 Jackie & Jeannie Heintz - photo by Tony Nelson
“Eighty-six and in the pit!,” is how one post-Springsteen concert reveler toasted Jeanne Heintz at McGovern’s on West 7th Street in St. Paul late Friday night.
Heintz, an East Side Springsteen fan for the past 30 years, celebrates her (83rd, actually) birthday this week. She got the festivities started in the pit at the Xcel Energy Center, where she and her daughter Jackie and various family members and friends (and fellow pit-dogs and Minnesota folk heroes Dan Wilson and Paul Molitor) rocked to Springsteen’s latest one-for-the-ageless show that was equal parts make-out party, call-to-arms, and water-into-wine church basement bash.
Near the end of the show, an obviously smitten 58-year-old Springsteen gave a birthday shout-out to Jeanne, “one of Clarence (Clemons)’s friends,” and shook his head and grinned at the prospect of a woman 20 years older than his 65-year-old saxophonist rocking hard before dedicating "Dancin' In the Dark" to her.
The crowd of 19,000 roared.
After the show, Jackie and Jeannie procured set lists, a drum stick from Mighty Max Weinberg, and hugs and well-wishes from family, friends, and strangers. Afterwards, they retired to McGovern’s for cokes and birthday cake and a bar singalong of “Happy birthday,” then it was home for a little rest for the mother-daughter combo who have been following this tour religiously.
“We leave tomorrow morning for Cleveland,” said Jackie, as her mother clipped along beside her, walking briskly down a Bruce-bustling West 7th Street. “Then it’s Detroit.”
As if last nights show couldn't have been any more amazing, they announced on the scrolling LED marquee around the arena as the show ended and people were filing out: "Bruce & The E Street Band Returns, March 16, 2008." Tickets for the March show go onsale next Saturday (November 10th) at 10am via Ticketmaster. What a great cure for the post-concert blues!
This original article appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 28th, 1999:
BACKSTAGE PASS WOULD BE PERFECT BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR 75-YEAR-OLD BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FAN
Jim Walsh, Pop Music Critic
Jeannie Heintz turned 75 years young Nov. 3, and had one birthday wish: To meet Bruce Springsteen backstage after his concert at Target Center. Crushingly, Springsteen postponed his concerts until today and Monday, but the wish remains the same.
Heintz grew up on St. Paul's East Side. Her youngest daughter, Jackie, brought home a Springsteen album 20 years ago, and that was it. Jeannie was gone on the guy. Recently, in the living room of Jackie's East Side home, Jeannie got somewhat flustered when a reporter asked her to try to explain what it is that she hears in a singer who appeals primarily to music lovers half her age.
She looked to Jackie, a Springsteen fanatic since her days at Hill-Murray High School, for help. The truth is, she didn't say much during the entire hourlong interview; Jackie sat at her side and answered most of the questions.
But the way Jeannie rubbed her hands together and inched forward on the couch, and the way her craggy smoker's voice sighed when talking about Springsteen, spoke volumes.
She said she likes the fact that Springsteen is a blue-collar guy, a guy who could have grown up on the East Side. Maybe even a guy who was at one time like her ex-husband, who worked 20-hour days on a farm and at the 3M plant, and who died two years ago.
She likes that Springsteen's not ``uppity,'' that he doesn't sing too much about sex, and that he sings about what makes people tick. And although she doesn't say as much, it's plain to see that she likes sharing this passion with her daughter.
For the past 15 years, Jeannie has celebrated every Nov. 3 by hopping on a bus for a night of bingo at Mystic Lake Casino. Her best birthday memory thus far came from her 70th, when her four kids threw her a surprise party, complete with a birthday cake decorated with a big ``70'' etched in bingo numbers.
If all goes well, that celebration will pale in comparison to what happens tonight or Monday. And it won't be the first time Jeannie has seen Springsteen and the reunited E Street Band in concert this year. She and Jackie (who has caught the tour in New Jersey, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia) trekked to Fargo for a concert earlier this month, and the pair flew out to Boston in August, where Jeannie danced, clapped and jumped the night away in the third row.
When Jackie rushed the stage with the rest of the crowd, her mother got left behind. Jeannie couldn't make it to the stage until two burly guys they'd befriended lifted her up over the crowd, to the front of the stage.
Unofficially, Jeannie Heintz is the world's oldest Springsteen fan. But that night in Boston, there is no question that she became the world's oldest crowd-surfer. From the stage, Springsteen saw this 74-year-old woman floating toward him, and, with a look of amazement on his face, reached out to grab her arm. He gave her a guitar pick and a peck on the cheek.
During the week, Jeannie wakes up at 4 a.m. to go to work at Quinlen Board and Care, a St. Paul nursing home, where she has been a nursing assistant for 22 years.
Tonight, mother and daughter will make their way to Target Center, where they'll take their seats in the fourth row and enjoy the concert. Maybe they'll rush the stage again.
As for the backstage passes, Jackie's working on it. She's gotten word to Springsteen's management that she'd like to make her mother's belated birthday wish come true, but whether it does or doesn't happen won't stop Jeannie from having a good time. ``I'll go to Mystic Lake sometime next week, because they give out free bingo on your birthday,'' she says. ``And you've got a month to cash it in.''
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