"He's a rock 'n' roll icon," he said. "I'm a lawyer and politician. Not as cool. And as I like to remind Bruce every chance I get, he's more than a decade older than me."
The men recalled a White House visit, which included Springsteen playing the piano as Broadway and Motown tunes were sung.
"There were libations involved," Obama said.
Springsteen uses a few of those guitars during the course of the podcast. In that first episode, both men recalled feeling like outsiders growing up and turning to their fields as a way of finding their voices, with a little "megalomania" involved. In later episodes, they talk about racism, fatherhood and marriage.
Their wives, Michelle Obama and Patti Scialfa, also bonded, sealing their friendship.
"We still have a fundamental belief in the American ideal," Obama said. "Not as nostalgia. But as a compass."
The Renegades: Born in the USA series title references one of Springsteen's biggest hits and could also be a sly reference to the "birther" campaign where Obama's eventual successor, Donald Trump, falsely suggested Obama's origins were outside of the country.
Spotify said today it was working with Higher Ground on another podcast, Tell Them I Am, which compiles stories from Muslim voices and will debut throughout Ramadan.
The service also said it had reached a deal with Warner Brothers and DC Comics for a series of narrative podcasts, with the first being Batman Unburied. Director Ava DuVernay is participating in a new podcast about high profile cases of police brutality.
- AP
