{"id":487901,"date":"2019-07-11T12:19:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=857720"},"modified":"2019-07-11T12:19:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:19:21","slug":"the-first-time-steven-van-zandt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/the-first-time-steven-van-zandt\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Time: Steven Van Zandt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Van Zandt<\/a> reflects on his early days as a musician, the first time he met and performed with Bruce Springsteen<\/a> and portraying his beloved character Silvio Dante on the Sopranos<\/a><\/em> in the latest installment of \u201cThe First Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Zandt traces the first time he played guitar to 1963, when his grandfather showed him a song from his village in Calabria, Italy. He notes this was a year before the Beatles made their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. \u201c<\/em>So I got a little bit of a jump on everybody,\u201d he cracks. Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cLike a Rolling Stone\u201d was the first song Van Zandt sang live, in the summer of 1965 with his first band, the Shadows. \u201cIt must have been okay,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIf I got booed, I probably would have gotten a legitimate job by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Editorial<\/p>\n

Steve Van Zandt in \u201cThe Sopranos.\u201d Photo by Hbo\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He fondly remembers the first time he met Bruce Springsteen. \u201cWe hit it off right away,\u201d he says, smiling. He points out that not many bands existed before the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, so anyone in a band was automatically friends. \u201cIt was also weird to have long hair,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you had long hair, you were friends. If you had long hair and you were in a band, you were best friends \u2014 which was the case with us.\u201d Van Zandt chuckles, summarizing he and Springsteen\u2019s close bond: \u201cWe were the only two guys that considered rock and roll to be everything, and that was a weird way to be back then, \u2019cause it wasn\u2019t a legitimate business yet. It was still this bizarre teenage obsession that most kids grew out of \u2026 only we never grew out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Zandt tells the origins of his nickname, Little Steven. He discusses characters he had in his previous bands, such as the Miami Horns. He compares the E Street Band<\/a> to a rock and roll version of the Rat Pack. \u201cI was the Dean Martin character, the party guy. Of course, Bruce was Frank [Sinatra] and Clarence was Sammy [Davis Jr.] on steroids.\u201d Van Zandt\u2019s early musical inspirations were Little Anthony, Little Walter and Little Richard \u2014 who would eventually officiate Van Zandt\u2019s wedding in 1982.<\/p>\n

For getting into character as Silvio Dante in the Sopranos, Van Zandt wrote a biography on the mobster, detailing his history to make it feel as authentic as possible. Sporting a 1950s haircut, Dante was nostalgic for the early mafia days. \u201cI went and found out where John Gotti had his clothes made\u2026I felt if I could look in the mirror and see the guy, I could be the guy.\u201d He recalls meeting James Gandolfini<\/a> on the first read-through and how welcoming he was to Van Zandt, who had never acted before. \u201cI really miss him every day,\u201d he says, pausing to reflect. \u201cWe were very close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the interview, Van Zandt details the first time he played with Paul McCartney<\/a> \u2014 when the Beatle joined Springsteen and the E Street Band onstage in London\u2019s Hyde Park in 2012, the historic show where London officials pulled the plug<\/a> after the musicians played past curfew. However, Van Zandt\u2019s highlight was when McCartney joined him onstage<\/a> with his band Disciples of Soul in 2017. \u201cHim coming on my stage, endorsing me and my music\u2026that was big. This is the guy without whom I would not be doing this. For him to validate you\u2026I must be doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Van Zandt reflects on his early days as a musician, the first time he met and performed with Bruce Springsteen and portraying his beloved character Silvio Dante on the Sopranos in the latest installment of \u201cThe First Time.\u201d Van Zandt traces the first time he played guitar to 1963, when his grandfather showed him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-487901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 20:28:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}