Obama presents Bruce Springsteen with Medal Of Freedom

President Obama presents Bruce Springsteen with the medal
President Obama presents Bruce Springsteen with the medal (Image credit: Getty)

Bruce Springsteen has been presented with the Presidential Medal Of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama bestowed America’s highest civilian honour to The Boss which is “presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavours.”

Obama said of Springsteen: “I am the President, he is The Boss. And pushing 70, he is still laying down four-hour live sets. If you have not been at them, he is working! Fire-breathing rock‘n’roll. So I thought twice about giving him a medal named for freedom, because we hope he remains, in his words, a ‘prisoner of rock‘n’roll’ for years to come.”

A range of names from the world of music, TV, film and sports were also honoured at the ceremony, including Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Diana Ross, Michael Jordan and Ellen DeGeneres.

Springsteen launched an audio companion to his autobiography Born To Run recently in the shape of Chapter And Verse.

Born To Run has been a huge success since its release, and has hit the top spot on The New York Times Best Sellers list. It’s also reached the no.1 spot in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, Austria and Sweden.

See more

Bruce Springsteen rescued by bikers at side of road

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.