Why Steve Van Zandt is the most important member of the E Street Band (after Bruce Springsteen)

New documentary from Hulu and Disney+ Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, he follows “the ‘boss” and his longtime musical companions, the E Street Band, as they undertake their final world tour. The film is particularly poignant as it seems to signal that Springsteen is finally close to hanging up his guitar after more than 50 years of stellar success. playing and recording Given this. Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band marks the band’s first live shows in seven years, It’s clear that Springsteen’s numerous fans are bracing themselves for director Thom Zimny’s film to announce the boss’s retirement.

Springsteen’s longtime collaborator and musical director, Steven Van Zandt is instrumental in everything the E Street Band does and has been with Springsteen since he was 16 (Van Zandt is now 73, Springsteen 75). He joined the band full-time when they were completing the Born to run sessions, and as Springsteen tells it, he “fixed my horns and guitar parts, and he’s been essential to me ever since.” But despite being a key part of the band E Street, Van Zandt possesses a number of other talents, including being an actor, writer, radio host and businessman.

Van Zandt’s childhood and introduction to music

Van Zandt started his first band in 1964

Born on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to Italian parents, Van Zandt moved to Middletown, New Jersey, when he was seven years old. Encouraged to try out the guitar after watching the Beatles and Rolling Stones on The Ed Sullivan Showaccording to The Hollywood ReporterHe started his own band in 1964, The Whirlwinds, followed by The Mates in 1965 and The Shadows in 1966. He was expelled from Middletown High School for refusing to cut his hair, and as a teenager he was involved in a serious car accident. in which he suffered severe scarring to his head, which caused him to wear hats and bandanas that have since become his signature look.

After a period working in road construction in the early 1970s, Van Zandt returned to New Jersey and music in 1973. on tour with The Dovells, where he earned the nickname Miami Steve, because of his tendency to wear Hawaiian shirts. This nickname gave rise to the nickname of his next band, The Miami Horns, but he then found some success fronting the band Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes, with whom he produced three albums, writing most of the band’s songs.

When Van Zandt Joined the E Street Band and His History with Springsteen

Van Zandt joined the E Street Band in 1975

Springsteen and Van Zandt had been friends since they were 16, and their musical paths crossed intermittently during the ’60s and early ’70s. Rolling Stonethat Van Zandt began touring part-time with Springsteen and the E Street Band, having arranged the horns for the hit “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” and contributed to the unique guitar line on “Born To Run”, which led him to officially join the band on July 20, 1975, at Born to Run Tour.

In those early years, Van Zandt was the band’s lead guitarist and a major contributor to the band’s enormous success between 1975 and 1984. By SquireSpringsteen was led to label him as the band’s leader: “Steve is the consiglieri of the E Street Band“, he said. But having reached the heights, Van Zandt left the band abruptly in 1984 when Nils Lofgren became lead guitarist, only to return in the mid-90s. as the band’s rhythm guitarist, improvised vocalist alongside Springsteen, and cheerleader. In Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, he is officially introduced as its musical director.

Van Zandt’s acting career and other endeavors

Van Zandt has an impressive acting resume

In 1999, Van Zandt became famous took on the lead role as Silvio Dante in the much-celebrated series The Sopranosalongside James Gandolfiniand his real-life wife, Maureen, who played his on-screen wife, Gabriella. The series ran for eight years, but Van Zhandt was bitten by the small screen bug and so produced, wrote and starred in the Norwegian series. Lilyhammerwhich ran for three seasons from 2012-2015. He also had a small role as Jerry Vale in the 2019 Scorsese classic The Irish.

In 2004, Van Zandt launched his own record label, Wicked Cool Records, and three years later founded the nonprofit Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. He also created Artists United Against Apartheid, an organization dedicated to combating South African apartheid in the 1980s. But it is for his lifelong collaboration with Bruce Springsteen that Steven Van Zhandt will be best remembered. In Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, his almost symbiotic onstage relationship with Springsteen is clearly evident and is summed up by Boss himself: “We like the same music, we like the same clothes – I mean, how many people have their best friend by their side some 50 years later?“

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Squire,