Bruce Springsteen Forum

'Sopranos' star touts garage rock

By PATRICK DOUGLAS
Tribune Staff Writer

There's a buzz coming from the underground garage and Little Steven is right in the middle of it.

Fed up with the way radio was headed, Steve Van Zandt — aka Little Steven — decided to put together his own radio show featuring what many believe to be the best cuts of rock and roll from every era. What started out as a two-hour, syndicated show has turned into a 24-hour-a-day channel on Sirius satellite radio.

"Basically two-thirds of my show is the entire 60 years of rock and roll and that had never been done before," said Van Zandt in a phone interview with the Tribune from New York City. "Everybody said it wouldn't work and I thought 'maybe it will work.'

"I think cool is timeless and I'm gonna prove it."
Van Zandt has been performing music for nearly 40 years, most notably as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Recognizable by the bandana he has sported for years, Van Zandt has been playing guitar with Springsteen since 1969, when the two were part of the band Steel Mill.

But his big leap into the mainstream spotlight didn't come until 1999 when he landed the role of mob consigliere Silvio Dante in the hit HBO series "The Sopranos." It was that sudden rise in fame that initially prompted Van Zandt to pursue his dream radio show.

"Basically you have more celebrity capital at certain times and I basically took mine and said 'what do you want to do with it?' Because it's limited," Van Zandt explained. "I'd listen to the radio and I'd say to myself, 'I'm not hearing my favorite songs anymore and I'm not hearing the songs that I feel are important.'"

The elimination of the '50s and '60s rock and roll from playlists across the country was Van Zandt's breaking point.

"OK, you have nothing left that's actually meaningful in terms of what's resonating in our culture and until they invent new instruments. The '50s and '60s are gonna remain the two most important decades," Van Zandt said. "How do you have access to them? Well, you don't."

Living in New York City in the late '90s, Van Zandt witnessed a revival of garage rock through younger bands like the Strokes and White Stripes and noticed that no one was paying attention at the time.

"There's a whole new generation, a whole new rebirth of rock and roll going on out there called garage rock," Van Zandt said of his frustrations before starting his radio show seven years ago. "Nobody's supporting it. Not one single record company is signing it, and not one single radio station is playing it."

At any given time on "Little Steven's Underground Garage," channel 25 on Sirius, you'll hear obscure classic tunes from bands like Iggy and the Stooges, The Yardbirds, The Ramones, Elvis or even The Beatles with more modern bands like Pearl Jam, Green Day and the Strokes mixed in. Narrowing down a playlist was initially a daunting.

"I started basically writing down all the songs I wanted to make sure get played and before I knew it, it was 3,000 songs," Van Zandt said. "I'm playing 25 songs a week, so I'm like, what do I do with the other 2,000-whatever?"

Realizing that two hours a week wasn't nearly enough time to accomplish his mission, Van Zandt sought out a 24-hour platform.

"I couldn't get anybody to dedicate 24 hours to it, so that's why I went to Sirius," Van Zandt said,

Van Zandt also has gotten more involved in producing records and has created Wicked Cool Records, a company that puts out compilation disks with classic mixes. He's also signing and recording new bands.

"We've introduced 165 new bands in the past five years (but) we can't find 'em all," Van Zandt said.

The guitarist also is looking to educate youngsters in the importance of rock and roll history by bringing a tour to high schools across the country.

"I feel like I wanna reach people younger," he said. "Right now, I'm writing a high school rock and roll curriculum and if that works out, I'm meeting with a bunch of teachers associations over the next couple of months. (Kids aren't) getting a chance to hear real rock and roll and see it. I think it's important."

As the final season of "The Sopranos" wraps up in June, Van Zandt reflects on the pleasure of playing one of the series' key characters.

"I had a great time and it's been a wonderful experience for me," he said. "Ten years of your life is a big chunk. That's how long that I've been with these guys and they've been a wonderful new bunch of friends and a wonderful new family, no pun intended."

The biggest surprise for Van Zandt has been the consistently positive reviews.

"I've never seen reviews like this in my life," he said. "It's just been amazing from the beginning. 'The greatest show ever' and this and that, it's just been a wonderful thing to be a part of."

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