President Obama: As it did for many people, the year 2020 stirred up a whole lot of emotions in me. For three years, I d witnessed a country that seemed to be getting angrier and more divided with each passing day. Then came a historic pandemic, along with a slipshod government response that rained hardship and loss on millions and forced all of us to consider what s really important in life. How did we get here? How could we find our way back to a more unifying American story?

That topic came to dominate so many of my conversations last year with Michelle, with my daughters, and with friends. And one of the friends was Mr. Bruce Springsteen. On the surface, Bruce and I don t have a lot in common. He s a white guy from a small town in Jersey. I m a Black guy of mixed race born in Hawaii with a childhood that took me around the world. He s a rock n roll icon. I m . . . not as cool. And, as I like to remind Bruce every chance I get, he s more than a decade older than me. Though he looks damn good. But over the years, what we ve found is that we ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family, and about America. 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.

And what we discovered during these conversations was that we still share a fundamental belief in the American ideal. Not as an airbrushed, cheap fiction or as an act of nostalgia that ignores all the ways that we ve fallen short of that ideal, but as a compass for the hard work that lies before each of us as citizens to make this place and the world more equal, more just, and more free. Plus, Bruce just had some great stories. So we added a participant to our conversations: a microphone. And over the course of a few days at the converted farmhouse and property that Bruce shares with his amazing wife, Patti, along with a few horses, a whole bunch of dogs, and a thousand guitars all just a few miles from where he grew up we talked.


PRESIDENT OBAMA: It s good to see you, my friend. What brings us here today are conversations we ve had over the years. Both of us had to be storytellers. We had to tell our own stories, and they became a part of a larger American narrative. The story we told resonated. I was trying to remember the first time we actually met, and it probably was in 2008. During the campaign.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: That s right.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You came to do a concert with us in Ohio. Your family was with you and I remember thinking, He s very low-key, even maybe a little bit shy. And I liked that in you. So I thought, I hope I get a chance to talk to him at some point. But because it was in the middle of the campaign, we were rushing around. So, you know, we had a nice chat, but it wasn t like we had a deep conversation.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: No.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: There was also the time in New York when you and Billy Joel got up onstage and you guys did a whole concert. That was the first time I saw how much you were working out in the middle of your shows. You were jumping up and down on a piano. You were drenched, man. You were soaked. And I thought, That man, he might hurt himself out there. But I had been a fan from afar for a long time. And we had started playing some of your music at our rallies. And then we just reached out and said, Hey, would you be willing to do something?

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: I had wonderful experiences playing those rallies and those appearances with you. Because you gave me something that I ve never been able to give myself. A

Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, elected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms. He is the author of three New York Times bestselling books, Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope, and A Promised Land, and is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Michelle. They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Bruce Springsteen has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of twenty Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a Kennedy Center Honor. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Born to Run, and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. He lives in New Jersey with his family.