After wrapping up The River Tour in September 1981, Springsteen moved into a rented farmhouse on a reservoir in Colts Neck, New Jersey. “I didn’t go out much,” he said of that period, per Ochs. “And for some reason I just started to write.” Within weeks, he had written the songs that would make up his 1982 acoustic album Nebraska. In January 1982, he hunkered down in one of the home’s bedrooms and began recording what was initially meant as a demo (but ended up being the album’s final recording). This period is the focus of the biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, and the pad was recreated inside another New Jersey house for filming. In 2023, Springsteen revisited the original home, which still had the same orange shag carpet as it did during his tenancy—a feature that he said ended up helping the room’s acoustics: “Not only was it beautiful to look at, it came in handy!”
Hollywood Hills residence
As seen in Deliver Me From Nowhere, Springsteen bought a small house in the Hollywood Hills for a fresh start after pouring his soul into making Nebraska. According to fan lore, the garage was converted into a recording studio. The musician seems to allude to the dwelling in his 1992 song, “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On),” which opens with the tongue-in-cheek lines, “I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood Hills / With a truckload of hundred thousand dollar bills.” Records indicate that he paid $515,000 for the property in 1982 and offloaded it in 2003 for $1.1 million. The listing description for the roughly 2,000-square-foot home advertises its starry past; in 2023, it asked $13,500 a month in rent.
Rumson mansion
In November 1983, Springsteen bought a 6,000-square-foot home in Rumson, New Jersey, where he built a home studio. Set on 7.4 acres, the 1917-built dwelling was covered in vines and surrounded by manicured lawns, mature trees, and a garden, per Mansion Global. “The house was a rambling old Georgian-style ‘mansion’ on the corner of Bellevue Avenue and Ridge Road,” the musician wrote in his autobiography, according to Asbury Park Press. “I went through my usual buyer’s remorse, but I held out, promising myself I’d fill the big old house with what I’d been searching for: family and a life.” At some point down the line, Springsteen picked up an adjacent five-acre property, which he sold to NBA player Randy Foye in 2016 for $1.7 million. The following year, the “I’m On Fire” singer sold the remaining home for $3.2 million.
Beverly Hills estate
Springsteen his wife Patti Scialfa.Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images
