books
November 18 – Chicago, IL @ Music Box Theatre with the Book Cellar