Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama lead fairly different lives — Springsteen’s a rock legend and Billboard Hot 100 hitmaker; Obama served as the 44th president of the United States — but the pair has one core thing in common: They’ve both spent their lives pondering what it means to be an American. On Friday (Oct. 22), CBS published a clip from a forthcoming interview of the friends discussing the origins of their podcast-turned-book, Renegades: Born in the U.S.A., which sees the pair talking about race issues, the state of the country and the influence their fathers had on their upbringing.
In the clip, which will air this Sunday (Oct. 24) on CBS Sunday Morning, Obama revealed that he and Springsteen often ran into each other at events, and their conversations would frequently stray to topics about their personal origins and what it means to be an American citizen.
“The way this came up, we did have a bunch of long conversations together and I always say when I first met Bruce, he seemed like…surprisingly shy considering he goes out there and sings before tens of thousands of people for hours at a time,” the former president explained. “We just ended up being in settings where we’d these long conversations and I thought, the things we’re talking about — what does it mean to be a man, what does it mean to be a American — these were the things that were popping up over a meal, and I thought, ‘You know what? This might be something that would be useful for folks to hear.’”
“I initially though that he had gotten the wrong number when he called me. And I said, ‘Okay, let me figure this out. I’m a guitar playing high school graduate from Freehold, New Jersey, and you want me to do what?’” Springsteen added.
Obama and Springsteen’s new book, Renegades: Born in the USA, will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 26. See the interview clip below.