<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Little Steven himself doesn\u2019t give other people advice. \u00a0\u201cOh, you can\u2019t be stupider than me,\u201d he was recently quoted in <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine, <\/span><\/i>\u201cleaving the E-Street Band when I did, it\u2019s one of those things you look back on and say (it) was a tragic mistake.\u201d \u00a0He was referring to his being a big part of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s rise to fame leading up to the release of the blockbuster LP <\/span>Born in the USA<\/span><\/i>, which Little Steven also produced. \u00a0When Springsteen went solo with his 1982 release <\/span>Nebraska<\/span><\/i>, Little Steven assembled a big rock and soul band of his own called The Disciples of Soul. \u00a0\u00a0Their first album didn\u2019t sell all that well, but he still decided to go his own way just as The Boss was blowing up into the mega-star we know so well from the MTV saturated days of the 1980s. \u00a0Many thought Little Steven had lost his mind, but in reality, he was just doing what he had always done even before he joined The E Street Band. \u00a0He was being himself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Little Steven was born in Boston in 1950. \u00a0\u00a0When his parents divorced and his mother remarried one William Brewster Van Zandt, it set them down in Middletown Township, New Jersey. \u00a0It was there that the fourteen year old Steven Van Zandt caught The Beatles on TV the night of February 9, 1964. \u00a0As Van Zandt remembers it, \u201cThe day before that, there were literally no bands in America. \u00a0Day after, everybody had a band.\u201d \u00a0His early story is a typical wanna-be-a-musician trip through various early bands with names like The Whirlwinds, The Mates, and The Shadows. \u00a0He may have been sent home from school for having long hair, but he did graduate from Middletown High in 1968. \u00a0It was at Middletown High that he got to know another guitar minded member of the class of 1967: \u00a0Bruce Springsteen. \u00a0Both played in an Allman Brothers type band (with Steven on bass) and later with the Bruce Springsteen Band whose sound definitely leaned toward the Van Morrison side of the ledger. \u00a0If they had an inkling that there were bigger things to come, Van Zandt downplays that notion today. \u00a0\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like the romanticised version of us sticking to our guns,\u201d he told <\/span>CRM<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0\u201cThe truth is, we couldn\u2019t do anything else. \u00a0We were completely incapable, so we had no choice (but to be persistent).\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1973, Van Zandt landed a gig touring with The Dovells out of Philadelphia. \u00a0They ended a cross country tour in Miami and the \u201cMiami Steve\u201d portion of his career began as a nod to the loud Miami shirts he brought back to New Jersey. \u00a0Springsteen had recently released <\/span>Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ<\/span><\/i> \u00a0but a reunion of the former bandmates \u00a0wasn\u2019t in the cards (yet). \u00a0Instead, Miami Steve and Southside Johnny Lyon put together the Asbury Jukes and fleshed out their bar band sound with the Miami Horns. \u00a0By the 1976 release of their first album, <\/span>I Don\u2019t Want To Go Home, <\/span><\/i>Van Zandt was the Jukes primary songwriter, arranger, and producer. \u00a0Not only did they make music that fused Motown, Stax, Atlantic soul and New Orleans R&B, they pretty much invented the music everyone began to call The New Jersey Sound. \u00a0They built their audience by honing their sound one show at a time, something Van Zandt feels is lacking in today\u2019s musical environment. \u00a0He sees the act of getting on stage and interacting with the audience as a critical element to being a musician: \u00a0\u201cPeople go straight from learning to play to selling their music on the internet. \u00a0They\u2019re skipping the most important phase of a career, which is to be a bar band.\u201d \u00a0Miami Steve and Southside certainly paid their dues in this regard. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Springsteen\u2019s first two albums pretty well tanked, so the pressure was on. \u00a0Initially invited to do some horn arrangements for the <\/span>Born To Run<\/span><\/i> album in 1975, Miami Steve was also invited to join the E Street Band. \u00a0He has maintained an in and out relationship with them ever since. \u00a0\u201cI was as well known as Bruce in the area so when I called him The Boss, people knew that he was the real deal.\u201d \u00a0There were things the newly christened Little Steven could do better than Bruce (arranging songs and horn parts for example) and it was no accident that Van Zandt became the driving heartbeat of The E Street Band. \u00a0Perhaps that is why no one could quite believe it when he departed the band just before <\/span>Born in the USA <\/span><\/i>was released.