Clarence Clemons was born on January 11th, 1949 in Norfolk (Virginia/ USA). He grew up in a very religious house with several generations of preachers on his mother's side, and his father a deacon in the local church. His family didn't listen to a lot of the radio. Clarence grew up with the music of the church. He sang in the church choir, and then traveled in the "Family Four" (later "Family Five") singing group with his aunts and uncles. It was old gospel music, which was where the Rock 'n' Roll and the Blues came from. So it was an easy transition for him, when he listened to Rock 'n' Roll for the first time. "I grew up listening to the Coasters when I got exposed to music, the stuff with King Curtis on sax, and this is really where my roots are."

At the age of nine his father bought him a saxophone. Clarence asked him for a train but he bought that sax. "I've never gotten over it", Clarence said in an interview in 1986.
When he was 18 years old "Big Man" went off to college (he earned a music and football scholarship to Maryland State College) and majored in football at Maryland Eastern Shore University (he even played semi-pro ball for a while), but he always had the saxophone in his car because he didn't know what he really wanted to do. College wasn't his thing.

It's said that Clarence once had a caraccident where he injured his knee, which forced him to quit with playing football. So he attend to playing the saxophone - his second love besides football.

In the 60ies he moved to New Jersey and joined an oldie-band, perhaps of boredom. Then he got known with Bruce Springsteen. They met in the "Student Prince" in Asbury Park (New Jersey/ USA): "It was a dark, rainy night. He came in the club and walked up to the stage and said 'Can I play?'. I said 'Sure!'. Nobody's gonna tell him 'No'. And he got up on the stage and there's nothing left to say...!", Bruce about the first meeting with Clarence.
Clarence: "A rainy windy night it was and when I opened the door, the whole thing flew off its hinges and blew away down the street. The band was on stage but staring at me framed in the doorway. And maybe that did make Bruce a little nervous because I just said, 'I want to play with your band.' And, he said, 'Sure. You do anything you want.'" (...) "I got a thrill right now of thinking about  it, you know. I feel it inside me, that moment of meeting him. When I saw this guy, I knew there was something special about him. (...) That was what I've been looking for."

So Clarence joined the E Street Band, which was founded in 1972. Beside the E Street Band, Clarence had a band called "The Red Bank Rockers". He jamed with them in his free time. He wrote some songs for the band which were also recorded. One song was called "You're a Friend of Mine". It was written about Springsteen. Clarence wanted to record the song with Bruce but he had just gotten married and was in the middle of his 1985 tour. So Clarence sang the song with Jackson Browne, who was also a friend. "The Red Bank Rockers" broke up when their drummer Wells Kelly died in 1984.

In 1981 Clarence opend a club called "Big Man's West", where Bruce and they boys also played some gigs in the 80ies.

In 1987's "Tunnel of Love" tour Clarence didn't play. Two years later (1989) Bruce called the E Streeter that he wants to break up with the E Street Band. Clarence was badly injured. He got the call in Japan. He was touring with Ringo Starr's "All Starr Band" (like Nils Lofgren). He took the E Street breakup harder than anyone.

After the breakup Clarence released some solo-records, had some small acting roles (e.g.: in "Fatal Instinct" and he portrayed Big Barry on TV's "Nash Bridges") and worked on several other records of different musicians (e.g.: Zucchero).

In 1995 Clarence and the rest of the E Street Band got back together to record several songs for the "Greatest Hits" record. In 1999 they went back on the road for the worldtour and in 2001/ 02 they recorded the new album - "The Rising", which was followed by a large worldtour.
During this worldtour Big Man missed his first show ever due to to a detached retina. The band had no choice but to postpone its performance in Austin/ TX. "It was devastating to me. I've been this and I've been that but I've always managed to get the show done. This was the first time in 33 years I missed a show. But everyone rallied around me."

Interviews:
www.inform.umd.edu (01/ 28/ 2004)

Photos of Clarence