More Born in the USA

Via BACKSTREETS:

A major inspiration for the creation of "Born in the U.S.A." was Born on the Fourth of July, the 1976 memoir of Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic.
"I met Bruce Springsteen for the first time in 1978 at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in Hollywood, California. I remember on one afternoon seeing a young man swimming in the pool, and when he got out of the pool I went up to him and I said, 'You probably don't know me, but my name is Ron Kovic....I wrote a book called Born on the Fourth of July, and I'm a Vietnam veteran.' He seemed surprised and he said, 'I just read that book!' We talked for a while, and he invited me to San Francisco to see him perform at the Winterland arena. It was my first Bruce Springsteen concert.... and then somewhere in the middle of that extraordinary performance that night, Bruce looked out into the audience and he said, 'This one's for you, Ron...' and he began to sing 'Darkness on the Edge of Town.' I remember as I sat in my wheelchair, I began to cry, and it was the first time I had cried in a long time."