Bruce Springsteen was one of several artists honoring late music exec Clive Davis at a funeral service in New York City Monday.
“Clive was the most humble man in the music business,” Springsteen said at the opening of his speech, garnering laughs and applause from the mourners gathered at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue. “Not really.”
“Clive was big and bombastic and brave and full of ideas and just believed, believed, believed, believed,” he added. “He was born to run … everything.”
Springsteen then talked about having to come into New York City in 1972 to play for Davis before he could get signed to Columbia Records, and how kind and welcoming Davis was to him.
“He changed my life forever,” Springsteen said.
“The world that Clive was such a wonderful representative of has now vanished completely with his passing,” Springsteen said. “The world of the great record man. … Men who defined, loved and sustained the record business from their viewpoint at the top desk on down.”
“Clive changed so many artists’ and performers’ lives,” he added. “Clive not only loved music, he actually loved the people who made the music, no matter how much of a pain in the a** they were. And he loved those people deeply and permanently.”
“With his loyalty he let me know that was always the way he felt about me,” Springsteen noted. “And I loved him back. I never felt nothing but love coming from Clive.”
Others who spoke at the service included Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow and Alicia Keys, with Kenny G and Jennifer Hudson both performing.
Davis died June 22 at the age of 94.
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