Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain called Bruce Springsteen an “annoying, bitter old man” this week, telling the left-wing rocker to keep his politics off the stage during an appearance on a podcast.
“Guys like Bruce Springsteen should shut up,” Mr. Cain said. “Honestly, shut up, Bruce.”
“You were ’Born in the USA,’ weren’t you?” Mr. Cain said of Mr. Springsteen, according to a recording of the interview. “So act like it.”
Mr. Cain, a self-described “diehard conservative,” made the comments during a sit-down on The Complete Disaster Network, in which he explained his own political evolution away from the Democratic Party.
“I used to be a Democrat back in the old days, but I couldn’t go there anymore,” Mr. Cain said, adding that he considered voting for Barack Obama before deciding he could no longer support Democrats.
The Journey rocker didn’t stop at Mr. Springsteen. He also took a jab at actor Robert De Niro, another vocal critic of President Trump, saying celebrities who mix politics with their art are engaging in a “bad look.”
Mr. Cain went on to single out Mr. Springsteen’s 1984 hit “Born in the U.S.A.,” a song frequently misread as a patriotic anthem despite its lyrics about the struggles of a Vietnam veteran.
“But even that song, if you look at the lyrics, it’s a kind of a diss to our country,” Mr. Cain said.
Despite the dig, Mr. Cain insisted he tries to keep his own conservative Christian beliefs out of his music with Journey, even as he said he and Kid Rock are among the more outspoken conservative figures in mainstream rock.
“Me and Kid Rock, we’re probably on an island,” Mr. Cain said. “There’s a few of us, and I stand there with my flag on that island.”
Mr. Cain, who is married to Paula White-Cain, a senior adviser in the White House Faith Office, has increasingly leaned into patriotic and faith-based music as Journey winds down its decades-long run. Earlier this month, he released “The Winds of Freedom: A Salute to America,” a solo single written to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary that he described as a tribute to the “faith, freedom and sacrifice” that shaped the country, according to a description he gave of the song’s inspiration.
He left the road with Journey over Memorial Day to record lead vocals on the track at a Nashville studio before rejoining his bandmates the next day in Philadelphia.
Last year, Mr. Cain also released “No One Else,” a tribute to slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, with proceeds benefiting the organization Mr. Kirk founded.
Journey is currently in the midst of its “Final Frontier” farewell tour, and the band recently added a 40-date fall leg that runs from a Sept. 12 show in Los Angeles through a Nov. 28 finale in San Francisco.
Mr. Springsteen, for his part, wrapped up his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour in May after repeatedly criticizing the Trump administration from the stage. During a PBS special that aired this month, the singer defended his political outspokenness, describing his approach as “critical patriotism.”
“I believe that’s the definition of a patriot,” Mr. Springsteen said, describing it as loving one’s country enough to recognize its faults and push it toward improvement.
Mr. Cain and Mr. Springsteen are both 76 years old.
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