A Word About Our Friend, Charley Cross

The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music lost a good friend in fellow Springsteen fan, journalist, and author Charles Cross, the founder and longtime editor of the Springsteen fanzine, Backstreets Magazine. Cross died suddenly at his home in Seattle on Friday evening August 9, 2024.  He was 67.

I first met Charley in the late 1980s when he asked me to contribute to Backstreets, the fanzine he had put together in 1980 after moving on from The Rocket, a highly regarded Seattle music weekly.  Quickly Backstreets became the number one Springsteen fanzine; over time, it became, arguably, the greatest fanzine ever dedicated to one artist. I remember Charley visiting me at my house in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.  We spoke in my driveway as my young daughter badgered me to take her to the boardwalk.  That night we shook hands and agreed to work together.  It was a professional and personal relationship that lasted decades.

I was struck by Charley’s commitment to doing Backstreet pieces that were fan-based, yes, but that also paid attention to journalistic integrity as well as criticism that was keen and built from fact.  At the time I was the music critic for the Asbury Park Press, so I signed on to write a column about the Shore’s music scene and to do the occasional interview and feature story.

Little did I know that I’d eventually move to Charley’s part of the country—Seattle—after becoming the Artistic Director, then CEO of Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project (EMP), since renamed MoPop, as in Museum of Popular Culture.  Working harder and longer than I ever had, I didn’t get to see Charley much during my time at EMP (2000-2006), but we stayed connected through Backstreets.

Charley and I sometimes didn’t share the same ideas when it came to Springsteen’s career. My view, he’d say half-jokingly, was always influenced by the fact that I was Jersey-born and raised and that I’d been writing about Bruce since 1973.  Despite our differences, we remained good friends, respected each other, and came to appreciate our roles as journalists and critics.

It’s hard to believe he’s gone.  Just this January, Charley conducted a number of oral histories for the Springsteen Archives in Los Angeles, including with the Springsteen fan/filmmaker Cameron Crowe.  A couple of weeks ago we discussed other oral histories to be done this year, in preparation for the opening of the Archives’ new building in Spring 2026.

Losing a colleague is difficult.  Losing a colleague that was also a longtime friend, worse.  So sad to see you go, Charley.  You made your mark. May you rest in peace.

Bob Santelli