Instagram post<\/a>\u00a0that his mother died Wednesday. He shared a video of the two of them dancing to the Glenn Miller swing-era standard \u201cIn the Mood\u201d with the caption \u201cAdele Springsteen \u2014 May 4, 1925-January 31, 2024.\u201d He then quotes at length from the lyrics for \u201cThe Wish,\u201d one of his songs that invokes her.<\/p>\n\u201cI remember in the morning mom hearing your alarm clock ring. I\u2019d lie in bed and listen to you getting ready for work, the sound of your makeup case on the sink,\u201d the post says.<\/p>\n
The cause and other details were not immediately revealed, but Springsteen said in 2021 that she had been struggling with Alzheimer\u2019s disease for a decade and could no longer speak or stand.<\/p>\n
The mother of three \u2014 and the last of three Italian-American Zerilli sisters \u2014 was a cornerstone of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s anthem \u201cAmerican Land,\u201d which honors \u201cThe McNicholases, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York City native moved as a child to Freehold, never fathoming she\u2019d someday bear offspring who\u2019d turn New Jersey into lyrical legend.<\/p>\n
Adele Springsteen\u2019s joyful, spirited charm\u00a0made her a fan magnet in her own right. \u201cVideo evidence of Adele rocking out onstage with Bruce dates back to 1992,\u201d according to Rolling Stone magazine.<\/p>\n
She was \u201creal smart, real strong, real creative,\u201d with a \u201crefusal to be disheartened,\u201d Bruce told biographer Dave Marsh.<\/p>\n
And her influence ran deep.<\/p>\n
She \u201cheld our family together\u201d through years of hardship, the musician said in a 2010 Ellis Island speech, sharing the stage with his beaming mother and aunts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took after my mom in a certain sense. Her life had an incredible consistency, work, work, work every day, and I admired that greatly,\u201d he told \u201cUncut\u201d magazine in 2002, praising her \u201cnoble\u201d juggling of work and home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d visit her at her job sometimes, and it was filled with men and women who seemed to have a purpose,\u201d he said. \u201cI found a lot of inspiration in those simple acts.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Bruce was a kid, his mom scraped together some money \u2014 a story sweetly portrayed in another section of \u201cThe Wish,\u201d which he recorded in 1987 and quoted from on Instagram Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle boy and his ma shivering outside a rundown music store window.<\/p>\n
That night on top of a Christmas tree shines one beautiful star. And lying underneath a brand-new Japanese guitar.<\/p>\n
…Well it was me in my Beatle boots, you in pink curlers and matador pants \u2014 pullin\u2019 me up on the couch to do the twist for my uncles and aunts.\u201d<\/p>\n
When her boy hit the bigtime she worked much larger rooms, from America to Europe.<\/p>\n
Though well-versed in the audience-cameo ritual \u201cDancing in the Dark,\u201d she happily played the musical field.<\/p>\n
In 2012 she danced and sang background on \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d at New Jersey\u2019s MetLife Stadium. In March 2016, when she was 90, mother and son hip-wiggled to the raucous \u201cRamrod\u201d at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
E Street Band member\u00a0Steven Van Zandt said<\/a>\u00a0Thursday that Adele Springsteen was the \u201cMatriarch of our family and an unrelenting source of inspiring positive energy. One of a kind. She will always be there for us. Dancing in the audience.\u201d<\/p>\nShe lost her husband, Bruce\u2019s father Douglas, who inspired songs, too, in 1998.<\/p>\n
Survivors include their daughters, Pamela Springsteen and Virginia Shave, and a bountiful extended family.<\/p>\n
They no doubt share the sentiments Bruce expressed that day on Ellis Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Mom,\u201d he said. \u201cI love you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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