Bruce Springsteen on How ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Showed His Depression

Bruce Springsteen reflected on how the forthcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere portrayed his battle with depression.

In a TIME100 cover story published on Thursday, Sept. 25, “the Boss” reflected on how the film — which details a brief period during his early 30s when he was experiencing his first bout of serious depression — could have been portrayed in a variety of ways.

“It could have gone in a lot of different directions,” Springsteen, 76, said.

The “Thunder Road” artist contemplated suicide following the release of his 1982 album Nebraska, which is depicted in Deliver Me from Nowhere, but it was his manager Jon Landau who told him he needed “professional help.” The next day he got it.

“It was and has been a total life changer,” Springsteen told the publication.

In May, the “Born to Run” hitmaker opened up about his mental health struggles in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter podcast Awards Chatter.

During the conversation, Springsteen recalled “difficult times” throughout his childhood, “exacerbated by the fact that my father was plagued by mental illness most of his life.”

“By the time I came out of Born in the U.S.A., I’d been in two years of analysis because I had a pretty good breakdown back when I was 32,” he said.

Springsteen added: “And my family was filled with mental illness, my aunts, my uncles, my pop, and it just was in our blood, so I had to deal with it too,” continued Springsteen.

He then noted how Landau had some experience with mental health struggles “and directed me in to get some help, which I did.”

In a 2016 Vanity Fair cover story, Springsteen also opened up about his battle with depression.

He said that performing became “the trustiest form of self-medication” and revealed he sought help through therapy and antidepressants.

Springsteen also reflected on having ups and downs with depression and worried how it might mirror his father’s experience with mental illness.

“You don’t know the illness’s parameters. Can I get sick enough to where I become a lot more like my father than I thought I might?” he told the outlet.

Deliver Me From Nowhere, which features Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen during the time he wrote and recorded Nebraska, is in theaters Oct. 24.