Bruce Springsteen shares final photo with ‘great man’ Clive Davis who signed The Boss at 22

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Bruce Springsteen has paid tribute to the veteran music producer Clive Davis, who died on June 22 at the age of 94.

Davis presided over the signings of Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, and Santana to name but a few. The four-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member died on June 22 shortly after being hospitalised with respiratory problems. Many of the artists signed by Davis have since paid tribute to the media mogul, who was described as one of music’s “most powerful executives” in an obituary published by The New York Times. Music legends like Stewart and Springsteen have since paid tribute to Davis. In a post to Springsteen’s official website, The Boss shared the last photo he and Davis took together, at a show on the Land of Hope and Dreams tour earlier this year.

Springsteen wrote: “Over here on E Street, we mourn the death of the great record man and close friend Clive Davis. At 22 years old, he changed my life when he signed me to Columbia Records. He treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success. A great man. All our prayers and love.”

Davis would hold conversations with other music legends about Springsteen, with The Boss once finding out that Bob Dylan had sent praise his way. He shared: “[Columbia Records president] Clive Davis said someone had called him and told him, if I wasn’t careful, I was going to use up the entire English language. That was Bob Dylan. Bob was always my mentor and the brother that I never had, so I took these words quite seriously.”

Fellow Davis signee Rod Stewart shared his thoughts on the death of the 94-year-old in a statement released earlier this week. He took to Instagram and wrote: “Lost for words! A day I’ve been dreading! A giant of a man in the music business.

“I owe Clive so much. The force behind J Records, he was the only one who believed a rock singer could sing the standards with conviction. Other labels rejected the idea, and so The Great American Songbook was born, selling close to 40 million copies. We had some wonderful, unforgettable times together, but for now, Mr. Davis, it’s goodbye, my dear friend.”

Davis’ four Grammy wins all came within nine years of one another. His first was for Album of the Year in 2000, which was won by Santana for Supernatural. He also picked up Best Rock Album that same year. Six years on, Davis would pick up an award for Best Pop Vocal Album after Kelly Clarkson’s win for Breakaway. In 2009, Jennifer Hudson’s self-titled album would bag Davis his fourth and last Grammy Award, this time for Best R&B album.

Davis, in one of his final interviews with Rolling Stone Magazine, said he was still fuelled by the search for “the next Springsteen”. He said in 2017: “Right now I’m very involved in working to really prove a point: In the current state of music, and with the health restored in the industry, we have to address not only where the next Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen is coming from but also where is the next Aretha Franklin or Whitney Houston is coming from.”