By Marco R. della Cava, Edna Gundersen and Maria Puente, USA TODAY
The Boss has made it official about the Big Man. Clarence Clemons has indeed suffered a "serious stroke," Bruce Springsteen wrote on his website Tuesday, the first on-the-record acknowledgement of anonymously sourced news that broke Sunday after the saxophone player took ill at his Florida home.
By Bebeto Matthews, AP
Clarence Clemons has had a "serious stroke," his pal and longtime E Street Band partner Bruce Springsteen confirmed Tuesday.
By Bebeto Matthews, AP
Clarence Clemons has had a "serious stroke," his pal and longtime E Street Band partner Bruce Springsteen confirmed Tuesday.
Springsteen said his "beloved comrade" would need "much care and support to achieve his potential once again." The songwriter painted a bedside picture filled with top doctors and concerned family and friends all hopeful for a miracle. The E Street Band lost longtime keyboardist Danny Federici in 2008.
The news lit up the Web like a brush fire. Springsteen's Facebook page registered almost 1,000 get-well wishes within the hour he posted his statement. Clemons' own site, clarenceclemons.com, crashed after his family invited get-well e-mails.
Lady Gaga, whose new song The Edge of Glory features Clemons, helped fan the heartfelt flames by encouraging her followers to make get-well videos for "my very close friend + musician." Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, tweeted his best wishes for Clemons, "A BAAAD man and a sweet soul," and actress Angie Harmon tweeted, "Healing thoughts & prayers."
Christopher Phillips, editor of Backstreets.com, news site of the long-running magazine devoted to Springsteen, calls the global fan response to Clemons' stroke "immediate and full-scale."
"Clarence holds a particularly special place in everybody's heart," he says. The sax player "has always been such a positive presence, a positive force, (that) I think people want to give that back."
Clemons, 69, has been a presence in Springsteen's band since its ragtag beginnings on the New Jersey shore in 1971, appearing on all of the band's albums. His yin to Springsteen's yang is best exemplified by the Born to Run album cover that featured a skinny white kid shoulder to shoulder with a towering African-American, both grinning like musical imps.
"Clarence brought a very strong sense of soul to the E Street Band," says Robert Santelli, executive director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and author of 2006's Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
"When you think of the Big Man and what Bruce did to spotlight his size and stature, he's almost a mythical figure," Santelli says. "In those marathon shows back in the day, the way he and Bruce interacted had a special synergy that's difficult or impossible to reproduce with anyone else."
Santelli says medical problems have taken a toll on Clemons in recent years, including the replacement of both knees.
"His role had been diminished because of his health, but the musicality was still there," he says. "He is still such a vital cog in the E Street machinery. It's premature to count Clarence out. Our prayers go with him. I know a lot of Clarence fans who are hoping all goes well."
Backstreets.com editor Phillips echoes that sentiment.
"Clarence has fought through so much in the last years, surgeries, physical therapy, chronic pain, and still never missed a show," he says. "So we're all hoping that strength sees him through one more time."
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