Bruce Springsteen mourns death of mother Adele at 98, quotes song written for her

Bruce Springsteen is mourning the loss of his mother, Adele Ann Springsteen, at 98.

In a heartfelt Instagram post, the legendary musician announced Thursday that his mother had died the day before, and he paid tribute with a video of the two of them dancing. Springsteen also eulogized her with lyrics from his 1998 song "The Wish," which famously tells the story of how Adele used money the family didn't have to buy her son a guitar.

"It ain't no phone call on Sunday, flowers or a Mother's Day card," Springsteen wrote. "It ain't no house on the hill with a garden and a nice little yard. I've got my hot rod down on Bond Street I'm older but you'll know me in a glance. We'll find us a Little rock 'n roll bar and we'll go out and dance."

Born Adele Zerilli on May 4, 1925, in Brooklyn, she married Douglas Springsteen in 1948. Together they raised Bruce and his two sisters in New Jersey, where Adele worked as a legal secretary for several years. The family eventually moved to California, with a 19-year-old Bruce remaining on the East Coast to pursue his music career.

Discussing her son's fame in a rare interview in 1984, Adele told the San Mateo Times, "There aren't any words to describe it. What would you do if your kid was smiling at you from every PEOPLE magazine in town?" She added, "All our children are nice children. We're proud of all of them."

Springsteen's mother was a regular at his concerts for decades, and often joined her son on stage to dance. The singer-songwriter long maintained that music and dancing were some of his mom's core passions.

"My mother loves to dance," he told the crowd during a 2021 performance of Springsteen on Broadway, per Today. "She's 95 and she's 10 years into Alzheimer's and that's taken a lot away from us. But the need to dance hasn't left her."

Springsteen added that despite her deteriorating health, his mother still reached out to share the dance floor with him. "She can't speak. She can't stand. She can't feed herself," he said. "But when she sees me, there is always a smile. Still a smile. And there's still a kiss… And when I put on Glen Miller and she starts moving in her chair — she does, she does — she starts reaching out for me, to take her in my arms once more and to dance with her across the floor."

He called her love of dance an "essential part of mom's spirit," and said, "This is what she has put her trust in and lived her life by and which, despite all she has suffered, she carries on with to this moment, as if life's beauty never deserted her. I love her."

Related content:

• Celebrity deaths 2024: Remembering the stars we've lost this year