Bruce Springsteen to Rock for Obama on the Campaign Trail

Bruce Springsteen vowed earlier this year to stay off the campaign trail, but it seems the veteran rocker has changed his mind.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign announced Saturday that Springsteen will join former President Bill Clinton at a pro-Obama rally in Parma, Ohio on Thursday. Clinton will speak and Springsteen will perform; Springsteen will also headline another Obama event in Ames, Iowa.

"Bruce Springsteen's values echo what the president and vice president stand for: hard work, fairness, integrity," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement. "His appearances will help with our get out the vote effort in these critical swing states and we are thrilled with his ongoing support."

Springsteen stumped for both Obama in 2008 and John Kerry in 2004, but said in February he would be sitting this campaign season out while still supporting the president.

“I got into that sort of by accident. The Bush years were so horrific that you couldn’t just sit around,” Springsteen said of his previous campaigning, according to ABC News. “I never campaigned for politicians previous to John Kerry and at that moment it was such a blatant disaster occurring at the top of government, you felt that if you had any cachet whatsoever, you had to cash it in because you couldn’t sit around and watch it.

He also offered criticism of Obama at the time, saying he was disappointed in his handling of the job market and home foreclosures, and said Obama was "more friendly to corporations than I thought he would be."

The Boss's song "We Take Care of Our Own" off his latest album was a hit at the Democratic National Convention last month and saw a 409 percent jump in sales as a result.