We're in the midst of a Bruce Springsteen news blitzkrieg. The Boss has been on tour in Europe, loudly condemning Donald Trump and mining those shows for a new live EP. Next week he'll release Tracks II: The Lost Albums, a mammoth box set comprising seven previously unreleased full-length collections, most of which were created as standalone works and then shelved. Wednesday we saw the trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the new biopic in which Jeremy Allen White plays Springsteen during the making of his 1982 album Nebraska. And in his current press run, the Boss is making it known that the flood of content is not about to cease.
In a New York Times interview published Wednesday, Springsteen revealed that — contrary to the prevailing notion that Tracks II represented the final clearing of his vaults — Tracks III is already finished and will feature five more lost albums. Today, in a Rolling Stone Q&A, he explains that, like the original Tracks, Tracks III does not include full albums:
No, there are no complete albums. This is all music from different points in my work life that I’ve made, some with the band, without the band, some that go way back. At that point, the vault will be not completely empty, but virtually empty. There will be really not more, which I’m sort of excited about doing, finally getting all the music that I have and have recorded out to my fans.
In the RS chat, Springsteen says he's got a new solo album ready to go as well, without the E Street Band. He expects it will come out in 2026. Intriguingly, he also confirms the existence of the long-rumored electric version of Nebraska.
Springsteen famously recorded the lo-fi, acoustic Nebraska on a four-track in his bedroom, a radical move by a mainstream star in any era. The E Street Band recorded full-band versions of those songs, but Springsteen was unhappy with them, opting instead to make a major aesthetic statement by releasing the original demos as the official album. One of the albums on Tracks II, L.A. Garage Sessions '83, is Springsteen's attempt to continue in the Nebraska vein with a stripped-down backing band, but it isn't the mythic electric Nebraska. In fact, Springsteen didn't even think he had an electric Nebraska in his archives until recently.
In the Rolling Stone interview, journalist Andy Greene brings up the fan excitement around the idea of Electric Nebraska. In the moment, Springsteen insists there is no such album:
Speaking of Nebraska, fans are fascinated by the idea of a full-band Nebraska. It’s become this mythical thing over the years.
Well, I can tell you right now, it doesn’t exist.
Really?
No, we tried to do a few songs with the band for a few minor electric versions of “Nebraska,” maybe something else, I’m not sure. But that record simply doesn’t exist. There is no electric Nebraska outside of what you hear us performing onstage.
Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan have talked to me about running through a lot of the songs in the living room of Roy’s house.
I have no recollection of it, but I can tell you there’s nothing in our vault that would amount to an electric Nebraska.
Greene writes that a month after the interview, Springsteen texted him to correct his own account: "Hey Andy! Bruce Springsteen here. Just wanted to give you a heads-up. I checked our vault and there IS an electric Nebraska record though it does not have the full album of songs. All best, Bruce."
There you have it! Assuming Tracks III was completed before Springsteen realized electric Nebraska was lying around, I guess he'll have to give that one a special standalone release. He'll just need the right occasion for it — like, say, a whole dang movie about the making of Nebraska.
