Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
Blood Brothers? Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama
First a joint podcast, now a book — why is the American cultural icon whose music speaks to the plight of the working class allowing himself to be so closely asscociated with a centrist Democrat soaked in the blood of military aggression, asks IAN SINCLAIR
Bruce Springsteen performs during the Invictus Games Closing Ceremony in 2017 (left) and former US president Barack Obama delivers a speech to delegates during the Cop26 summit last week

HAVING released a joint podcast earlier this year, US music superstar Bruce Springsteen and former president Barack Obama have just published those conversations as a book — Renegades: Born In The USA.

The podcast was hugely popular and no doubt the book will be a bestseller this Christmas and beyond.

As a Springsteen fan, I’m very uneasy about this partnership.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
IS 2
Album reviews / 9 September 2025
9 September 2025

Reviews of new releases by Jens Lekman, Big Thief, and Christian McBride Big Band

covers
Culture / 25 August 2025
25 August 2025

IAN SINCLAIR reviews new releases from The Beaches, CMAT and Kathleen Edwards

Palestinians pray over the bodies of people who were killed in an Israeli military strike, during their funeral outside Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, August 22, 2025
Features / 23 August 2025
23 August 2025

From training Israeli colonels during the slaughter to protecting Israel at the UN, senior British figures should fear Article 3 of the Genocide Convention that criminalises complicity in mass killing, writes IAN SINCLAIR

IS
Album reviews / 11 August 2025
11 August 2025

New releases from Cassandra Jenkins, Ryan Davis & the Roundhouse Band, and Case Oats

Similar stories
OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE: Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, right, and Attorney General of New York Letitia James walk in the NYC Pride March last Sunday
Features / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

The prospect of the Democratic Socialists of America member’s victory in the mayoral race has terrified billionaires and outraged the centrist liberal Establishment by showing that listening to voters about class issues works, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY

IS
Album reviews / 30 June 2025
30 June 2025

New releases from Toby Hay, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Dobson & The Hanging Stars

FINGERS IN THE SYRIAN PIE: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer a
Features / 2 January 2025
2 January 2025
The media’s shocking lack of interest in US-British involvement in Syria means it has effectively been a secret war, argues IAN SINCLAIR
DEMOCRAT STOOGE: will.i.am, Founder and President of the i.a
Opinion / 14 November 2024
14 November 2024
DAVID YEARSLEY reads the political subtext in the injudicious misfire of will.i.am’s resurrection of his Obama video for the Kamala Harris campaign