My friend Michael Gudinski was first, last, and always a music man. I’ve toured the world for the last fifty years and never met a better promoter.  Michael always spoke with a deep rumbling voice, and the words would spill out so fast that half the time I needed an interpreter. But I could hear him clear as a bell when he would say, “Bruce, I’ve got you covered.”  And he always did.  He was loud, always in motion, intentionally (and unintentionally) hilarious, and deeply soulful. He will be remembered by artists, including this one, from all over the world every time they set foot on Australian soil. My deepest condolences to his wife and partner Sue and to the whole Gudinski family, of which he was so proud.  

– Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen hosts a new episode of his acclaimed radio show, From My Home To Yours: Volume 18: New Born Soul, featuring songs by Bruce, The Staple Singers, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Warren Zevon and more. Hear it on E Street Radio, SiriusXM Channel 20, or anytime on the SiriusXM app. http://siriusxm.us/BruceVol18

Bruce joins President Barack Obama for a new original podcast Renegades: Born In The USA, available now on Spotify.

Renegades is an eight-episode podcast featuring a deep and revealing conversation between the two friends, exploring a wide array of topics including race, fatherhood, marriage, and the state of America. It is a personal, in-depth discussion exploring their pasts, their beliefs, and the country that they love—as it was, as it is, and as it ought to be going forward.

Watch the trailer and listen to the first two episodes of their new podcast Renegades: Born In The USA now on Spotify.

There’s a chapel in Kansas
Standing on the exact center of the lower forty-eight.
It never closes.
All are more than welcome
To come meet here, in the middle.
It’s no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately
Between red and blue
Between servant and citizen
Between our freedom and our fear.
Now, fear has never been the best of who we are.
And as for freedom, it’s not the property of just the fortunate few.
It belongs to us all.
Whoever you are, wherever you’re from
It’s what connects us.
And we need that connection.
We need the middle.
We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground.
So, we can get there.
We can make it to the mountaintop
Through the desert
And we will cross this divide.
Our light has always found its way through the darkness
And there’s hope on the road up ahead.

 The lesser known fifth and final leg of the Joad tour comes into fresh view with Nice, France 1997. After 18 months on the road, Springsteen’s solo acoustic performances were honed to a sharp edge, contrasted throughout with humor and soul. Nice 1997 offers nine songs from restless heart of Joad, plus captivating readings of “Darkness On The Edge Of Town,” “Murder Incorporated,” “It’s The Little Things That Count,” “Highway Patrolman,” “Long Time Comin’,” “Saint In The City,” “Growin’ Up” and the tour premiere of “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch).”

2nu.gs/BruceNice97