Steven Van Zandt

FEATURED PHOTO: Steven Van Zandt

Few are as qualified as Steven to make that statement! He plays in The E Street Band and heads his solo band, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul; composes, produces, and mixes music for himself and others; just released Soulfire; starred as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos; wrote, produced and starred in the first original Netflix series, Lilyhammer; hosts radio shows heard in hundreds of markets around the world; hosts the Underground Garage series at Count Basie, is an activist and philanthropist; and is a longtime member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This month, Steven will be inducted into the NJ Hall of Fame and shared with CM some insights into his long and varied careers. Steven was so upbeat, friendly and funny– fitting perfectly with the “good guy” accolades all who have met him describe. But he also revealed an intelligence and passion for taking on important causes.  Following are highlights from the interview.

CM: Most are familiar with your music and acting, but may not know about your educational initiatives, Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and TeachRock. How did these come about?

Steven: A teachers’ group came to me and explained that the No Child Left Behind legislation had an unintended consequence, which was the cancelling of all the arts classes in schools to make room for the obsession with science and math scores. Ironically, statistics show that students who go to music class do better in science and math. So, I went to Congress and I talked to Teddy Kennedy and Mitch McConnell. They both apologized, and I said, “That’s okay, just fix it.” They couldn’t so I said to the teachers, let’s do the history of music instead. I outlined 200 lessons and we have over 100 lessons online at teachrock.org, which teachers can use for free, worldwide. We also partnered with a lot of people. For instance, we did six lessons from a recent Beatles documentary, 8 Days a Week by Ron Howard. (On stops of his present tour, teachers can learn about TeachRock and enjoy a performance after, for free.) We hope to have at least a hundred teachers at every show and they’ll become the missionaries, which is how it really gets done. They’re on the front lines. Teachers interested can contact Christine, RockandRollForever.org.

CM: You told the Rutgers class, “Embrace your Jersey roots.” You have. What was it like for you, growing up in Monmouth County?

Steven: Well, Red Bank was the big city. I was in New Monmouth. Count Basie was my movie theater. It was called the Carlton Theater and that’s where I saw Hard Days Night, and Help, and Bye Bye Birdie and Nutty Professor and all the important movies. And Jack’s Music Store is where I bought my first guitar. We had the cultural problems of the late 60s and we were very early freaks with long hair. Back then the local police were very much against rock and roll and long hair and we had a lot of problems locally at the time. Now, I am one of the biggest supporters of law enforcement. Little Steven’s Policeman’s Ball every year is one of the biggest police fundraisers in the country. But then, we were pretty much defining what the generation gap would be. Not only in our cities but in our home. My father was an ex- marine Goldwater Republican and so he had the very bad luck of ending up with one of the very few freaks in the entire region living in his house. We had a lot of problems growing up, but we straightened them out and we became close. But there was a lot of turmoil growing up in those days.

CM: How did you get your music education?

Steven: We just learned from records in those days, I mean the music schools and the music teachers were really not rock-oriented so we learned from records and watching guys on TV. I had a lesson or two- they may have showed me how to tune a guitar, maybe some basic chords, but I don’t remember taking lessons very long.

 

 

CM: I’d say so, especially ending up in Norway.

Steven: Yeah, it’s crazy right? I go back every year for a blues festival in the middle of nowhere in Norway.  I’m very involved in the blues world. There is a three week blues school before the festival where they invite kids to come in and I’ve done master classes for them. They named the school Little Steven’s Blues School.

CM: What “ship” did you miss?

Steven: Leaving the E Street Band when I did, I missed the reward of all the work we had done the previous seven years. I decided to dedicate my life to politics. (Van Zandt embarked on a decade of activism to help end apartheid.)  I think in many ways, I missed the fun of what that tour would have been, but, maybe the South Africa thing would not have happened as quickly. Probably one of the most eventful moments of my life, so I think in the end you have to be philosophical about it. With every regret comes the other side.

CM: Are you currently involved in political activism?

Steven: I’ve been taking the approach on tour that we are so inundated now with politics. When I first started, I felt I had to bring the politics with me and I really felt it necessary to shine the light on various issues that were being quite secretive. And, let’s face it, people weren’t very political in the 70s and 80s. But now its just 24/7 and the most useful thing I can do right now is give people two and a half hours of sanctuary away from the politics and let them just enjoy the music and get some energy back so they can deal with this crazy world. Behind the scenes, I’ve been keeping most of my energy to keeping rock and roll alive. I am certainly in big big support of these Parkland kids and the whole Never Again movement and having a more common sense approach to guns. I think most people are feeling that same way and so I haven’t been very active right now. I don’t really want to be divisive. I need my education program to go into every single school north and south, and I’m very much an independent.  When it comes to my education program and my touring I want everybody to be able to enjoy that and not have any preconditioned prejudice because of my political stances.

CM: Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul  is currently on tour. How do you keep it fresh night after night? (He laughed throughout his answer.)

