(Credits: Alamy)
Sat 13 December 2025 21:00, UK
Bruce Springsteen has always been known as ‘The Boss’. But by his own careful admission, he’s not always quite as confident as he likes to let on.
Put simply, there is a reason that the E Street Band have remained by his side for over the past half a century, consistently ferrying between the recording studio and the stadium stage as they rotate around the hallmarks of rock superstardom. It’s largely because Springsteen confesses that he wouldn’t have had the gall to go out there without them in tow.
Although no member of the E Street Band is above the others in terms of their impact, it was always Clarence Clemons who acted as Springsteen’s permanent right-hand man, but it was for notions far more profound than just his musical talents alone. Indeed, what bound them together was the sense that they were vital to each other.
From the very second they crashed into each other’s orbit, this was something ‘The Boss’ inherently understood without necessarily having the words to express it at the time. “The first time I’d seen C’s massive form striding out of the shadows of a half-empty bar in Asbury Park, I’d thought, ‘Here comes my brother.’ Yet as solid as the Big Man was, he was also very fragile,” he recalled in a 2016 interview for Rolling Stone.
“In some funny way, we became each other’s protectors; I think perhaps I protected C from a world where it still wasn’t so easy to be big and Black. Racism was still there, and over our years together, occasionally, we saw it. Clarence’s celebrity and size did not always make him immune,” Springsteen soberly explained. Yet even still, this was far from a one-sided effort.
Clemons also felt it was his duty to stand by his maestro through thick and thin. “I think perhaps C protected me from a world where it wasn’t always so easy to be an insecure, weird and skinny white boy either,” ‘The Boss’ continued. But despite their individual weaknesses, the combination of them both turned them into the world’s most potent force, knowing that each other’s backs were covered.
“Standing together, we were badass, on any given night, some of the baddest asses on the planet. And we were coming to your town to shake you and to wake you up,” he said, with the image of that blazing inferno clear for all to see. Tearing up stages all over the world might just have been part of the day job, but it was one that they couldn’t have mastered without the unwavering presence of their rock of strength.
Of course, for both Clemons and Springsteen, that notion came to mean very different things. But it was clearly a comfort that no matter what far-flung corner of the world they may have found themselves in, they always had the solidity of each other to play the best show they possibly could. Now Clemons is gone, it’s his inimitable spirit which keeps ‘The Boss’ moving forward.
People may often wonder what exactly still continues to motivate and energise Springsteen, even after all these years and decades. Money and fame are one thing, but it’s easy to get jaded by that. Instead, it’s the knowledge that if his best friend were still here today, he’d absolutely be willing him on. The only right way to honour that is to keep on being badass.
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