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Stephen Merchant has revealed that he once ‘very nearly’ broke Bruce Springsteen’s neck while watching the US rock legend perform live in LA.
The British actor and comedian said he had been so eager to help The Boss crowd-surf at a gig that he had underestimated the musician’s weight – and his own extraordinary height.
Speaking on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Stephen recounted the incident where he ‘very nearly broke his neck’, joking that his obsession with Bruce, 70, made him seem like a ‘stalker in a retirement village’.
He explained that on the night of the gig, the musician began crowdsurfing during a specific song, and Stephen instantly decided: ‘I’m going to go back on night two, I want a piece of that action.
‘I want to be one of those people who gets to touch the great man!’
True to his word, Stephen attended the second night of the concert and ‘got into position’ where he knew the rock legend would jump into the crowd.
‘And he comes out and falls into the crowd… I’m bracing myself and I receive The Boss,’ a delighted Stephen says – ‘but I forget that I’m six-foot-seven’.
As the studio audience burst into laughter, Stephen recalled the terrifying experience where he realised Bruce is about to have a steep drop down to the next person if he doesn’t act quickly.
He continued: ‘[Bruce] starts going upwards and the person behind me is like regular height and they can’t reach him.
‘There’s a moment in time where I’m taking the full weight of Bruce Springsteen and you know what, he’s a small man but he’s a lot heavier than you think – he’s dense with talent.
‘So I’m holding him like this and I have a vision of my grandmother saying “you should never hold rock stars, you haven’t got the upper body strength”.’
Stephen added that the Born In The USA musician had been ‘singing the whole time’ and had not noticed the incident, with host Jimmy reassuring the comedian by saying: ‘You saved his life!’
While Stephen may be best known for playing and writing comedy roles (and, now, for almost killing Bruce Springsteen), recently the actor stepped into a completely different role.
The 47-year-old stars and directs in crime-thriller-comedy series The Outlaws, which sees seven strangers form an unlikely friendship while carrying out a community service sentence.
He also played real-life serial killer Stephen Port in recent BBC series Four Lives, which told the shocking true story of the four men murdered by Port, and the police failings attached to the case.
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