The 63-year-old American musician known as the Boss to his legions of fans has confirmed he and the E Street Band will play at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium on March 1.
It will be only the second time in his nearly 50-year career he has played in New Zealand, but his connection to the country does not end there.
Long-time Springsteen fan Ian Griffin, the newly installed Otago Museum director, was in Auckland working at the observatory in 1999 when he found and named the Springsteen asteroid.
The English-born physicist and astronomer told the Otago Daily Times the person who found an asteroid had the privilege of suggesting a name for it. While in Auckland, he found three, naming them Auckland, Maungakiekie and Springsteen.
''You take lots of pictures of the sky and then you line them all up and make a little movie and the asteroids move; it is kind of cool.
"That is how you tell they are asteroids. You then measure their position and compare them to the positions of all known asteroids.''
In total, he had named about 28 asteroids, naming them after his wife, children, parents, parents-in-laws, and one Arsenewenger, after the manager of the Arsenal football team.
As for the Springsteen asteroid, ''I didn't do it for the publicity. I did it because I appreciate his music.''
Dr Griffin said he sought permission from Springsteen to name the asteroid after him, and was told via his record company the musician was aware of it.
Dr Griffin, who planned to attend the Auckland concert, said he had seen
Springsteen perform about 15 times.
''He is awesome; the concerts are epic.''
Dr Griffin said he would support a social media campaign to get the singer to play in Dunedin, and ''if he has problems booking the [Forsyth Barr] stadium, he can have the Hutton Theatre for free ... that sits 300 people''.
''We also do concerts on Sunday afternoon in the atrium, so if he is looking for a booking ...''
