Springsteen, Obama To Release Co-Authored Book Later This Year

COLTS NECK, NJ - Earlier in 2021, New Jersey’s hometown rocker Bruce Springsteen joined forces with former President Barack Obama for a new podcast series - dubbed “Renegades: Born In The USA" - exploring issues from race to fatherhood to the future of America. Now, the duo is slated to release a 320-page book of the same name.

The book, set for an Oct. 26 debut, is expected to serve as an expansion of the eight-part Spotify podcast with over 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material, according to its website.

The podcast was recorded last summer at the Colts Neck farmhouse of Springsteen, who grew up in nearby Freehold. Read more: Springsteen Joins Obama, Recalls Freehold Riots On New Podcast

“Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions,” the website's description reads. “Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself.”

According to the website, the book will also include:

• Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen
• Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions
• Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches”
• Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career
• Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives
• Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation

Hardcover copies are priced starting at $39.99 and will be published by Penguin Random House in conjunction with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company. The first edition is also expected to be released in Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Italian and Dutch.

“In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home,” the book’s description concludes. “They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership.”

Click here to watch a promotional video for the new book.