Cover Me: Rhinestone Cowboy

“It was just a song that came up in an instant, you know. A really beautifully written song, and it was always one of my favorites by Glen Campbell.” — Bruce Springsteen, Variety, October 17, 2019

Sure, Bruce.

I’m sure that’s all it was: a beautiful song that came to mind in the moment when you were putting together your set list for your Western Stars film.

It probably had nothing to do with its inspiration, a country singer named David Allan Coe, who wore rhinestones and a mask on stage. Why? Because, his father taught him an important lesson:

I got the mysterious rhinestone thing from my father. He asked me, ”You know the only way that The Lone Ranger can go into town? I said, “No, I don’t know what you mean.” He said that he has to take his mask off. I thought, what is my dad talking about and trying to tell me? He said, “Well son, you have to wear a mask and then when you don’t want to be David Allan Coe you can take your mask off and go anywhere and not be like Elvis with people messin’ with you all the time.

It’s probably just happenstance that the song Coe inspired–made famous by Glenn Campbell (but originally written and recorded by Larry Weiss)–was about an obscure singer questing for stardom but just barely scraping by, just like Bruce was at the time.

It’s a complete coincidence that at the very moment Bruce exploded into mainstream stardom with Born to Run in the autumn of 1975, Campbell’s song was riding the top of the charts.

And of course, performing a song named after an imitation wasn’t at all a wink from a small-town New Jersey rocker to his fans while performing a suite of Western-themed songs from his barn.

Nope, “Rhinestone Cowboy” was just a lovely song to end a film with.

Sometimes a rhinestone is just… well, a rhinestone.

Rhinestone Cowboy
Released: Western Stars: Songs From the Film (2019)
First performed: April 2019
Last performed: April 2019