Springsteen Joins Obama, Recalls Freehold Riots On New Podcast

NEW JERSEY - Former President Barack Obama trades Washington D.C. for the Jersey Shore in a new podcast series co-hosted by New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen. Its first two episodes are available now (see below for streaming instructions).

Dubbed Renegades: Born In The U.S.A., the eight-part podcast series will see the two figureheads discuss race, fatherhood, marriage, and the future of America, according to its distributor Spotify. It was recorded last summer at Springsteen’s Colts Neck farmhouse, a “house of 1000 guitars,” as The Boss reveals in the first episode.

The Spotify podcast is the second series to be produced in partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company. The former first lady aired 11 episodes of her podcast in 2020. In its first episode, Obama, 59, recalls his native Honolulu, where he felt estranged in his own hometown. Springsteen, 71, was raised in Freehold, and remembers the race riots and fiscal struggles that he and his neighbors endured growing up.

“I grew up in a bit of an integrated neighborhood. I had Black friends when I was really young, but there were a lot of rules,” said Springsteen. “Whose house you shouldn’t be in. You’re a child on your bicycle and you’re aware of all these unspoken rules. Freehold was your typical small provincial redneck racist little American 1950s town, you know? It was a town that suffered a lot of racial strife, right around ‘65, ‘67 [and]‘69.”

The rocker noted that surrounding communities weren’t immune to the same economic and social issues: Asbury Park’s own uprising occurred in the summer of 1970.

Springsteen, who titled his first album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.”, noted that Asbury Park “didn’t come back for a long, long time. It’s obviously had a resurgence, but some of those issues, not some of those issues, most of those issues, still remain unresolved on the West Side of town.”

The 71-year-old goes on to detail the race riots in Freehold when The Boss was just 17, events described in detail on his 1984 track “My Hometown.” He penned the ballad in the mid-1980s as a “re-visitation” of his life as a young child, including a 1969 riot that began as a shooting at a stop light in town.

“A friend of mine lost his eye,” The Boss recalled.

“Literally the day of the Newark riots, there was rioting in Freehold, New Jersey, a little town of 10,000 people,” Springsteen added. “They brought in the state troopers and there was a state of emergency.”

The Colts Neck resident stated the timelessness of the song, citing its cyclical nature and themes of generational history. He also noted the song’s power during live performances.

“I still love to sing it today. Everyone in the audience recognizes these things: it becomes more than an act of nostalgia … the town they’re talking about isn’t Freehold. It’s not Matawan, it’s not Marlboro, it’s not Washington, it’s not friggin’ Seattle. It’s the whole thing. It’s all of America.”

The Boss recently made headlines promoting a similar issue via his Super Bowl commercial debut. Titled “Middle Ground,” Springsteen appeared in a Jeep ad addressing political polarization in the United States. Read more: Bruce Springsteen Appears In 2021 Super Bowl Ad, Pleads For Unity

However, Jeep has since pulled the ad after news came to light that the musician was arrested on DWI charges in November 2020. Read more: Springsteen To Appear In Federal Court On DWI, Related Charges

You can stream Renegades: Born In The U.S.A. on Spotify at this link. Watch a preview for the series below: