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Reports: E Street Band Saxophonist Clarence Clemons Suffers Stroke

Clarence Clemons during a 2002 show in East Rutherford, N.J.
Frank Micelotta
/
Getty Images
Clarence Clemons during a 2002 show in East Rutherford, N.J.

The Big Man, saxophonist Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, has suffered a stroke and is seriously ill, The Associated Press and Rolling Stonesay they have confirmed.

The news was first reported at ShowBiz411.com.

Clemons is 69, AP says. Rolling Stonereminds us that he "has gone through a series of medical ailments — mostly involving his back and knees — over the past decade."

As ShowBiz411 says, "it's [Clemons'] trademark sound on Rosalita and other songs from The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle that established Bruce, and moved him from singer songwriter to R&B aficionado."

So far, none of the news outlets have many details about Clemons' condition.

Update at 9:55 a.m. ET:Clemons was a guest on The Tavis Smiley Show in 2003. Click here to listen.

And E Street Band fans don't need to reminded that one key member has already died. Keyboardist Danny Federici was 58 when he passed away in 2008.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.