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Bruce Springsteen rescued by bikers while stranded on the roadside

'Bikers gotta stick together. I stopped to see if he needed help and it was Bruce'

Maya Oppenheim
Sunday 13 November 2016 12:34 EST
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Springsteen recently signed an absence note for a student who needed to get out of school in order to meet him at a meet-and-greet
Springsteen recently signed an absence note for a student who needed to get out of school in order to meet him at a meet-and-greet (Associated Press / Ryan Bailey)

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Stumbling across a man on a broken down motorcycle might sound like a lyric lifted straight from Bruce Springsteen’s song "Gypsy Biker" but it actually happened in New Jersey and the man in question was Springsteen himself.

A group of bikers who were veterans came across the 67-year-old singer stranded on the roadside on Friday. They were from the Freehold American Legion and were riding back from a Veterans Day event.

Dan Barkalow said he laid eyes on Springsteen, who was donning a brown riding jacket and a red handkerchief, near Allaire state park in Wall Township.

“Bikers gotta stick together. I stopped to see if he needed help and it was Bruce," Barkalow told the Associated Press.

Barkalow said he was not able to get Springsteen’s bike back up and running so the musician ended up jumping on the back of Ryan Bailey’s bike and they proceeded to ride to a local bar to chew the fat.

“We sat there and shot the breeze for a half hour, 45 minutes till his ride showed up,” Barkalow said. “Nice guy, real down to earth. Just talked about motorcycles and his old Freehold days.”

Springsteen appears to be making a habit of reaching out to fans at the moment. He recently signed an absence note for a student who needed to get out of school in order to meet the musician at a meet-and-greet. The father and son wound up typing up a note explaining the young boy’s absence and asking Springsteen to sign it. To their delight, he cordially obliged.

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