Knowing that he's a millionaire...

Bruce Springsteen - 'The River'

totally ruins the whole 'blue-collar' aspect of his music for me now.

I saw him give a speech for U2 when they were inducted in the Hall Of Fame, and Bruce made a comment about how smart Bono was to sign that corporate sponsorship with iPod, and he wish he had thought of it first.

He also said, he didn't think it would be as easy to him, to give ALL the money from such a sponsorship to charity.

[!]

Totally put me off Bruce, and ruined my image of him.

Update: Transcript of the speech

'Now...what I know about the iPod is this: It is a device that plays music. Of course their new song sounded great, my guys are doing great, but methinks I hear the footsteps of my old tape operator Jimmy Iovine somewhere. Wily. Smart. Now, personally, I live an insanely expensive lifestyle that my wife barely tolerates. I burn money, and that calls for huge amounts of cash flow. But I also have a ludicrous image of myself that keeps me from truly cashing in. (laughter) You can see my problem. Woe is me.

So the next morning, I call up Jon Landau -- or as I refer to him, "the American Paul McGuinness" -- and I say, "Did you see that iPod thing?" And he says, "Yes." And he says, "And I hear they didn't take any money." And I said, "They didn't take any money?!" And he says, "No." I said, "Smart, wily Irish guys." (laughter) Anybody...anybody...can do an ad and take the money. But to do the ad and not take the money...that's smart. That's wily. I say, "Jon, I want you to call up Bill Gates or whoever is behind this thing and float this: A red, white, and blue iPod signed by Bruce "the Boss" Springsteen. Now remember, no matter how much money he offers, don't take it!" (laughter).'