Bruce Springsteen thought long and hard while prepping and recording his new R&B covers set, Only The Strong Survive. Exclaim! transcribed some of Springsteen’s chat with Elizabeth Bowman, in which he revealed he tossed a lot of material by the wayside in order to get the set exactly how he envisioned it.

“The Boss” admitted, “Initially, it was really hard. I was picking material and I’m going, ‘It’s hard to sing somebody else’s songs, and get them to sound authentic and it’s coming out of you.’ So I made an entire record that I threw out, and it’ll show up in different places, and there were some good things on it but didn’t feel quite right.”

He went on to say, “I’ve been getting a lot better at picking them, but initially it was the trial and error of: ‘What can I sing well?’ So that was the process, but at the end of the day. I think the main thing the record is it’s joyful, and a lot of fun, and tips my hat, and is a tribute to, like I say, all my mentors and masters, and all those great records and those great productions.”

Recently, Bruce Springsteen opened up and shared his thoughts on modern music and the differences between musical genres. He said: “I would like to talk about the one thing that’s been consistent over the years, the genesis and power of creativity — the power of the songwriter or let’s say just creator. So, whether you’re making dance music, Americana, rap music, electonica, it’s all about how you’re putting what you do together. The elements you’re using don’t matter. Purity of human expression and experience is not confined to guitars to tubes to turntables to microchips. There is no right way, no pure way of doing it. There’s just doing it.”

Bruce Springsteen will promote the new album on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon over several nights this week, starting tonight — November 14th, and again on the 15th, and 16th.

Springsteen will also make a special appearance on November 24th, for The Tonight Show’s Thanksgiving episode.