Bruce Springsteen Doc Director Knew He Was Capturing ‘Deep Love’ Between The Boss and Wife Patti Scialfa (Exclusive)

• Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is a new documentary that follows the legendary rockers as they prepare for and embark on their first tour in seven years
• Director Thom Zimny opens up to PEOPLE about working with The Boss and his bandmates
• Zimny says one scene in particular, when Springsteen and Scialfa sing “Fire,” shows their “deep love”

There’s a scene in Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band where The Boss and Patti Scialfa, his wife of 33 years, take the stage together to sing “Fire.”

The chemistry between the two is palpable; as the rockers exchange flirty glances and gentle touches, it almost feels as though watching the performance is somehow a violation of their privacy.

Director Thom Zimny knew in capturing “Fire” for his new documentary (now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu), he was giving the world a peek at an incredibly powerful bond between Springsteen, 75, and Scialfa, 71.

“When she’s singing ‘Fire,’ just the way they look at each other, I see a deep love,” he says. “But I also see two great performers in that moment embracing life, which is a huge theme in the film. She reveals playfulness that you can only really see if you’re with Bruce and Patti outside of the stage. I recognize in both of them a work ethic and a focus, and that’s what I’ve always connected to.”

The performance scene is just one of Zimny’s many fly-on-the-wall looks at the inner workings of the E Street Band as they prepare for their first tour in seven years. The director has been a collaborator of Springsteen’s for the past 24 years, and therefore earned the star’s trust, allowing him unprecedented access to his creative process.

“The conversation with Bruce has always been the same with the start of a project. It’s either Bruce or Jon [Landau] calling my cell and saying, you know, ‘Next Thursday, Friday and the following Monday, the band is gonna be rehearsing. We thought it’d be a good idea if you dropped by,’” he says. “And I’ll say, ‘Okay, for filming?’ And they’ll say, ‘Yeah.’”

Zimny continues, “It’s a fantastic gig, but what comes with that freedom and that trust is that I’m going to be invisible. There’s no pre-planned discussion… It was all spontaneous and I just got a lot of time to talk about the band so they could flesh out some of the things that I shot and explain them.”

The throughline of the documentary is a series of poignant voiceovers courtesy of Springsteen that reflect on everything from the nitty-gritty mechanics of putting on a three-and-a-half hour show, to broader ideas like “life, death and everything in between,” the rocker says in the doc.

“I plan on continuing until the wheels come off, and for as long as the band will follow me,” adds Springsteen. “There’s one thing I know. After 50 years on the road, it’s too late to stop now.”

The crux of the film, though, is the camaraderie between the bandmates, plus the ease and flow in watching friends and colleagues whose lives have been intertwined for 50 years. Saxophone player Clarence Clemons, who died in 2011, and keyboard player and organist Danny Federici, who died in 2008, appear multiple times in archival footage, something Zimny says is meant to bring viewers to a “dream space.”

In one pivotal moment, Scialfa reveals for the first time that she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2018.

Zimny says the reveal came up “organically in conversation” while talking about music and the tour. 

“It’s a great moment in the doc because you see the beauty and power of her performance, but also she gave me the sacred thing of trust about her current situation and explaining it to me,” he says. “I’m really excited now that she’s doing new music, and I’ve heard the album and it’s really amazing. So I’m hoping to continue my journey with her on the next film.”

Zimny shot hundreds of hours of footage and included archival footage, too. Nothing was scripted — and that’s just the way he wanted it.

“It was beautiful to document because if you are a casual fan or an uber fan, you got to see the inside process and also some of the beautiful moments that are small, with the band gathering together in a circle before the show, what it means to Bruce,” he says.