Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Announce First Tour in Six Years: 'I'm Just Aching to Play'

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will soon perform worldwide together for the first time in years — and the rocker is raring to go.

Springsteen, 72, and his band have announced a massive international tour that will kick off in 2023, six years after they last hit the road.

"It's kind of mind-boggling, to be honest with you," the singer told SiriusXM channel E Street Radio host Jim Rotolo. "It doesn't feel that long, but… I've got the jones to play live very badly at this point. So I'm deeply looking forward to getting out there in front of our fans."

Though the "Born to Run" singer and the E Street Band did reunite briefly for a performance on Saturday Night Live in December 2020, the new string of dates will be the first since 2017's The River Tour, which lasted 14 months.

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Since then, Springsteen's released two new albums (Western Stars in 2019, and Letter To You in 2020), and launched a solo New York City concert residency called Springsteen on Broadway, which wrapped in 2021 after more than 200 shows. He also launched the Renegades podcast with former President Barack Obama, and joined fellow rocker John Mellencamp on his single "Wasted Days."

"It's been a while and I'm just aching to play, and to actually not just play, but to travel and see our fans in all our different cities and feel that life again and see their faces again," the New Jersey native told Rotolo.

The 20-time Grammy winner said that he and his bandmates will begin rehearsals in January before starting U.S. arena dates in February. European stadium shows will kick off in April before they return to North America for a second leg in August.

"It's an old school E Street Band lengthy tour that we're gonna be involved in, and everybody's very excited about it," he said. "It'll have a significant amount of some recent material, and then of course we'll be playing a lot of the music that the fans have become familiar with and love to hear. It should be a balance of good things. The show should feel contemporary and it should also make you feel at home at the same time. So that's our goal."

"People can expect a full-tilt rock and roll show," Springsteen added.

The E Street Band is Patti Scialfa, Nils Lofgren, Roy Bittan, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, with Soozie Tyrell, Jake Clemons and Charlie Giordano.