Background and career
Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He has appeared in several television drama series, including as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos (1999–2007) and as Frank Tagliano/Giovanni "Johnny" Henriksen in Lilyhammer (2012–2014). Van Zandt has his own solo band called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, intermittently active since the 1980s. In 2014, Van Zandt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. He has produced music, written songs, and had his own songs covered by Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Gary U.S. Bonds, Meat Loaf, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Nancy Sinatra, Pearl Jam, Southside Johnny, Artists United Against Apartheid, and the Iron City Houserockers, among others.
Van Zandt was born Steven Lento on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to Mary Henrietta Lento and Vince Borello, and raised in Watertown, Massachusetts. He has Italian ancestry; one grandfather was from Calabria and one grandmother's parents were from Naples. His mother remarried in 1957, and he took the last name of his stepfather, William Brewster Van Zandt. Actor Billy Van Zandt is Van Zandt's half-brother and actress Adrienne Barbeau is his ex-sister-in-law. He also has a half-sister named Kathi, who is a writer. When he was seven, the family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jersey. Van Zandt found his love for music at an early age, when he learned how to play the guitar. He watched the performances of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and the Rolling Stones on Hollywood Palace in 1964, and referred to the former as "The Big Bang of Rock n' Roll". He said that when he was 13, George Harrison was his favorite Beatle, and he later became friends with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Around August 1964, Van Zandt formed his first band, the Whirlwinds, which was short-lived. He later formed the Mates in 1965 and joined the Shadows in May 1966. He has cited British Invasion bands such as the Dave Clark Five, as well as Ravi Shankar and the culture of India, as early influences. Van Zandt attended Middletown High School in Middletown Township, New Jersey, where he was expelled after refusing to cut his long hair. He later returned to school in 1968, largely to appease his mother. As a teenager, he was involved in a car accident that caused his head to go through the windshield, leaving several scars. To cover this up, he began wearing hats, and later, large bandanas, which has become his characteristic look.
Van Zandt grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend of Bruce Springsteen, before the formation of the E Street Band. The two first met when Springsteen was at the Hullabaloo club in Middletown, New Jersey, and heard Van Zandt performing "Happy Together" with the Shadows. They performed together in bands such as Steel Mill and the Bruce Springsteen Band. During the early 1970s, Van Zandt worked in road construction for two years before returning to show business. In 1973, Van Zandt toured with the Dovells. The tour ended in Miami on December 31, 1974, with Dick Clark's Good Old Rock 'n' Roll Show at the Deauville Star Theater. After returning to New Jersey, Van Zandt continued wearing Hawaiian shirts because he did not particularly like winter, which was how he got the nickname "Miami Steve".
Van Zandt co-founded Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, in addition to the Miami Horns, who got their name from Van Zandt's nickname. He helped establish the rhythm and blues oriented style of music that the band performed. He also produced Southside Johnny's first three albums. Van Zandt wrote the bulk of the group's music, contributing substantially to its success.
Van Zandt then started to switch between writing for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and touring with the E Street Band. He confirmed in an interview on The Howard Stern Show that he arranged the horns on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" in 1975 when Springsteen was at a loss, earning him a spot in the E Street Band shortly thereafter. In the Wings For Wheels documentary, Springsteen revealed that Van Zandt was partially responsible for the signature guitar line in "Born to Run," described as "Arguably Steve's greatest contribution to my music." Ultimately, Van Zandt officially joined the E Street Band on July 20, 1975, during the first show of the Born to Run Tour. In those early years, Van Zandt supplied a great deal of the lead guitar work for the band in concert, as can be seen on the 1975 concert DVD within Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition (later released as the CD Hammersmith Odeon London '75). In 1983 , shortly before the start of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Van Zandt left the E Street Band to further his solo career. Despite leaving the band, he appeared as a special guest at several concerts in 1984 and 1985, and appeared in the music video for "Glory Days". Van Zandt later returned to the E Street Band since 1999. By this time, his guitar playing had mostly been reduced to a background rhythm role, due to Nils Lofgren's position in the band and his capability as a lead guitarist. In addition, Springsteen had begun taking many more guitar solos as his music became more guitar-centered. Van Zandt said on the Howard Stern Show that he is okay with being second in command, especially since he has been in charge before with his solo music and his role in Lilyhammer. Among E Street Band members, Van Zandt often had the second-most "face time" in concert after Clarence Clemons, frequently mugging and posing for the audience and sometimes delivering his unpolished, nasal backing vocals while sharing a microphone with Springsteen. His playing or singing is most prominently featured on the songs "Glory Days", "Two Hearts", "Long Walk Home", which featured a Van Zandt outro vocal solo during live performances "Land of Hope and Dreams", "Badlands", "Ramrod", and "Murder Incorporated", among others like the live versions of "Rosalita". He often trades vocals with Springsteen in live versions of "Prove It All Night". He features prominently in the video for "Glory Days", sharing the spotlight with Springsteen and Nils Lofgren during the choruses, while swapping lines with them during the (non)fade, and in live versions he does the same.
Van Zandt became a songwriter and producer for fellow Jersey shore act Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in 1974, penning their signature song "I Don't Want to Go Home", co-writing other songs for them with Springsteen, and producing their most-acclaimed record, Hearts of Stone. As such, Van Zandt became a key contributor to the Jersey Shore sound. He also produced two Gary U.S. Bonds albums. Van Zandt then went on to share production credits on the classic Springsteen albums The River and Born in the U.S.A. The first Springsteen song he co-produced was "Hungry Heart." In 1989, Jackson Browne covered the 1983 Van Zandt composition "I Am A Patriot" on his World in Motion album. Van Zandt has produced a number of other records, including an uncredited effort on the Iron City Houserockers' Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive). Less successful was his work on Lone Justice's second album Shelter, which was a career-ending flop for the Los Angeles cowpunk band. In 1989, Van Zandt wrote "While You Were Looking at Me" for Michael Monroe's album Not Fakin' It and co-wrote video hits "Dead, Jail or Rock'n Roll" and "Smoke Screen". He was an arranger and backing vocalist for a few songs on the album. In 1992, he produced Austin, Texas-based Arc Angels' debut album. In 1991 Van Zandt produced a successful album, Spirit of Love, for Nigerian superstar and reggae icon, Majek Fashek. In 1992, he wrote and produced "All Alone on Christmas" for the soundtrack of the Chris Columbus film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which yielded singer Darlene Love her first hit since "A Fine, Fine Boy" from 1963, thirty-one years earlier. In 1994, Van Zandt produced the eponymous debut album of the punk rock band Demolition 23 which featured ex-Hanoi Rocks members Michael Monroe and Sami Yaffa. He co-wrote six songs for the album with Monroe and Jude Wilder. In 1995, Van Zandt aided Meat Loaf with the song "Amnesty Is Granted" off of his Welcome to the Neighborhood album. In 2004, he contributed the song "Baby Please Don't Go" to Nancy Sinatra's self-titled album.
