On This Day, June 18, 2011…

E Street Band and Bruce Springsteen saxophonist Clarence Clemons died in a Florida hospital six days after suffering a stroke at his home. He was 69.

Clemons, also known as The Big Man, was a member of the E Street Band from 1974 until his passing. He met Springsteen in 1971 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Their meeting was immortalized on the track “The E Street Shuffle,” from Springsteen’s sophomore album, 1973’s The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, and on the 1975 Born To Run classic “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.”

Clemons was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band in 2014.

In addition to his work with Springsteen, Clemons released several solo albums and had a hit with the 1985 track “You’re A Friend of Mine,” a collaboration with Jackson Browne.

Springsteen chose Clarence’s nephew Jake Clemons to be the new E Street Band saxophonist in 2012. He has performed with them ever since.

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