"He understands all his failings and flaws as a man, and you don't seem to understand as well just exactly how messed up you are," Michelle Obama told her husband about his budding friendship with Bruce Springsteen.
Michelle Obama told the boss of the country he needed to spend more time with The Boss from New Jersey.
Former President Barack Obama revealed Monday his wife told him back in the day that he needed to hang with Bruce Springsteen, whom they were just getting to know.
"I said, 'Well, why is that?'" Obama recalled asking her. "She says, 'You know, he understands all his failings and flaws as a man, and you don't seem to understand as well just exactly how messed up you are."
Obama, like any smart husband, replied, "You're right. No doubt."
Barack Obama and Springsteen appeared Monday with CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason to discuss the release of the hardcover "Renegades: Born in the USA," which was culled from conversations on their podcast of the same name.
"We did have a bunch of long conversations together," Obama said. "And I thought this might be something that would be useful for folks to hear."
Springsteen, who famously campaigned for Obama and sang with a gospel choir at the newly elected president's inauguration in 2009, recalled how he thought Obama had the wrong number the first time the Chicago Democrat called him.
"And I said, 'OK, let me figure this out. I am a guitar-playing high school graduate from Freehold, New Jersey. And — OK — you want me to do what?" Springsteen said.
Over the years, both have realized they had more in common than they initially realized. Namely, that they both felt like outsiders.
"I always kept one foot in sort of the blue collar world and one foot in the counter culture world," Springsteen said of growing up in New Jersey. "And I never truly belonged completely in either of them, you know?"
Obama, coming of age in Hawaii, felt something similar.
"I'm experiencing my share of day-to-day ignorance and slights," Obama said. "You get in an elevator, and suddenly folks are looking nervous. Or you walk by a car and the locks go down."
Springsteen said such are experiences of many in this country "That's the American story, you know? When I was young, I felt voiceless. You know, I felt invisible, and I think we're in trouble and that a lot of people do feel very voiceless."
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