Seth Meyers recalls awkward Bruce Springsteen meeting at ‘SNL’

Seth Meyers was apparently born to run away from Bruce Springsteen.

The “Late Night With Seth Meyers” host has regularly engaged with A-listers between his talk show and his 13 seasons at “Saturday Night Live,” but it was his run-in with The Boss on the sketch comedy show that left him the most starstruck.

Meyers recalled the awkward encounter in front of a Manhattan audience Monday night at the Tribeca Festival, where he sat down for a chat with fellow “SNL” alum Aidy Bryant.

The meeting unfolded when Springsteen and his band appeared as the musical guests on the show back in 2002.

“I walked over and I did that thing where I’m like, ‘Hey, I just want to say I’m a huge fan,’ ” Meyers told Bryant at the Tribeca talk. “And of course he’s heard it before. It’s not like I’m the first guy with the nerve to tell him. But he’s so gracious and I remember he was like, ‘Oh, thanks, Man. How’s the show gonna be this week?’

“And I’m just like, ‘Oh, all right, I’ll see ya!’ I’m like, ‘I’m not ready to have a conversation. I did the thing I was here to do. If you want to know how the show’s going to be — ask somebody else!’ “

Meyers, 48, also dished on some of his former “SNL” castmates’ less-than-smooth celebrity interactions. He pointed to Prince’s 2006 turn as musical guest on the show, where Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler were working alongside the late pop star.

“Amy and Maya, when Prince was musical guest, they were talking to him, maybe during the promos,” Meyers spilled. “And Amy said she was supernervous and overtalking. And she goes, ‘Oh my God, the show’s so funny this week. There’s this sketch …’

“And [Prince] just went, ‘Shhh!’ And he’s like, ‘Don’t ruin it for me.’ Because he wanted to watch the show.”

Meyers’ run on “SNL” included nine seasons as head writer and eight as an anchor of the show’s news parody bit, “Weekend Update.”

He left “SNL” with his “Late Night” gig, which started in February 2014, already lined up, taking the job over from Jimmy Fallon.

Meyers came back to host an episode of “SNL” in 2018.

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“After I hosted, I felt like I had to apologize to so many hosts for my time there because when I was a head writer there, a lot of times, the host would call you to their dressing room and say, ‘I don’t like this joke’ or ‘I don’t like the monologue,’ ” Meyers said.

“In the back of my head, all I ever thought was, ‘F—ing, shut up and do it.’ That’s all I ever thought. ‘Just do it! We wrote it — do it!’ And then I was the host and all of a sudden I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t like this joke. Oh, no, I don’t like this sketch.’ “

Meyers referred to hosting “SNL” as “terrifying.”

“I was like, ‘I didn’t know anything about what this side of it was and I just assumed it was easy,’ ” he admitted. “And it was a whirlwind. It was crazy.”

Bryant, who wrapped up her stint on the comedy show on its season finale last month, overlapped with Meyers for about two seasons there.

She asked her former colleague about his “Day Drinking” segment on “Late Night,” which entails the host getting trashed with celebrities. Rihanna was a guest on the bit in 2019, with Meyers not exactly being able to keep up.

“It’s bad,” Meyers said of the drinking segment. “My wife has built in a safety of I’m not expected to do anything afterwards. Because after Rihanna, I fell asleep in the hallway. And she put a glass of water next to me and then just like went to bed. I’m certain Rihanna went out.”