If you’ve ever seen Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert, it’s hard not to think of them as immortal. This is a band that has cranked out high-energy multi-hour concerts, night after night, for decades. Even as band members approached (and sometimes passed) 60, the show went on. Yes, it’s true that Danny Federici died back in ’08, but as a keyboard player, he rarely was the centerpiece of the band’s efforts.

But the band’s biggest fans know that the health of Clarence Clemons, The Big Man himself, has been a problem for some time. He’s had knee and hip problems for years and people might be surprised to learn he’s 69. And today comes a report that he’s suffered a stroke.

I haven’t seen Springsteen in concert since the mid-1990s, mostly because I’m not an arena concert fan and I kept rationalizing that I’d always have another chance. Clemons’ impossibly thick tenor sax tone is at the center of the band’s sound, and although Springsteen will always be E Street’s beating heart, it’s Clemons who provides its soul. And now I wonder if I’m even going to see the group take the stage again.

Update, June 19: I just heard that the Big Man has passed. I guess I should take solace in the fact that the Eternal Band just keeps getting better.