Clemons was born in Norfolk, Virginia but grew up in and around Chesapeake, Virginia, the eldest of the three children of Thelma and Clarence Clemons, who owned a fish market. He began playing the saxophone after his father bought him an alto instrument one Christmas, and enrolled him in music lessons at a local college. He switched to the beefier-toned baritone sax, but then decided the tenor sax was the way to go after feeling inspired to imitate the scorching R&B playing of King Curtis.
