A listening session with his wife, Patti Scialfareally helped Bruce Springsteen light his fire…his creative fire, that is.

The rock star is the subject of a new documentary, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which now flows on Hulu and Disney+. Springsteen wrote much of the narration and voiceover for the documentary, which ends with a Jim Morrison quotes that poignantly speak to the film’s meditation on mortality and creativity.

“O’ great creators of giving us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives,” reads the quote. It’s a haunting plea from Morrison, who died aged just 27, and a relevant plea from Springsteen as he refuses to slow down, despite being in his mid-70s.

But the story behind how Springsteen found the quote and decided to include it is a sweet glimpse into his marriage. The musician realized that before he and Scialfa met, they both attended the same Doors concert at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1968.

“We weren’t together, but we were in the same room,” he explained after the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary. “So we were talking about it one night, and we found that you could go online, and you could see the entire set list from the 1968 Asbury Park Show. So we went to bed, and we said, ‘Okay, we’re going to recreate the whole show .’ I found live clips of the Doors, and we recreated the whole show from 1968 and listened to it before we fell asleep.”

This listening session sent Springsteen down a bit of a rabbit hole. “I went on a bit of a Doors binge and I started reading several books,” he continued. “And I came across that quote, and it just seemed like the perfect way to sum up what the band is about, what our relationship with our fans means, what we’ve tried to do and what our mission has been for the last 50 years. It just seemed sum it all up in those four very, very short lines.”

The film follows Springsteen and his legendary E Street Band, many of whom have toured with him for over 40 years, on their ongoing tour in support of Springsteen’s 2020 album, Letter to you (the pandemic delayed the live tournament a bit). It traces the band from the earliest days of rehearsal and shaping the show through to the tour, both in the US and in Europe, and the experience they strive to create each night for the fans. In addition, it delves into the history of the band and their life on the road.

“It’s just a little glimpse into how the show is put together, both philosophically and technically and musically,” Springsteen said of the film. “It lets the fans know the band a little more.”

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Although Springsteen helped shape the film as both its central figure and its writer, longtime collaborator Thom Zimny ​​directed it. “This is really Tom’s film because all I told him to do was bring the camera and come down to the farm,” the rocker added. “The narrative arc of the film is really all Tom’s, and he did a beautiful job.”

But Zimny ​​insists the process is more mysterious than Springsteen lets on. “There was no reflective game plan of ‘The Doctor will have this POV, which then reflects the POV of the live show,'” Zimnyprevious previously told Entertainment Weekly. “But I take my cues from him and how the show feels emotionally. If anything, I kind of stand in the shadows and try to absorb some of the energy that I witness. This show has moments of humor, reflection and pure rock & roll. I have to bring me all that.