Springsteen cover band won't play at Trump's inauguration

BELMAR, N.J. — A Bruce Springsteen tribute band known as the B Street Band won't set foot in Washington for Donald Trump's inauguration, its frontman said Monday.

Lead singer Will Forte previously had said the band has been under contract to play the Garden State Presidential Inaugural Gala since January 2013, the day after it played the New Jersey State Society’s ball for President Barack Obama’s re-election. And members were booked for the 2013 gala the day after performing at the 2009 event.

But this time out of “respect and gratitude we have for Bruce and the E Street Band,” members bowed out, Forte told the Asbury Park Press.

“Bruce’s music has been the foundation of our livelihood. The B Street Band would not exist without the talents of Bruce and our E Street brothers,” Forte said in a statement to Backstreets.com. “We are most grateful to these rock legends and look forward to many more years of emulating and performing the Forever Music of Bruce Springsteen.”

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Springsteen himself has been a vocal critic of President-elect Donald Trump. He called Trump a “flagrant, toxic narcissist” during the election and campaigned for  Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia.

More recently, Springsteen said Trump used lies to appeal to disenfranchised Americans on a Mark Maron "WTF" podcast.

“This thing got turned into a  hurricane but the most important thing is not to show disrespect or have it appear that we're showing disrespect to  Bruce Springsteen and to the music of Bruce Springsteen,” Forte said. “We owe everything to him, the millions of dollars we've raised at fundraisers, we owe it all directly to Bruce.”

“The headlines were 'Trump hires Springsteen tribute band,' " Forte said. "Trump never hired a Springsteen tribute band. It wasn't true but it got picked up by every newspaper in the country and (Stephen) Colbert was talking about it on TV, but it's false.”

Forte said he did not hear from Springsteen on the matter, but members of the E Street Band had remarked on the issue on social media.

“I think the majority of E Street Band fans were against it and personally my view of it was the B Street Band have long been a hard-working bar band and they had a high-profile gig they had every right to keep playing," said Terry Camp, a Jersey Shore show promoter and Springsteen fan. "I thought Bruce himself wouldn't necessarily challenge that, given they're a New Jersey bar band."

“Nice guys. Met them. I wouldn't say right or wrong. Up to them. But it's naive to think one can separate Art and Politics. Art IS Politics,” tweeted guitarist Steven Van Zandt.

“Please tell me this is more fake news. Or at least a joke,” tweeted bassist Garry Tallent.

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E Street Band members Van Zandt, Tallent, Max Weinberg, Vini Lopez and the late Clarence Clemons have all played with Forte and the B Street Band.

Singer Jennifer Holliday, a member of the cast of the original Dreamgirls on Broadway, also recently pulled out of the inauguration.

Follow Chris Jordan on Twitter: @ChrisFHJordan