Photo by Billy Siegle. 

Hey Monday rolled by Fender headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., earlier this afternoon.

Singer Cassadee Pope, guitarists Mike Gentile and Alex Lipshaw, and bassist Jersey Moriarty warmed up for tonight’s show at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe by performing “Homecoming” and “How You Love Me Now.”

Stay tuned for Fender Vision videos of the songs, and don’t miss them out on tour this fall!

While home in Arizona on a four-night break from the “Working on a Dream” tour, guitarist Nils Lofgren of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band dropped by Scottsdale headquarters.

“We are right in the city but we have this 1935 adobe home with a lot of property and it’s beautiful,” he says of his home of 13 years with wife Amy. “We’ve got a dog park for our six dogs and a cat. We love animals. Amy is a professional cook. She’s a master chef; that’s her gift. So there’s always great food and we just enjoy spending time at home together.”

This was my first opportunity to personally meet the Fender-wielding artist, although as I tell him, I was front and center at his Super Bowl press conference back in February.

“I wanted to tell a story about Bruce that day, but I didn’t get the chance,” he says.

“Well, I’ll tell it for you in my blog,” I say.

And so he begins, “My wife Amy brought John Madden to a show in Chicago one time. He didn’t want to come but she talked him into it and he loved it. He went back and visited Bruce before the show and when he came out, he told us that he felt like he was just with a Hall of Fame quarterback on the eve of a Super Bowl because of Bruce’s intensity. I thought that was pretty incredible that he got that impression of Bruce. It reminded me that what we do is basically playing a Super Bowl for a hometown crowd, except that we are guaranteed a victory; we’re just working on a point spread.”

I guarantee him that the media contingency covering the Super Bowl would have loved that anecdote. 

About a dozen shows are left to be played before Lofgren returns back home to Arizona, where he plans to begin work on a solo album and continue with his guitar school.

“There’s a beginner’s school and an intermediate school for guitar players on my website nilslofgren.com,” he says. “People always say, ‘Oh I’d love to play guitar for fun but I have no talent, no rhythm, I’m not allowed to. I’m always like, ‘Well, who told you that?’ They just got that impression. The point of my beginner’s school is you don’t need talent; you don’t need rhythm. If you love music and want to play guitar for fun, I feel like I can help you do that. It is hard work and frustrating for your fingers because it’s like gymnastics for your hands. So I show people things to do with one finger every lesson that require no practice and no talent. You’ve got to do the fun stuff more than the hard stuff so that you don’t get frustrated and walk away. I think you should always walk away after doing the fun stuff. End on a good note.”

So get started on the fun now at Lofgren’s website and for more on Lofgren, check out this story on Fender News.