Bruce Springsteen’s wife and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa disclosed she had been fighting cancer for a few years.

Scialfa said in Springsteen’s new documentary, Rock Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which debuted on September 8, Toronto International Film Festival, she had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018.

The singer-songwriter took the tough choice to back off as the diagnosis made it challenging for her to tour with her husband and the E Street Band.

“This influences my immune system, thus I have to be careful what I do and where I choose to go,” she stated. “It’s been great every once in a while when I visit a performance or two and can sing a few tunes on stage. Right now, it is my new normal and I am good with that.

 

Previously, Scialfa told Asbury Park Press she wanted to spend more time with her granddaughter Lily Springsteen, who was born in July 2022, and focus on her solo album, therefore she decided to play just a few gigs on Springsteen’s current tour, which started in February 2023.

“There were a lot of musicians on stage, so I felt as needed in a different sense,” the guitarist remarked. “I performed the first several gigs, and as I watched how everything was going, I thought, ‘This is great. This is whole. I have not much space to offer something unique.

“And the big thing was I had a record I couldn’t have completed when Bruce was at the studio all the time. I so grabbed that chance to record my record.

Not alone Scialfa deals with health problems; others also suffer with Springsteen had to postpone his remaining 2023 tour dates in September 2023 while still undergoing treatment for gastric ulcer disease.

Once more he had to postpone tour dates in early summer 2024 because of a medical problem. This time it was for “vocal issues,” and happily it only affected three dates.

Patti Scialfa is with me in prayers as she battles multiple myeloma.