Clarence Clemons Said He and Bruce Springsteen Were ‘Like Lovers’

When Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons performed together, they often kissed each other on the mouth in front of their audience. The pair had a unique and intense bond that was clear to anyone watching them. Clemons once described the relationship between himself and Springsteen. He said that experiencing that kind of closeness to another person was one of the best things in the world.

Clarence Clemons once described the relationship between himself and Bruce Springsteen

According to Clemons, the night he and Springsteen met was something out of myth: the gale outside blew the door off its hinges when he went to see the E Street Band perform. Clemons said he and Springsteen recognized that they were missing links in each other’s lives, and they began working closely together.

“It is a special energy that we create,” he told Daniel Rothbart. “Separately we are two strong, independent people but we really speak to each other musically. I enjoy what happens. We’ve been together so long now, that when he plays a new song and I hear it for the first time I can add my sound to it, he allows me that freedom. He knows how I play and sound and I guess he envisions what I’m going to sound like when he writes the music.”

They grew so close that they often embraced and kissed each other while onstage. Clemons said they were like lovers in many ways.

“It’s like lovers. There’s some showmanship too, but we do love each other,” he said. “In that euphoric state of playing, you experience a bliss that’s the best thing in the world. It’s rare that you get to that place and you couldn’t have it every day because it would be too much for you. When you share that energy it’s the best thing in the world.”

They remained close until Clemons’ death in 2011.