This past week, at New York's Barclays Center, he opened his show with a cover of Prince's "Purple Rain." Springsteen and Prince started their careers in the '70s, but became pop superstars in the '80s; in the summer of 1984, both artists had hugely successful albums: Springsteen with Born in the U.S.A. and Prince with Purple Rain.

The respect was mutual between the two artists: in a 1990 Rolling Stone article (via Backstreets), Prince said, "I'm not real into Bruce Springsteen's music, but I have a lot of respect for his talent."