Barack Obama Announces New Spotify Podcast With ‘DWI’ Springsteen

Less than two weeks after rocker Bruce Springsteen was charged with a DWI in New Jersey, former President Barack Obama has announced that the two are teaming up for a podcast that will be available on Spotify.

Obama tweeted out a trailer of the podcast and said, “Last year, I sat down with my good friend Bruce @Springsteen for a long and meaningful conversation that touched on so much of what we’re all dealing with these days. I’m excited to share it with you over the next few weeks.”

Last year, I sat down with my good friend Bruce @Springsteen for a long and meaningful conversation that touched on so much of what we’re all dealing with these days. I’m excited to share it with you over the next few weeks: https://t.co/sQACD08AWx pic.twitter.com/biMoxCLhAG

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 22, 2021

In November of 2016, after the election, Springsteen received one of 21 Presidential Medals of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, that Obama handed out.

Following Springsteen’s arrest for DWI, his much-hyped Jeep Super Bowl commercial, that touted national unity, was taken off the air.

In the podcast, Obama noted racial and professional differences between the two, as he said, “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 and roll icon. I’m a lawyer and politician, not as cool.”

From the New York Post:

“Over the years, what we’ve found is that we’ve got a shared sensibility: about work, about family and about America.”

The episodes reveal that Obama first thought Springsteen was shy when they met on the campaign trail in 2008, but the musician opened up after the two imbibed together.

Wide-ranging conversations between the unlikely duo dissect cultural and political divides and their unlikely similarities, including their shared sense of growing up as outsiders.

“I don’t think it’s something that you choose. I think it’s something that is innate within you,” Springsteen said on the show.

“I need to find my way into my town [of Freehold.] I’ve got to find out who my people are. And it wasn’t until I discovered music and found a way to process… my own identity and to find a way to speak, and to have some impact, and how to be heard, that I began to feel at home where I lived,” Springsteen reflected.