American Skin (41 Shots)

"American Skin (41 Shots)" is a song written by Bruce Springsteen, inspired by the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo by NYPD. It premiered, unreleased, during the E Street Band's 1999–2000 reunion tour in concert in Atlanta on June 4, 2000, the final concert before the tour's final ten-show run at New York City's Madison Square Garden, where it was predicted to featured again.

Rumors of the performance led to major controversy in New York City, where the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association called for a boycott of Springsteen's shows and led a rally of hundreds of police officers against it. Then-mayor and recent NY senate race dropout Rudolph Giuliani also condemned Springsteen during a June 12, 2000 rally.

Despite the acquittal of the 4 officers who fired 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, killing him in only 24 seconds, and outrage from the establishment, Springsteen performed the harrowing song with his resonant, raspy voice alongside a solemn piano alongside cheers and a meeting with Diallo’s family, providing much needed healing to the community and continuation of his legacy.

Springsteen was recognized by the NAACP with the Humanitarian Award on December 3, 2000.

Composition and release
The song was first released as a live version on the Live in New York City album. The same version appeared a few years later on The Essential Bruce Springsteen. In April 2001, a studio version of the song was released as a very rare U.S.-only one-track radio promotional single on CD-R. A music video featuring the performance from the New York City show was released in 2001 and directed by Jonathan Demme. A studio version appears on Springsteen's 2014 album High Hopes.

Live performances
"American Skin (41 Shots)" was played at several concerts in April 2012 on the Wrecking Ball Tour in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin. Springsteen performed the song on July 16, 2013, a few days following George Zimmerman's controversial not guilty verdict. It was again dedicated to Martin at the Limerick, Ireland, concert with Springsteen saying before the song "I want to send this one out as a letter back home. For justice for Trayvon Martin".

Springsteen played "American Skin (41 Shots)" at selected shows during The River Tour in 2016.

In June 2020, during a special live E Street Radio Sirius XM radio concert, Springsteen opened his set by playing ‘American Skin (41 Shots)’ in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. “That song is almost eight minutes long. That’s how long it took George Floyd to die with a Minneapolis officer’s knee buried into his neck,” he poignantly said.

On April 7, 2024 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed a nearly 8 minute version of the song for the first time live on tour since 2016, featuring Tom Morello shredding an electric guitar. Morello, the guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, is also a political activist with a degree in political science from Harvard University, choosing to play this song to continue the message in a new decade. Accompanied by Morello’s guitar, which had “I am Homeless” written on it- making a statement to the homelessness stigma and crisis in Los Angeles- the pair rocked the stage, and also performed a rare 9 minute version of The Ghost of Tom Joad.

Covers
Rock band Living Colour performed a cover of "American Skin (41 Shots)" at the Auditorium Stravinski in Montreaux, Switzerland on, July 20, 2001.

In 2016, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne performed a cover of "American Skin (41 Shots)" at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

In 2016 Mary J. Blige sang a portion of the song to Hillary Clinton in an interview on Apple Music. The studio version of Blige's cover featured American rapper Kendrick Lamar.

In June 2020, the American band Black Veil Brides released a cover of "American Skin (41 Shots)" in support of Black Lives Matter.