Josh Gottheimer is a congressman representing New Jersey’s 5th congressional district who recently announced his gubernatorial candidacy. Like any Jersey boy, Gottheimer loves himself some Bruce Springsteen. Or is that just what he wants you to think? In a new interview, Gottheimer admits to doctoring his Spotify Wrapped report to exaggerate how much Springsteen he was blasting this year.

Friday night, Gottheimer posted a Wrapped graphic on X indicating that his top five songs of the year were “Thunder Road,” “Because The Night,” “Glory Days,” “Badlands,” and “The Rising,” all by Springsteen. In the post, he wrote, “No surprises here… Fun fact: My first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss!” But the New Jersey Monitor noted some discrepancies with the font, spacing, and resolution in Gottheimer’s graphic. Upon close inspection, it was clearly a fake.

When asked about it by NJ.com, Gottheimer confessed to faking the graphic. He says he did so to filter out his children’s listening from his own, and that his Springsteen superfandom is authentic: “This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year-old kids. While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”

Pouring adulation upon Springsteen is a time-honored Jersey tradition, one politicians in the state have long leaned on to score easy points with the public. Last year, for instance, the state’s current governor Phil Murphy declared Sept. 23 as Bruce Springsteen Day. But creating a phony graphic pushes the boundaries of that kind of pandering, and it leaves open the question of whether Gottheimer is really rocking with the Boss like that. With that in mind, The Philadelphia Inquirer is seeking an authentic copy of Gottheimer’s Wrapped report — the most in-demand document since Luigi Mangione’s manifesto.

No surprises here…
Fun fact: My first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss! pic.twitter.com/xuAcNn8si8

— Josh Gottheimer (@Josh4Jersey) December 6, 2024

🤔Lol. h/t @terrencemcd pic.twitter.com/pRh61vRvsO

— Matt Arco (@MatthewArco) December 9, 2024