Rock star and outspoken leftist activist Bruce Springsteen promoted his new Netflix film, Springsteen on Broadway, by telling an anecdote about how former president Barack Obama inspired the tour behind it.

During a Netflix-hosted event called “FYSEE,” Bruce Springsteen recalled being invited to the Obama White House shortly after President Trump’s election.

As reported in Deadline:

“President Obama, the last couple of weeks he was in office, asked me to come down and play the White House.” Thinking he would read something from his memoir Born to Run, the musician then decided to rewrite a passage as a spoken word piece. “I went down and played about 90 minutes of what would become the Broadway show in the East room,” he said, “and the alchemy just felt right.”

The entire event was meant to help Springsteen connect with Emmy voters as Springsteen on Broadway will be eligible for multiple Emmy awards this year.

According to The Wrap, the 69-year-old joked that he was “fucking begging complete strangers for their votes.” It seems he thought a story about Obama would help him impress the crowd.

The New Jersey crooner’s own political views are far from private. In an interview last fall, Springsteen ripped into President Donald Trump, accusing him of committing a “crime against humanity” by dividing Americans.

“I do believe we’ll survive Trump. But I don’t know if I see a unifying figure on the horizon,” the Grammy-winner said.

Indeed, in another interview, the “Born to Run” singer admitted that President Trump may still win re-election in 2020 because the Democrats don’t have an “effective” candidate to beat him.