7 days ago
‘I loved him': Legendary singer kissed ‘errant father' goodbye as he died
Though on tour in Europe, Bruce Springsteen took some time to write an emotional tribute to his early manager.
Carl Virgil 'Tinker' West, who died this week at 89, first recognized The Boss's raw talent in the 1970s and became a pivotal figure in the singer's formative years, according to the singer's Instagram and website.
'[West] was simply one of the most important people of my young life,' Springsteen wrote.
Springsteen met West in 1970, a time when the aspiring musician had 'nothing, nowhere to live' and 'was broke with nowhere to go.' The two lived together in West's 'tiny room' in Wanamassa, New Jersey, at the Challenger Eastern Surfboard Factory, where they slept six feet away from each other on separate mattresses.
Spending so much time with West, Springsteen quickly learned his manager was 'not an easy man to know, live with or be around.' In fact, the famous American singer noted that West 'was a natural born misanthrope.'
'He was from California and was an old school frontier individualist asking no quarter and giving none,' Springsteen wrote. 'If you weren't being useful he didn't want you near him. If you visited the surf shop for more than 10 minutes, he'd shove a broom in your hand and tell you to start sweeping. He wasn't joking.'
West and Springsteen embarked on numerous cross-country trips, starting when Springsteen was just 20. Their chosen vehicle was a 1940s Chevrolet flatbed truck with all of their band equipment under a tarp in the back.
Despite the 'old' and 'huge' truck had an 'unwieldy, grinding transmission,' West insisted that they drive straight through to Big Sur, which was their only gig, without stopping, for 72 hours. West also made Springsteen drive his 'share' even though the artist had no driving skills or a license.
'That's how Tinker taught you something,' Springsteen said. 'He just made you do it.'
Later in Springsteen's career, he and his manager graduated to an old Nomad Station wagon and each Christmas found themselves 'heading west on I-10 through dry desert and western mountain blizzards.'
Never throughout Springsteen's career did his manager ask for anything. Instead, West would continue to work independently. Sometimes he would travel to San Francisco while Springsteen visited his parents once a year in San Mateo. However, the idea that West had parents felt unthinkable to Springsteen.
'Did my old friend have parents? I can't believe so,' he wrote. 'I believe he sprung near full grown from the mountains, valleys and waves of a primitive and unknowable California.'
The last time Springsteen saw West was in the hospital when he was dying from throat cancer. West smiled when he saw Springsteen and the singer kissed his 'errant father' goodbye. West then pulled Springsteen close and whispered in a raspy voice, 'We sure had some adventures didn't we?'
Springsteen answered, 'We sure did.'
The singer remembered receiving West's highest compliment, 'Springsteen, you don't (expletive) around.' And indeed, neither did West. But as Springsteen was about to leave that hospital room, he witnessed something that he'd never seen before, West cried.
'I loved him,' Springsteen said.
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