Boss: 'US Revealed True Heart Election Night'

America has finally shown "its real face" with the election of Barack Obama, and "an exhilaration I've never seen" after a campaign victory, Bruce Springsteen told the Guardian. The singer, who has never worn his politics lightly, ardently campaigned for Obama. "Obama's a unique figure in history," Springsteen said. "His election was an incredible moment for someone who seemed to carry enormous parts of American history with him. Enormous and painful parts."

Springsteen was equally vocal about the destructive legacy of the Bush administration. "We've lived through a nightmare in the past eight years here. Everything got broken," he grumbled. Now, however, he has reason for optimism. This hopeful "place we've been talking about, singing about, it's alive," he declared. "It isn't dead. It exists." (More Bruce Springsteen stories.)