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Chris Martin says Bruce Springsteen’s rockin’ 73-year-old body inspired his new diet

Chris Martin gestures with his arms on a stage with a guitar strapped over his shoulder.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin follows a strict one-meal-a-day-diet, skipping dinner altogether.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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When it comes to Chris Martin’s diet, he’s looking at the stars and everything they do.

“You’re Chris Martin, Coldplay, massively successful,” host Conan O’Brien said to the musician on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast released Wednesday. “So you get to have dinner with the people that you grew up listening to, and I’m curious, have you gotten advice from those people?”

While audiences may have hoped for some tips on thriving in the music biz, Martin, 46, said that one thing he took away from grabbing a bite with Bruce Springsteen, 73, was to limit his own bites to one meal a day.

On Tuesday, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band announced 22 new tour dates in 18 cities, including two shows at Inglewood’s Kia Forum.

Feb. 14, 2023

“I don’t actually have dinner anymore. I stop eating at 4 and I learned that from having lunch with Bruce Springsteen,” Martin said, explaining that the “Born to Run” rocker is in his top pantheon of heroes.

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The “Fix You” singer said he met up with Springsteen for lunch last year after Coldplay performed in Philadelphia

“I was on a really strict diet anyway, but I was like, Bruce-ster looks even more in shape than me,” he continued. Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, told Martin that “Bruce-ster” was eating only one meal a day to maintain his trim physique. Martin thought, “Well, there you go, that’s my next challenge.”

After chemistry class on a recent weekday, sophomore Katherine Ho sat at an outdoor table in USC Village, and shared the chain of events that made the pre-med student’s rendition of Coldplay’s “Yellow” appear during the climactic scene in the box-office topping movie “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Aug. 27, 2018

Then he joked that Springsteen’s lone daily meal was a flank of buffalo with steroid sauce.

Springsteen released his debut album in 1973 and his 21st studio album, “Only the Strong Survive,” last year. In 2021, he sat down with Tim McGraw for Apple Music, and McGraw also commented on the “Thunder Road” rocker’s peak shape, asking what his secret was.

“The biggest thing is diet, diet, diet,” Springsteen said. “I don’t eat too much, and I don’t eat bad food, except for every once in a while when I want to have some fun for myself. So I think anybody that’s trying to get in shape, exercise is always important of course, but diet is 90 percent of the game.”

Bruce Springsteen’s handwritten set lists and a favorite guitar are among the items that will be part of a museum exhibit this fall in Los Angeles.

Sept. 7, 2022

Martin revealed his strict sans-dinner diet days after ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow (with whom he “consciously uncoupled” in 2014) revealed a similarly incendiary “wellness routine” that caused an online meltdown.

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Paltrow said on the podcast “The Art of Being Well With Dr. Cole” that she has an early dinner and does a “nice intermittent fast.” After a morning cup of joe, the Oscar-winning actor-entrepreneur enjoys soup for lunch — but by soup, she actually means bone broth.

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