They will keep exchanging riffs
Life, music and more. The friendly pair expand their podcast chats to a book.
Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen expand their podcast chats into a book.
Two cool rockin’ daddies in the USA, Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, are once again joining forces, this time for a book offering deeper insight into their longstanding friendship.
On Oct. 26, Higher Ground and Penguin Random House will release “Renegades: Born in the USA,” billed as “a collection of candid, intimate, and entertaining conversations between” the former president and the veteran rocker, Penguin Random House Chief Executive Markus Dohle announced Thursday.
Accompanying the interviews will be more than 350 photographs and illustrations, as well as historical documents such as handwritten copies of Springsteen’s song lyrics and annotated drafts of Obama’s speeches.
The compilation will build upon Springsteen and Obama’s eight-episode podcast series of the same name, which Spotify released earlier this year.
“Over the years, what we’ve found is that we’ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family, and about America,” Obama writes in an excerpt from the beginning of the book.
“In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys trying to understand this country that’s given us both so much. Trying to chronicle the stories of its people. Looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth and community with the larger story of America.”
Occurring at the “Dancing in the Dark” hitmaker‘s home and during “at least one Corvette ride,” Springsteen and Obama’s discussions touch on topics ranging from marriage and fatherhood to race and masculinity — and, of course, music.
To be published by Crown (an imprint of Penguin Random House), the Englishlanguage edition of “Renegades: Born in the USA” is estimated to contain 320 pages, priced at about $50. A Spanish-language version of the book also will be available.
Obama and Springsteen have maintained a close, public relationship since the latter lent his celebrity support to the former’s presidential campaign in 2008. The “Born to Run” artist doubled down on his endorsement when Obama ran for reelection in 2012.
“There were serious conversations about the fate of the country, the fortune of its citizens, and the destructive, ugly, corrupt forces at play that would like to take it all down,” Springsteen writes in their forthcoming book.
“This is a time for serious consideration of who we want to be and what kind of country we will leave our children. Will we let slip through our hands the best of us or will we turn united to face the fire?
“Within this book you won’t find the answers to those questions, but you will find a couple of seekers doing their best to get us to ask better questions.”