Dave Marsh, a longtime music critic who wrote several influential books about Bruce Springsteen, including the early biography "Born to Run" has died. He was 76.

Marsh died Friday in Connecticut, his friend Jeffrey St. Clair, a co-editor of the online magazine Counterpunch, told The Associated Press. St. Clair said Marsh had been suffering from a degenerative brain disease for several years. Jim Rotolo, the SiriusXM radio host, announced Marsh's death on his social media accounts.

Springsteen paid tribute to Marsh in an Instagram post, writing that the loss had left the band "heartbroken."

"My great friend Dave, with his straight out of Detroit attitude, was a true Rock 'n' Roll lifer. He was soulful, intelligent, heartfelt, opinionated, bruising and often fantastically argumentative," Springsteen wrote. "He deeply believed in what I was trying to accomplish and his lifetime of support meant the world to me."

Steven Van Zandt also wrote a remembrance on Instagram, writing "he was fearless, relentless, arrogant, everything you'd want in a RocknRoll troublemaker. And by the way, a tremendous writer."

Marsh was an early champion of Springsteen, writing about him for Creem magazine and penning his first Rolling Stone cover story in 1978. In 1979 his biography "Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story" was released and became a best seller. He followed it in 1986 with "Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s." Legend has it that he was the one responsible for getting Jon Landau, Springsteen's longtime manager and record producer, to his first Springsteen concert.

Born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1950, Marsh dropped out of Detroit's Wayne State University in 1969 to write for the new rock magazine "Creem," where Lester Bangs was... Read More