Bruce Springsteen Pays Tribute to Late Manager Carl ‘Tinker’ West

Bruce Springsteen shared a moving tribute to Carl "Tinker" West, his first manager, who died this month at the age of 89 due to throat cancer.

Springsteen shared his tribute via social media and his official website in a post simply titled "Tinker." He referred to his former manager as "one of the most important people of my young life."

However, The Boss didn't shy away from West's gruff nature. He wrote, "He was a natural born misanthrope. He was not an easy man to know, live with, or be around. He was from California and was an old school frontier individualist asking no quarter and giving none. If you weren’t being useful he didn’t want you near him. "

Springsteen noted, "After I became a huge success over the years, Tinker asked me for exactly nothing. He was forever alone, working, off the grid, and independent. I was always satisfied when I would be the recipient of Tink’s highest compliment: 'Springsteen, you don’t f--- around.'"

He concluded his tribute by recalling the last time he saw his former manager, who was in the hospital and near death from his battle with throat cancer.

"He smiled when he saw me, and I kissed one of my errant father’s goodbye," wrote Springsteen. "I hung out for a while, he pulled me close, and his voice raspy and nearly gone whispered, 'We sure had some adventures, didn’t we?' I answered, 'We sure did.' When I was about to leave, I saw something I never thought I’d see in this life or the next. He cried. I loved him."