Rock music icon Bruce Springsteen will hit the campaign trail this week for President Obama, adding star power to the president’s reelection effort as the race moves into the home stretch.

Springsteen is scheduled to appear at events in two key battleground states—Ohio and Iowa—on Thursday alongside former President Bill Clinton. Polls had showed Obama with fairly comfortable leads in both states in the past month, though following the president’s lackluster debate performance, more recent polls have shown Republican rival Mitt Romney gaining ground nationally and, more importantly, in those same two crucial states.

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“Bruce Springsteen’s values echo what the President and Vice President stand for: hard work, fairness, integrity,” Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, said in a statement, according to Rolling Stone. “His appearances will help with our get out the vote effort in these critical swing states and we are thrilled with his ongoing support.”

The lead single from Springsteen’s latest album, “We Take Care of Our Own,” preaches some of the same themes often espoused by Obama, as it addresses a post-recession America with a call for everyone to pull together and aid the least fortunate members of society.

Springsteen campaigned for Obama in 2008, and played an inaugural concert with folk hero Woody Guthrie following Obama’s election. Springsteen also campaigned for Senator John Kerry (D-MA) in 2004, though not as heavily as he did four years later for Obama.

In an exhaustive New Yorker profile earlier this year, Springsteen said he did not intend to actively campaign for the president this time around.

“I did it twice because things were so dire,” he said at the time. “It seemed like if I was ever going to spend whatever small political capital I had, that was the moment to do so. But that capital diminishes the more often you do it. While I’m not saying never, and I still like to support the President, you know, it’s something I didn’t do for a long time, and I don’t have plans to be out there every time.”

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Image via Wikimedia Commons, creative commons licensed