The Boss Walks Right Past His Biggest Fan

Sometimes the moment you’ve been waiting for turns into the moment you want to forget.

At Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Barclays Center show on Thursday, May 14, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie learned that lesson the hard way. Video footage captured the awkward split-second when Springsteen walked through the crowd greeting fans, Christie extended his hand, and The Boss simply…kept walking. The former governor’s hand hung in the air for a beat before he shrugged, pulled it back, and clapped along with the music like nothing had happened.

It’s a small gesture, but for someone like Christie, it probably stung. The guy has been one of Springsteen’s most devoted fans for decades, bragging that he’s attended more than 100 of the rocker’s concerts over the years. He once told The Atlantic,“No one is beyond the reach of Bruce,”a statement that feels a lot less true now. The two first met in November 2012 when President Barack Obama connected them on Air Force One during a conversation about Hurricane Sandy. Later that month, they greeted each other backstage at a Hurricane Sandy benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, where Christie told reporters they hugged and that Springsteen called them friends. Christie even got emotional about it, admitting to the president that he was the one doing the weeping.

But then came Bridgegate. In 2013, Christie’s staff was accused of deliberately causing traffic jams near Fort Lee, New Jersey, by ordering the closure of a toll plaza—political payback against Fort Lee’s Mayor Mark Sokolich for opposing Christie’s administration. While Christie wasn’t criminally charged, Springsteen wasn’t about to let it slide. In 2014, he joined Jimmy Fallon on Late Night to sing a parody of“Born to Run”that included lyrics like“Baby this Bridgegate was just payback / It’s a bitch slap to the state Democrats”and“We’re stuck in Governor Chris Christie’s Fort Lee-New Jersey traffic jam!”The mockery was good-natured but pointed.

That was over a decade ago. Whether this walk-past was intentional, a case of mistaken identity in a crowd, or simply an awkward moment where Springsteen didn’t see Christie’s outstretched hand remains unclear. The timing is curious, though. Springsteen has recently been extending olive branches in other directions—most notably offering a prayer for President Donald Trump after the White House Correspondents’Dinner shooting on April 25. He told his Austin audience on April 26,“We can disagree. We can be critical of those in power, and we can peacefully fight for our beliefs. But there is no place in any way, shape, or form for political violence of any kind in our beloved United States.”

If Springsteen is mending fences with Trump, maybe Christie was hoping for the same. Instead, he got the cold shoulder—or at least, what looked like it. Either way, it’s a reminder that friendships in the spotlight are fragile things, built on moments and torn down just as easily.