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the first things Little Steven turned his attention to after leaving The Boss was the Disciples of Soul. \u00a0Having played a major role in developing the New Jersey Sound, Van Zandt felt the need to take the show on the road and bring that sound to the people. \u00a0He started a record label (Wicked Cool) and a syndicated radio program (<\/span>Little Steven\u2019s Underground Garage<\/span><\/i>) to make sure garage band music would have an outlet. \u00a0Sure, he plays bands far removed from the garage (like the Stones), but he isn\u2019t afraid to spread the gospel according to Little Steven.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Out of the glare of the E Street Band spotlight for a number of years, it was Little Steven\u2019s speech inducting The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that caught the eye of writer-director David Chase. \u00a0Chase wanted Van Zandt to join his soon to be released HBO series in the lead role of Tony in \u00a0<\/span>The Sopranos<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0Carrying a series as the lead didn\u2019t sound like his cup of tea, so Van Zandt more or less invented a secondary character with New Jersey roots much like his own: \u00a0Silvio Dante. \u00a0While the slicked back pompadour Dante sports is a whig, Little Steven\u2019s own hairline is still very much intacted. \u00a0The ever present head covering wasn\u2019t born of baldness like Dwight Yoakam’s omnipresent cowboy hat. \u00a0No, Little Steven\u2019s head coverings began as a way to hide a forehead scarred from a car crash. \u00a0On top of his other commitments, Van Zandt is a prolific writer: \u00a0the Dante character had been adapted from a short story treatment he had previously written and he also wrote, produced and starred in another mob based drama (<\/span>Lilyhammer)<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t \u00a0have any desire to be an actor, so I\u2019ll be forever grateful to David Chase for persuading me otherwise. \u00a0I got a wonderful burst of energy that learning a new craft gives you,\u201d says Van Zandt.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Underground Garage<\/span><\/i> has been syndicated since 2003 with an audience of more than a million listeners on the Sirius network. \u00a0He acts as the executive producer of <\/span>Garage<\/span><\/i> as well as a new program he recently developed for Sirius called <\/span>Outlaw Country<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0Why is he so driven? \u00a0He claims that he has a perfectionist streak in him. \u00a0The best way to not drive everyone nuts is to have enough projects hopping all the time that he doesn\u2019t have time to obsess over the details of any one of them. \u00a0He also likes a challenge: \u00a0\u201cPeople said rock \u2018n roll radio would never work in this day and age, but of course it does. \u00a0Rock \u2018n roll is an endangered species, and I think it\u2019s really important that it continues to exist and be accessible to future generations, \u00a0Hopefully what I\u2019m doing on the radio will continue to live beyond me.\u201d \u00a0Perhaps the free school curriculum developed for his Rock and Roll Forever Foundation will also help keep kids in touch with rock\u2019s historical roots.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If the period after leaving The E Street Band wasn\u2019t busy enough, Van Zandt found himself getting involved in the politics of South Africa and Central America. \u00a0His all-star MTV video <\/span>Sun City<\/span><\/i> made more people aware of the horrors of apartheid through the movement he founded as Artists United Against Apartheid. \u00a0One may not see a direct line from Little Steven, the AUAA, and the release of Nelson Mandela, but the connection is undeniable. \u00a0As Van Zandt says now, \u201cI probably would not have done the South Africa thing had I stayed (with the E Street Band). \u00a0That is likely to be he one accomplishment of my life that means something, so you can also look at it that way. \u00a0While I was sneaking into Soweto for a meeting, hidden under a blanket in the back of a car, the E Street guys were all off buying their mansions.\u201d \u00a0This isn\u2019t a statement offered with any tinge of regret; \u00a0Little Steven doesn\u2019t do \u2018regret\u2019 he just goes on and does his thing(s).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of course, Little Steven has returned to The E Street Band for notable tours up to the present day, but this does not mean the Disciples of Soul are on the back shelf. \u00a0With their first new album out in 18 years called <\/span>Soulfire <\/span><\/i>(their sixth), no doubt the 15 member band will be hitting the road and he is still doing things his own way. \u00a0It is a fair bet that the next turn Little Steven takes won\u2019t be the one everyone expects. \u00a0WOAS will be airing <\/span>Soulfire <\/span><\/i>just as soon as it arrives so stay tuned.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul doing\u00a0Forever<\/em> at the\u00a0Soulfire\u00a0<\/em>album release party in May 2017.