Bruce Springsteen fears he would not have signed on to join the likes of Peter Gabriel and Sting for the 1988 Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour if he'd have known beforehand how much studying was involved.

The rocker admits he found himself buried in books and documents learning all about the human rights violations and prisoners in each country he and his fellow stars touched down in, and he was left a little overwhelmed by what he had to do aside from performing.

In a new interview recorded for the upcoming Released! The Human Rights Concerts 1986-1998 Dvd package, Springsteen says, "There was an enormous amount of studying and trying to be informed about every country that we landed in and also we had to make parallels to things that were very imperfect in the United States.

"The news conferences, if I'd have known I would have to do I might not have done the tour because they were the most harrowing parts of the entire six weeks. We came down and we sat at a table and we were grilled by the nation's press in each country that we went in to, and in some places it got very intense.

"I remember when we were done it was like, 'That was great, I hope I never have to do that again'... I did more studying than I ever thought I would have to do once I picked the guitar up, but it had a great impact on all of us."