Bruce Springsteen Forum

Vini 'Mad Dog' Lopez keeps the beat alive

Back in the day, one didn't just amble up onstage and play with Steel Mill.

"Our songs were all epics,'' said drummer Vini "Mad Dog'' Lopez. "They were all
different jams. Guys would want to play along with you, but you're not going to follow what we were doing. You couldn't do a 1-4-5 (chord) progression and you couldn't watch fingers on a guitar and then play along.

"Steel Mill had great players and it still does.''

Steel Mill is the former Asbury Park band fronted by Bruce Springsteen with future E Street members Danny Federici, Steven Van Zandt and Lopez onboard. The band rocked the Jersey Shore and the parts beyond from 1969 to early '71. But far from the rock associated with the E Street Band in the later '70s, the music of Steel Mill was a progressive hard-rock sound that almost veered into heavy metal.

These days, Lopez of Jackson keeps the spirit of the band alive by fronting his Steel Mill Retro. The band … also Eddie Piersanti, bass; John Galella, guitar and vocals; Adam Glenn, keyboards, and Steve Lusardi, B3 organ … is set to play on Saturday at the Record Collector in Bordentown.

But don't think it's all heavy stuff.

"It's not just hard rock we do,'' Lopez said. "We do a lot of different things. One
minute we'll be playing rock, and another minute we'll play country.''

The group's most recent release is "All Man the Guns for America,'' which features the Springsteen-penned title track. Visit steelmillretro.com for more information.

Lopez, who departed the E Street Band on the eve of "Born to Run,'' will sometimes join his former Boss onstage … most recently at the Spectrum in Philadelphia in 2009.

Any disagreements with E Street Band members … including Clarence Clemons, who wrote of a physical confrontation he had with Lopez in his 2009 book "Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales,'' … are in the past, Lopez said.

A mellower Mad Dog is looking forward to a future playing the music of Steel Mill Retro and is exploring a tour of Europe with this band.

"I feel good about it,'' Lopez said. "We're playing a little more, and we're working on going to Italy and France.''