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Outlook: Steve Van Zandt on bands, bandanas and Bruce Springsteen

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Steve Van Zandt performs with his guitar on stage with The Disciples of Soul in 2019

02/11/2021 GMT

Steve Van Zandt on bands, bandanas and Bruce Springsteen

BBC World Service - Outlook, Steve Van Zandt on bands, bandanas and Bruce Springsteen

Guitarist Steve Van Zandt tells us why he's been happy being the man behind the boss

Steve Van Zandt on his remarkable life as a musician, political activist, Sopranos actor and lifelong friend of Bruce Spingsteen.

Rock guitarist and actor Steve Van Zandt has had a remarkable life by any measure. After seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show at the age of 13, he immediately knew what he wanted to do with his life. He learned guitar and formed a band, coming into contact with the man he would call The Boss - Bruce Springsteen. Steve tells Anu Anand about his many years as a guitarist for the E Street Band and how he became the man behind The Boss. He also talks about his extraordinary decision to leave the band in 1984 and how it led to him being "reborn" on a different path - that of political activist. After visiting South Africa in 1984 when the country was still living under apartheid, Steve created the movement Artists United Against Apartheid and they released a protest song called Sun City. In the late 1990s Steve's life took yet another turn when he took on the role of Silvio Dante in the hit TV show The Sopranos - a role in which, once again, he was the man behind the boss. Steve's memoir is called "Unrequited Infatuations".

The clip you heard came from The Ed Sullivan Show, broadcast on 9th February 1964, and produced by CBS, Ed Sullivan, Bob Precht and directors Tim Kiley and John Moffitt.  

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Anu Anand
Producer: June Christie

Picture: Steve Van Zandt performs on stage with The Disciples of Soul in 2019  
Credit: Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images

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