Steven: I have the very very unique situation, again with all these things there are good and bad. I am probably the only performer- in history- who is touring without ever having had a hit. So, with absolutely no hits, you actually have a lot of freedom. I don’t really have to play my same three hits every night and then get tired of them. I can pick whatever songs I want because nobody knows any of my songs! No, but honestly, it’s a very very unique thing and funny in some ways, but I look out at the audience sometimes and I KNOW for a fact a big portion of the audience are there out of curiosity. They may have heard a song or two, so we have to win them over song by song. And that’s what we do. So it’s very rewarding that way, knowing that it’s all happening very spontaneously in that moment, and the sheer musicality of the band carries the day every single night, every single show.

CM: Are there any unique moments that stand out in any of your careers?

Steven: The craziest was how popular The Sopranos got. It was funny because for most journeyman actors, they don’t really experience that sort of celebrity hysteria, so it was really a lot of fun. For the screening of the final episode of The Sopranos we were invited to the Hard Rock in Florida. The entire cast had to walk outside to the screening and lining the sidewalk were tens of thousands of people. And I  said to the other actors, “Well if you’re ever wondering what it’s like to be a rock star, this is it!”  We were unusually popular. We would do  appearances and break records. That was a lot of fun to see the other actors experience that sort of acclaim.

CM: Did The Sopranos receive pushback from Italian viewers or groups?

Steven: No, not really The only thing that happened was we were banned from the Columbus Day parade. They thought we were besmirching the reputation of the Italians. That was the only time we had any negative, everyone loved it.

CM: Was the camaraderie of the bands similar to the camaraderie of the TV casts?

Steven: It is similar but it takes a bit more work in the acting world I have to say. I was a little bit surprised because we are very family oriented in music. I mean, there’s competition maybe between bands or between acts, but not so much. Where, in acting, it’s a different culture, I guess because it is more competitive for jobs. It’s a bit of a different vibe. And I was not used to that and in The Sopranos I went out of my way to make it more like the music world. We became a real family and I think HBO was encouraging that also. And so we kind of broke that tradition of “friendliness between actors, but not too friendly.”  We were genuinely friends and rooted for each other, more like the music world. But I was surprised at first because you see people on the set positioning themselves to be more on camera, making sure they are seen, making sure they got the same number of lines as the next guy. There certainly is more work now- you have Netflix doing 44 shows next year that didn’t exist ten years ago and that takes the pressure off between actors.

CM: Did you stay friends with the cast?

Steven: Oh yeah. we stayed pretty friendly to this day. All our families. it was permanent, it was a forever kind of thing.

CM: Is there any one you wish you could meet?

Steven: To meet? Hmm I don’t know.  I met a lot of people (laughs). I’ve been very lucky to meet quite a few people I always wanted to meet and offhand I can’t really think of anybody.

CM: Did you have input into the music for The Sopranos?

Steven: Just occasionally (David Chase)  would come to me for something new, so I would occasionally suggest a new band or two – some of which actually got into the show. Basically, he knew what he wanted. He is very very musical. But in Lilyhammer I did music supervision and the score and that was a lot of fun.

CM: Is the music from Lilyhammer on CD?

Steven: No, we are just talking to Universal right now to get that released over the next year, because it was a lot- three CDs full. There’s a whole jazz CD, a folky CD and then there’s a whole CD of extras, like rock and salsa – all kinds of things. That’s not even counting the actual songs, but just the score itself.

CM: What is your involvement with radio?

Steven: My two hour weekly syndicated radio show is in 100 affiliates in over 100 countries.  That’s where it all started, that’s still on everywhere. And then I have two 24/7 channels on Sirius Satellite- one is Underground Garage and  one is Outlaw Country- channels 21 and 60.

CM: Who do you listen to currently?

Steven: I‘m always trying to find out what the best new things are. We have to come up with a new song every week for the radio show, The Coolest Song in the World This Week. We always find something new to play and introduced over 700 new bands since the radio show started.For pleasure, it’s probably from the 60s most likely.  It might  be some early rock things or it might be Miles Davis, it could be early reggae, or Tito Puente, early salsa, depends on my mood but most likely would be 60s type of music.”

CM: Did you do consider acting in theater?

Steven: My wife Maureen and I produced a Broadway show a few years ago with The Rascals, called Once Upon a Dream. It was probably the best work I’ve ever done, it was incredible. It was this hybrid show of a reunion of a rock band. We put the bigger screen on Broadway and had them filmed and talking to the audience and then they would play live on stage. And my wife has her Renegade Theatre group with Vinnie Pastore from The Sopranos. They’re always doing off broadway things. I may be directing one of their productions in the next couple of months, a classic comedy called Lovers And Other Strangers, but it’s mostly Maureen’s and Vinnie’s -they run the theater stuff. I have not acted on stage and I prefer being behind the scenes, directing and producing.

CM: If you could be any age for a week, what would you choose?

Steven: I probably would  go back to the 80s. I looked at pictures of myself back then and I’m quite surprised, I’m like “wow” if I knew I was that good looking I would have had a much better time!

CM: Any dream project on the horizon?

Steven: I really want to get back on TV. I’ve got a few different ideas, so I hope one of them happens this year. I want to see what Bruce is doing, and then if  I get a TV show going, it’s easier to organize the touring around the TV show. So I am hoping to get that happening sooner than later and we’ll see what happens in the fall.

CM: Do you ever rest?

Steven: (Laughing) “You don’t know the half of it.”