By Matthew Sotlar / The Jambar
Award-winning actor, activist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Steven Van Zandt, visited Youngstown’s Stambaugh Auditorium on March 11 for a private Q&A session with Youngstown State University students as a presenter for the Centofanti Symposium.
Van Zandt, a New Jersey native, was the lead guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band throughout the 1970s and early ’80s. He was also a founding member of both Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, prior to working with Springsteen and embarking on a solo career.
From 1999 to 2006, Van Zandt appeared in the critically acclaimed series “The Sopranos” as Silvio Dante, Tony Soprano’s right-hand man. In addition to music and acting, Van Zandt has worked to raise awareness on apartheid in South Africa, military interference in the U.S. and deforestation.
In a Q&A session with around 20 individuals, Van Zandt answered questions about his music and acting career, with advice to young musicians. On the subject of his early years in music, Van Zandt said he often traveled to New York to hear music from diverse performers.
“On the weekends, I used to go up on the bus to Greenwich Village,” Van Zandt said. “It was an hour on the bus from Jersey, and there was this place called the Cafe Wha? They had bands on Saturday afternoons, about 28 sets. I would go up on Saturdays and see the bands, and they were a year ahead of us from Jersey, and they were evolving very quickly.”
Van Zandt said he first met and befriended Springsteen at Cafe Wha?
“You wanted to try to keep up what was going on, steal what was good and bring it back to your band,” Van Zandt said. “I started running into [Springsteen] doing the same thing, which was still odd, and we became even closer and we started going to the village together on Saturdays, and we became best friends ever since.”
When asked about his career on “The Sopranos,” Van Zandt said he was not a natural actor when he was first approached by series creator David Chase to appear on the show.
“When I started ‘The Sopranos,’ I wasn’t an actor,” Van Zandt said. “It was very odd when David Chase chose me to be in it. I said to him, ‘I feel kind of guilty taking an actor’s job.’ My wife is actually a real actor, she went to school for theater … I knew what happened in the real acting world.”
In order to give Van Zandt an easier transition from musician to actor, Chase created the character of Silvio Dante specifically for Van Zandt to play.
Towards the end of the Q&A, Van Zandt said young musicians should strive for greatness in their works.
“My thing is achieving greatness,” Van Zandt said. “You seek it out — you try and support it as long as you can. I don’t care how hard it is, I don’t care how to get there. If I have to give 100 people credit, I’ll give 100 people credit. What matters is that end result of trying to achieve something as good as it can be.”