The former president and the singer-songwriter have shared their stories in a podcast, and now a book: «Renegades: Born in the USA.» They discuss the influence of their fathers on their life’s work, and the collective narratives in both popular music and politics.
A rock star and a former president hitting the road – if it looks like a buddy movie, well, it’s kind of become one. Driving a 1960 Corvette at the home of singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen was, said former President Barack Obama, «one of the highlights of my time on this farm… getting behind the wheel of this mean machine!» Correspondent Anthony Mason asked Springsteen, «How old were you when you got this?» «Twenty-five.» «And what did this mean to your life when you bought it?» «Everything!» he replied. «Because it was all I got out of my record deal when I was 25 years old, was this car, and I got a piano.» Mr. Obama said, «I will confess that the Secret Service, normally I’m good about alerting them, but…» «You just took off?» Mason asked. «Yeah, I just took off, and in the rearview mirror I could see some of my agents running behind!» he laughed. The friendship between the two men started in 2008: «Bruce Springsteen decided to charitably help out some not-very-well-known new U.S. senator who had the audacity to run for president,» Mr. Obama said. Over time, that friendship deepened, a friendship Mr. Obama once characterized like so: «I am the President. He is the Boss.» And last year, they sat down together for a couple of days at Springsteen’s New Jersey farm to talk about their lives, and our world. Those conversations became a podcast, and now a book: «Renegades: Born in the USA» (Crown). Mason said, «You describe the two of you as ‘a little sympatico.'» «I think Bruce, through his music, I tease him about how much better it is being a rock ‘n’ roll star than being a politician,» Mr. Obama said. «Which of course it is!» Springsteen laughed. «You do have the better deal,» Mason said. «He does not really deny it!» Mr. Obama said. «There is a certain sense of ministry to Bruce’s music. And his body of work is around these issues of, you know, ‘Who are we?'» Springsteen said, » That’s the question.» Like a minister, Springsteen exhorts concertgoers with language of a kind of faith: «We came here tonight because we want to build a house.… And when we build that house, we’re gonna use the bare wood, and we’re going to use the Good News that’s here tonight.» Springsteen told Mason, «What I do on any given evening when I’m doing my job well is, I create a space of common values and shared narrative. For three hours, we create that place. It exists somewhere.» Mr. Obama added, «And that power of storytelling is, you know, at its best, what good politics does as well, right? It says, ‘Here’s who we are. Here’s a common story we share.'» As presidential candidate Obama said in Philadelphia on March 18,2008: «I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.» «You get a lot of nostalgia sometimes for ’50s and ‘Leave It to Beaver’ and picket fences,» Mr.
