For decades, Bruce Springsteen built his legacy as the voice of the working class. He sang for factory towns, forgotten highways, and everyday Americans trying to hold on to dignity in a country they loved. That’s why his recent protest song attacking ICE operations in Minnesota under President Trump felt like a gut punch to so many longtime fans.
Now, singer-songwriter Natasha Owens is answering back with a powerful response titled The Boss — and it’s already resonating with Americans who feel betrayed by the man they once trusted to speak for them.
Owens doesn’t attack Springsteen’s musical legacy. She mourns it.
Referencing classics like Rosalita, Thunder Road, and Glory Days, Owens writes from the perspective of a fan who grew up believing Springsteen sang for her — not from a gated mansion, not from a political podium, but from the same soil as the people in the crowd.
That illusion, she argues, is gone.
In The Boss, Owens calls out what she sees as selective compassion and elite hypocrisy, contrasting Springsteen’s activism against immigration enforcement with the silence surrounding American victims and working-class families left behind. Lines invoking Laken Riley and questioning who gets remembered cut straight to the cultural divide that now defines modern music.
The song’s emotional core lands in its refusal to surrender patriotism just because celebrities have. Owens makes it clear that faith, freedom, and love of country don’t disappear when pop icons turn their backs on them.
While Springsteen uses his platform to scold America, Owens uses hers to defend it.
And that’s what makes The Boss strike such a nerve.
This isn’t just a diss track. It’s a breakup letter from the heartland. A reminder that Born in the USA once meant pride, not shame. And a declaration that America doesn’t need rock stars preaching politics from penthouses.
It needs artists willing to sing for the people who still believe in this country — even when their heroes no longer do.
In the end, her message is simple and devastatingly effective:
Thank God Bruce Springsteen isn’t the boss anymore.
