Bruce Springsteen opened up about the loss of friend and E Street Band member Clarence Clemons in a new interview.
Clemons died in 2011 at age 69 due to complications following a stroke. When “The Big Man” was in the hospital near the end of his life, Springsteen went to visit his friend and played him a song.
“I had a feeling he could hear me because he could squeeze your hand,” recalls Springsteen. “When I first went to see him [after his stroke], there was some response to your voice and to you being in the room, it felt like. I knew that he was going to die, and so I just brought the guitar in and I strummed a song called ‘Land of Hope and Dreams.’ … It’s about passing over to the other side. It’s about life and death.”
The Boss added, “His brother was there. I think Jake, his nephew, was there. And there were a few other people. But it was just a little tiny space… It’s a hymn … it was a song we were playing at the end of the night [on tour] and it was one of the last songs that Clarence and I worked on a sax solo together on.”
Springsteen would later pay tribute to Clemons, late E Street Band member Danny Federici and former assistant Terry Magover on “Ghosts,” a track from his 2020 album Letter to You.