Interview | The Thousand and One Lives of Stevie Van Zandt

Best friend of Bruce Springsteen on stage and Tony Soprano on screen, influential anti-apartheid activist, founder of the coolest satellite radio channel: Steven Van Zandt is not just a simple guitarist. On the occasion of the release of the abundant documentary Disciple, The Press reached him somewhere in Belgium.

That afternoon, Steve Van Zandt is in his hotel room, the day after a show by Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band at the Werchter stadium in Belgium, in front of 55,000 fans. Behind him, a huge mobile stand on which hang several of his colorful shirts of exuberant buccaneers, perhaps stolen from Francine Grimaldi’s wardrobe.

This is what Little Steven (one of his stage names) is doing during his summer: supporting his best friend since they were 16 for nearly three hours at each show, the one he will always remain the confidant of, even if, in 1984, he made the astonishing decision to desert the E Street Band in order to finally let his own voice resonate.

Not the best time to go solo: in 1984, Bruce Springsteen launched Born in the USAby far his most popular and, inevitably, most lucrative album. While today is always the best time to choose, Van Zandt’s accountant would probably have suggested he wait until tomorrow.

“It’s one of the main moments of my life that I had to analyze when writing my book,” explains the musician, recalling Unrequited Infatuations (2021), his autobiography in which the documentary Disciple draws part of its material.

When I made the decision to leave, it was purely instinctive. I knew that in order to preserve my friendship with Bruce, in order not to become bitter, I had to leave. It took me a few months to fully understand what I had just done, and when it hit me, I was convinced that I had completely ruined my life.

Steve Van Zandt

“But the truth is, most of what I’ve accomplished has come after that moment when I thought my life was over,” continues the man who rejoined the E Street Band at its big reunion in 1999, and has never left since. “That’s why I hope the film can be useful to people who hit a wall in their career or in a relationship. I hope they can understand that what seems like an end is often just a beginning.”

Of all the fights

“I don’t know if there’s another artist like him in the whole history of rock’n’roll,” says the director of Stevie Van Zandt: DiscipleBill Teck, who brought together a veritable areopagus of icons to testify to their unwavering admiration for Miami Steve (another of his nicknames), including Paul McCartney, Eddie Vedder and Peter Gabriel. “No other musician has had as much impact in so many spheres of activity.”

Examples? Van Zandt played the lead role in Lilyhammerthe first series offered exclusively on Netflix, played Silvio Dante, Tony’s right-hand man in The Sopranosand founded Underground Garage, the cool satellite radio station that tries to keep rock ‘n’ roll alive.

“And that’s without counting that two of the songs from Born in the USAone of the most popular albums of all time, are most likely about Steve,” adds Bill Teck of the poignant No Surrender And Bobby Jeanwritten by the Boss after the announcement of his departure. “I always found it very touching that neither of them confirmed or denied that these songs were about their relationship.”

Extract of Bobby Jeanby Bruce Springsteen

On his side of the video conference screen, Steve shrugs. No, he won’t be breaking that modesty today.

Everything is political

Another feat, and not the least: Van Zandt contributed to the release of Nelson Mandela thanks to his intensive anti-apartheid activism and the creation of the song Sun City (1985), a particularly motley line-up of artists proclaiming their support for the cultural boycott of South Africa’s segregationist regime, including Joey Ramone, RUN-DMC, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, Keith Richards and Ringo Starr.

Little Steven had never been particularly political before touring the entire planet during the The River (by Springsteen) and to see that its inhabitants did not always have a good opinion of the United States.

Everything suddenly became political for him, Springsteen recalls in the documentary, laughing at his friend’s extremism, for whom it was always all or nothing, and who would devote several years to denouncing all the injustices that crossed his path.

“I remain among the believers”, he sang in 1984 on his (excellent) album Voice of Americavowing not to have lost hope that peace and harmony can triumph over fear.

Does he remain on the side of hope as he approaches a presidential election whose outcome will not only have a major impact on his country, but also on the entire world?

His response? A tirade! “That song was written when Trump was the best at cheating at golf,” he says with his inimitable mobster grin. “One of the biggest problems we face is that the Democratic Party ignores the problems of everyday people, from economic problems to homelessness. And when the good guys don’t solve the problems, the bad guys take advantage.”

But let’s be clear, Trump and the Christian nationalist movement that supports him are a threat to the very concept of democracy. They are the new fascists.

Steve Van Zandt

The great Little Steven never stopped striving to make the world a better place, but never had any other church than music. Incidentally, it was Little Richard who celebrated his wedding.

“Everything that people look for in religion,” he said, “inspiration, motivation, a sense of morality, a sense of history, I found in rock ‘n’ roll.”

Documentary

Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple

Bill Teck

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