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American Morning
Talk With Multitalented Steven Van Zandt
Aired April 05, 2002 - 08:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN VAN ZANDT, MUSICIAN/ACTOR: The word is your uncle junior is going to whack Cosee Moligno (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you probably know him as Silvio, Tony Sopranos' consigliere in the hugely successfully HBO television series "The Sopraons." No matter how big he gets there, he will always be little Steven to the legion of fans who came to know him as guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
And Steven Van Zandt is about to talk on yet another role, his nationally syndicated radio show, "Little Steven's Underground Garage," will premiere across the country on Sunday Thursday night, the first broadcast coming to us live from the Hard Rock Cafe here in New York City. The multitalented Steven Van Zandt joins us on AMERICAN MORNING.
This has to be a labor of love. It's not like you're short of stuff to do, right?
VAN ZANDT: Yes. I kind of missed the radio I grew up with a little bit.
CAFFERTY: When you talk about the radio you grew up with, you talk about something called garage music, garage bands. What are you talking about?
VAN ZANDT: It's that back to basics guitar-oriented rock 'n' roll that is associated with the 60's, you know. The fun part is there's a lot of new bands playing that music now. What I'll be doing centers around what we call the British invasion of the '60s, Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Yardbirds.
CAFFERTY: The Stones were a garage band?
VAN ZANDT: They are -- absolutely right. They are the architect garage band, still are, man. It's great that they're still out there doing it.
CAFFERTY: You talk about the fact that everybody who plugged in an electric amplifier in a guitar back in the '60s wanted to be a star, and you say they didn't mean to be off tune and sloppy, they just were.
VAN ZANDT: People think they have to be out of tune or a little bit sloppy.
CAFFERTY: Didn't happen on purpose.
VAN ZANDT: No, that wasn't the intention back then. They all wanted to make it, and they were great.
CAFFERTY: You claim you can hear so-called garage music. You listen to a track, you can pick it up, but there's a spirit, there's something in the music. What is it? How do you define it?
VAN ZANDT: It's hard to define, it is. If you talk to 20 different people, you get 20 different definitions. For me, there's a certain direct relationship to the '60s first of all. They skipped the last couple of decades and listened to what I call the masters, you know, those people we mentioned, Beatles and Rolling Stones and guys like that, and it's a little bit more raw. There's no machine, there's no synthesizers. It's not even hard rock. It's not that wall of sound, you know, distorted guitar either. There is a little more texture to it, a little more tone, a little more personality, I think.
CAFFERTY: And you know it when you hear it?
VAN ZANDT: Yes, I do. At least I'm going to pretend I do, and I'm going to do my definition of it on my radio show.
CAFFERTY: It's a weekly show, two hours. You producing it yourself? You obviously would have a hand in it.
VAN ZANDT: Yes, my producer is Dan Near (ph), who has had the longest running syndicated show on radio called "Up Close," for many years. He's actually the producer, and I'm picking up a the songs and doing all that stuff.
CAFFERTY: The first broadcast from the Hard Rock on Sunday night, 5-7. Can the public come to that thing?
VAN ZANDT: No, it's mostly been contest winners from around the country and stuff like that. Actually, there will be some public getting in, but the broadcast, we'll be doing early and then rebroadcast at the proper time, at 10:00.
CAFFERTY: Will The Boss perhaps stop by?
VAN ZANDT: Well, he might. I don't know. I invited him.
CAFFERTY: How does a guitar picker from the E Street Band wind up as the consigliere to Tony Soprano on arguably the best cable television dramatic series maybe ever?
VAN ZANDT: It's one of those weird Hollywood stories I wouldn't believe if it didn't happen to me. I mean, David Chase just called me.
CAFFERTY: Out of the blue?
VAN ZANDT: Yes, really Out of the blue. Yes, he's a big music fan. He really followed my solo career.
CAFFERTY: It's one thing to understand the E Street Band and music, and it's another thing to see how you work in this role in this show. I mean, that's a leap of faith.
VAN ZANDT: I agree with you. I agree with you.
CAFFERTY: But it's working big time.
VAN ZANDT: It is working, and I'm very glad he called. It's a great group of people to work with. So it's been a whole second life for me.
CAFFERTY: You're shooting the season right now, you're in production to the season.
VAN ZANDT: Yes, we're about halfway through. We'll go into June, and new ones will be on in September.
CAFFERTY: Is the band in the studio? Are you doing anything?
VAN ZANDT: Not officially, no. There's been some rumors but, no.
CAFFERTY: You can share it with me. You can tell all your secrets.
VAN ZANDT: Well, just between me, no, nothing official going on.
CAFFERTY: All right. I wish you success with the radio program. If your previous incarnations in the E Street Band and on "The Sopranos" are any precedent, it will be a giant, because you ain't missed in a while. The program is called "Underground Garage."
VAN ZANDT: "Little Steven's Underground Garage."
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