Why Steve Van Zandt Is The Most Important Member Of E Street Band (After Bruce Springsteen)

Hulu and Disney+’s new documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, follows “the ‘Boss” and his long-term musical cohorts, the E Street Band, as they undertake their latest world tour. The film is particularly poignant as it appears to signal that Springsteen is finally close to hanging up his guitar after some 50-plus years of stellar performing and recording. Given that Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band marks the band’s first live shows in seven years, it’s clear that Springsteen’s multitudinous fans are bracing themselves for Director Thom Zimny’s film to herald the Boss’s retirement.

Springsteen’s long-term collaborator and musical director, Steven Van Zandt, is central to everything the E Street Band does, and has been with Springsteen since they were 16 years old (Van Zandt is now 73, Springsteen 75). He joined the band full-time just as they were completing the Born To Run sessions, and as Springsteen tells it, he “fixed the horns and my guitar parts, and he’s been essential to me ever since.” But despite being a key part of the E Street band, Van Zandt boasts a range of other talents, including being an actor, writer, radio host, and entrepreneur.

Van Zandt’s Early Life And Introduction To Music

Van Zandt Started His First Band in 1964

Born November 22nd, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts to Italian parents, Van Zandt moved to Middletown, New Jersey when he was seven. Encouraged to try guitar after watching The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on The Ed Sullivan Show, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he 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, was involved in a serious car accident in which he sustained severe head scarring, which led to his wearing the hats and bandannas that have since become his signature look.

After a spell working in road construction in the early 1970s, Van Zandt returned to New Jersey and to music in 1973, touring with The Dovells, where he picked up the nickname Miami Steve, after his penchant for wearing Hawaiian shirts. That nickname informed the monicker for his next band, The Miami Horns, but then he found a degree of success fronting the band Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes, with whom he produced three albums, having written the bulk of the band’s music.

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 the age of 16, and their musical paths had crossed intermittently through the ’60s and early ’70s, It was in 1975, according to Rolling Stone, that Van Zandt began touring part-time with Springsteen and the E Street Band, having arranged the horns for their hit “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out”, and contributed to the signature guitar line in “Born To Run,” which led to him joining the band officially on July 20, 1975, on the Born To Run Tour.

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In those early years, Van Zandt was the band’s lead guitarist and was a major contributor to the band’s huge success between 1975 and 1984. Per Esquire, Springsteen was moved to label him then as the band leader: “Steve is the consiglieri of the E Street Band,” he said. But having hit the heights, Van Zandt abruptly left the band in 1984, when Nils Lofgren became lead guitarist, only to return in the mid-90s as the band’s rhythm guitarist, impromptu vocalist alongside Springsteen, and chief cheerleader. In Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, he’s officially introduced as its music director.

Van Zandt’s Acting Career And Other Endeavors

Van Zandt Has An Impressive Acting Resume

In 1999, Van Zandt famously took a lead role as Silvio Dante in the much-celebrated series The Sopranos, alongside James Gandolfini, and his real-life wife Maureen, who played his on-screen spouse Gabriella. The series ran for eight years, but Van Zhandt had been bitten by the small-screen bug and then produced, wrote, and starred in the Norwegian series Lilyhammer, which ran for three seasons from 2012-2015. He also took a small part as Jerry Vale in Scorsese’s 2019 classic The Irishman.

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

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Esquire,

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band offers an insider’s glimpse into Springsteen’s creative process, featuring behind-the-scenes footage of band rehearsals and backstage moments. The documentary provides fans with direct insights from Springsteen, enhancing their understanding of his musical journey.