Springsteen sculpture displayed at Princeton gas station

I’m going to call the larger-than-life sculpture of Bruce Springsteen wrapped in a seashell cape that’s being displayed at Gary Fowler’s Gulf gas station on Nassau Street as reason #387 Princeton is one of the coolest towns in America.

I mean, come on. You’re just not going to get that level of commitment from your local gas station owner in most towns.

“I said fine, put it out there,” said Fowler. “The neighbors love it, it’s stirred up a lot of conversation, a lot people stopping and taking pictures. It’s a good thing.”

A gas station/art gallery. Only in Princeton.

The sculpture in question — titled “Sea Sea Rider: A Jersey Legend” — was created by Stephen Zorochin, who’s been sculpting since he was a little kid running through Princeton like it was his own playground.

“When I was 10 years old, I used to wander through these streets, go into the buildings, and I met a guy named Joe Brown,” Zorochin said. “He was a pro fighter out of Philadelphia, and he was a sculptor who taught at Princeton University. I thought to myself what a cool freaking thing this was. Seven years later, it turns out my father and Joe hung out at the same bar, and I ended up getting an apprenticeship with Joe. This was maybe 1968 or so. And I’ve never taken my eye off the ball. And I remember what he told me when I was just starting, and that was to not worry about art museums and galleries, because that’s where art goes to die.”

Welp, no worries on that score. This piece is very much alive.

It all started a few years back when Zorochin, who was living in Manasquan at the time, entered a an Asbury Park sculpting contest. He created a bust of Springsteen, which eventually was displayed in Kennedy Park in the town. Not everyone was a fan. “Barflies from Asbury Park wanted to bust it up,” Zorochin recalled. “There’s this arrogance in the bars of Asbury Park that ‘we own Bruce Springsteen.’”

It wasn’t until Phish bassist Mike Gordon stumbled upon the bust while out jogging — and posting a pic of himself kissing it (really) — did the hubbub die down.

The bust eventually found its way to Larini’s gas station on Alexander Road (yes, another gas station) and that’s when Fowler inquired upon having one of his own (there are two, as it turns out) and so Zorochin got Fowler a bust. And then …

“I was reading Springsteen’s book last year and the man, at his core, is a beach bum,” Zorochin said. “He’s a beach bum by his heart and soul.”

Zorochin then took me through his thought process.

“The Jersey shore is in my blood, obviously it’s in his blood,” he said. “He’s like the old man and the sea, he’s like Poseidon. So I didn’t want him in a leather jacket, I wanted him in a blanket of sea foam and sea shells. This is what grounds this man.”

And so he did it, spending virtually all of last winter creating the sculpture.

“I’m an artist, and I’m just scratching my itch,” he noted.

Zorochin has spent a lifetime in the arts, and locally, his most famous work is probably the sculpture of Trenton fire Captain John T. Dempster, which sits on Lawrence Station Road at the Mercer County Fire Academy.

But something tells me this statue of The Boss may have already eclipsed that of Dempster. Also, know this: Zorochin is not done. “I’m working on Clarence Clemons now,” he said. “A 7-foot figure. The way you see Bruce wrapped like this, Clarence will be wrapped in his saxophone.”

No word yet on Little Steven.