Chris Christie has been to greater than 150 Bruce Springsteen concert events, is aware of the phrases to each track and treasures the ticket stubs he has collected.

However regardless of his unrequited love and near-obsessive fandom for his fellow New Jerseyan, Mr. Christie has discovered that his Republican politics have led to an usually frosty relationship with Mr. Springsteen, who has supported Democrats prior to now and hosted a podcast with former President Barack Obama.

Now, although, Mr. Christie says he and his idol are on higher phrases.

“It’s been a variable relationship through the years as a result of we each have very passionate emotions about politics and we’re on totally different sides of the spectrum,” Mr. Christie mentioned in an interview on Tuesday. “However of late, I feel what we each acknowledged is that we’re each good husbands, good fathers and love our state, and as folks, care so much about what we do. So I’d say our relationship proper now is an effective one.”

Mr. Christie didn’t elaborate on their interactions. Representatives for Mr. Springsteen, who not too long ago introduced that he was suspending performances whereas he’s handled for signs of peptic ulcer illness, declined to remark.

Mr. Christie was noticed at a number of stops on Mr. Springsteen’s tour this summer time, together with on the facet of the stage throughout his band’s three-show run at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey two weeks in the past.

Mr. Springsteen additionally appears to be engaged on the connection, based on Mr. Christie.

The previous governor has spoken a few telephone name he acquired from the musician after a live performance in Brooklyn this 12 months, after Mr. Springsteen noticed him within the pit through the live performance.

“I assumed Bruce noticed me through the present,” Mr. Christie advised Steve Scully at a SiriusXM city corridor occasion on Tuesday in New Hampshire. “And my spouse thought I used to be loopy: ‘Oh yeah certain, Bruce smiled and waved to you.’”

Mr. Christie went on, “We get within the automobile, we’re driving again to New Jersey, my cellphone rings at 11:45 at night time.” He added: “So I answered the telephone and I mentioned, ‘Chris Christie,’ and he mentioned, ‘Gov., it’s Bruce.’ And he mentioned, ‘I noticed you within the pit tonight.’”

“And I went to my spouse, I’m going: ‘I advised you. I advised you he noticed me!’” Mr. Christie mentioned.

Though Mr. Christie has adopted the rock star throughout their house state and the nation — and may usually determine a Springsteen track after listening to just some opening bars — his political positions have stored him removed from Mr. Springsteen’s interior circle.

In 2011, when Mr. Christie was governor of New Jersey, Mr. Springsteen wrote an letter to the editor in The Asbury Park Press criticizing Mr. Christie’s proposed funds cuts. In 2012, Mr. Christie advised The Atlantic that he had recurrently been given the chilly shoulder by Mr. Springsteen’s world.

But Mr. Christie’s stewardship of the state after Hurricane Sandy led to a thaw, which Mr. Christie mentioned on the time introduced him to tears. At a later occasion, Mr. Christie appeared to make it official: “We’re mates.”

That bond quickly frayed. As Mr. Christie confronted blistering nationwide headlines in 2013 and 2014 over the scandal involving the closing of entry lanes to the George Washington Bridge, Mr. Springsteen joined Jimmy Fallon on his late-night NBC discuss present to carry out a revised model of “Born to Run,” with some adjusted lyrics.

“Sometime, governor, I don’t know when, this can all finish, however until then you definately’re killing the working man, who’s caught in Gov. Chris Christie’s Fort Lee, New Jersey, visitors jam,” Mr. Springsteen and Mr. Fallon sang.

Nonetheless, Mr. Christie remained a loyal Springsteen fan. After eight years as governor, he spent his first night time as an everyday citizen at Mr. Springsteen’s Broadway present, sitting within the second row, a deal with from Mr. Christie’s spouse.

Although he has been cautious to not overuse Mr. Springsteen’s music in his political campaigns, lest he invite extra public criticism from the Boss, Mr. Christie not too long ago put “Thunder Highway” on the prime of his marketing campaign playlist, after Politico requested 2024 presidential candidates to offer their favourite songs.

Mr. Christie famous within the interview on Tuesday that Politico had requested the candidates — with various success — to record just one track per artist. In any other case he would have chosen “much more” Springsteen songs, he mentioned. “And in contrast to others, I adopted the principles.”

He spoke at some size about his relationship with “Thunder Highway,” one among Mr. Springsteen’s greatest hits and the primary track on his famed album “Born to Run,” revealing an optimistic facet of the previous New Jersey governor not usually seen on the marketing campaign path, the place he lays into the Republican front-runner, Donald J. Trump.

“I feel ‘Thunder Highway’ is a track that’s each life like and hopeful,” Mr. Christie mentioned. “The start of it, the piano intro, is so welcoming, and I smile each time I hear it. And so to me, any track that makes me smile each time I hear it, it doesn’t matter what my temper is, it’s going to be one among my favourite songs.”

He went on: “And I like the best way he sings it. I like the lyrics and I like the best way it makes me really feel. It makes me really feel just like the world’s open to be welcomed for potentialities, for aspirations, for ambition. And I feel that’s what Bruce was saying in 1975. Keep in mind, that was a 25-year-old Bruce Springsteen writing that track. And it has that sense, hopefulness, in it.”

When requested concerning the climactic lyric within the track — “It’s a city filled with losers, I’m pulling out of right here to win” — Mr. Christie mentioned he discovered one other reference to Mr. Springsteen.

“It’s a part of what everyone at that age feels,” Mr. Christie mentioned. “I’m going to get away from the issues which might be holding me down, and I’m going to go on the market and make my place on the earth. And I’ve heard Bruce joke every so often that he wrote ‘Born to Run’ when he was 25 years previous, and the man who was ‘born to run’ is now elevating his household and dwelling out his grownup life quarter-hour from the place he grew up, so he wasn’t born to run too far. And I feel it’s the identical factor with me and New Jersey, too. Regardless of the place else I’m going, that may all the time be house.”

Even when the 2 males are friendlier now, Mr. Christie has acknowledged that there are limits.

Requested at a latest occasion in New Hampshire if Mr. Springsteen would sing at his hypothetical inauguration, Mr. Christie demurred, saying: “Oh, that’s so much to ask. I don’t know.”

“He’s nonetheless a Democrat,” he mentioned.