About Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American saxophonist. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Clemons released several solo albums. In 1985, he had a hit single with "You're a Friend of Mine", a duet with Jackson Browne. As a guest musician, he featured on Aretha Franklin's song "Freeway of Love". As an actor, Clemons appeared in several films, including New York, New York and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He also made cameo appearances in several TV series, including Diff'rent Strokes, Nash Bridges, The Simpsons, My Wife and Kids, The Super Dave Osborne Show and The Wire. Clemons published Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales (2009) with his friend Don Reo. The book is a semi-fictional autobiography told in the third person. Clemons died in 2011 at the age of 69 in West Palm Beach, Florida. In 2014, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. While at Maryland State College, Clemons also joined his first band, the Vibratones, which played James Brown covers and stayed together for about four years between 1961 and 1965. He also performed with Daniel Petraitis, a musician active New Jersey and Nashville, whose recording sessions featuring Clemons were eventually released in 2007 by Truth and Soul Records as Let Me Be Your Man. The story of how Clemons first met Bruce Springsteen has entered into E Street Band mythology. "The E Street Shuffle" contains a monologue about how they met, and the event was also immortalized in "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out".
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