Van Zandt was born on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and moved with his family to Middletown Township in New Jersey at the age of seven. When he was older he connected with the Jersey Shore music scene, through which he was able to hook up with Bruce Springsteen. Van Zandt arranged the now-famous horn into on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," a track on Springsteen’s Born to Run album. After joining the E Street Band, Van Zandt did a lot of lead guitar work for them in concerts, and later hooked up with the Jersey Shore group Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, writing and producing songs for them. He ended up collaborating with a number of different Jersey Shore artists and acts.
After splitting from the E Street Band in 1984, Van Zandt embarked on a number of solo music projects of varying genres, releasing four albums during the 80s and a fifth in 1999, the most successful of which was his solo debut Men Without Women in 1982, dubbed a "white soul" album, as well as its follow-up two years later, Voice of America. His later albums were not considered commercial successes, and hardly attracted much attention.
Van Zandt became very political through his music, and in 1985 he created the activist group Artists United Against Apartheid, established strictly in protest against South Africa’s Sun City resort. The group included artists such as Bob Dylan, U2, and Run DMC, among many others. In the later 1990s, Van Zandt joined up with the E Street Band again, and today is still a member, even though his role has been reduced to background rhythm rather than lead since the induction of Nils Lofgren, as well as Springsteen and Clarence Clemons dominating the stage more.
1999 was a big year for Van Zandt, as he landed the role of mob adviser and strip-club owner Silvio Dante, one of the lead roles in what would become a critically acclaimed series lasting for almost eight years—The Sopranos. As he had no previous acting experience to give him any credit, Van Zandt was selected by creator David Chase purely for his "interesting look." Van Zandt co-stars alongside James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, Edie Falco as Tony’s wife Carmela, as well as Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, Robert Iler, Tony Sirico, and many others.
Van Zandt has also enjoyed "mini" careers as a radio host (most notably of Little Steven’s Underground Garage since 2002), and as a radio program director, mostly for two channels—Underground Garage and Outlaw Country—on the Sirius Satellite Radio network, and he’s also executive producer of the network’s Wiseguy Show, featuring host Vincent Pastore, who played the now-whacked Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpenseiro on The Sopranos.
Recently on the music scene, Van Zandt gathered together several big-name artists such as Little Richard, Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Charlie Daniles, Bootsy Collins, and Rick Nielson and directed the group as a back-up to Hank Williams Jr for a rendition of "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" for Monday Night Football’’s season premiere in September of 2006.
YUDDY
