Watch Bruce Springsteen’s Surprise Appearance at Brian Wilson Concert

Bruce Springsteen has kept a low public profile this year, but popped up onstage Wednesday night at the PNC Banks Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey to join Brian Wilson during the show’s encore. Wearing a black baseball cap, Springsteen initially stayed on the side of the stage and sang backup on “Barbara Ann,” but was later coaxed to the center for “Surfin’ USA,” eventually strapping on a guitar and trading licks with Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.

Wilson is on the road in support of his new album No Pier Pressure and the acclaimed new biopic Love and Mercy, which features Paul Dano and John Cusack playing the Beach Boy at different points in his life. The tour wraps July 12th at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. Wilson was originally supposed to play England in September, but those dates were postponed until next year when he plans on celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds with a tour. A note on his website says that it will be his “final European tour.” No American plans for the Pet Sounds anniversary tour have been revealed.

The surviving members of the Beach Boys put aside their long-standing differences in 2012 for a successful reunion tour. The tour, however, came to a bitter end at the end of the year, with Wilson claiming that Mike Love tossed him out of the band. Love, who has toured with his own lineup of the Beach Boys for years, emphatically denied the charges. “I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys,” he wrote in a statement. “I am not his employer. I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson. We are partners. He’s my cousin by birth and my brother in music.” 

Springsteen’s future plans remain unclear, though recording engineer/bassist Raad Soudani recently posted a since-deleted photo on Twitter of a recording studio with the caption “Sitting in on a session for Bruce Springsteen with Ron Aniello. Grammy-nominated producer. He’s super dope.” Aniello produced Springsteen’s last two albums.