While talking about his acting career in ‘The Soprano’s’ in an interview with Music Radar, Steven Van Zandt admitted that he was inspired by his relationship with Bruce Springsteen while developing his character, Silvio Dante. He described his relationship with the icon by stating that the only thing he envies about Springsteen is that he scares everybody.
Steven and Bruce’s friendship began when E Street Band became the singer’s backing band. Steven Van Zandt was probably the most remembered and prominent member of the band, who had special banters and humorous actions on stage with Springsteen. He then established a solo career and eventually an acting career with his TV show, ‘The Sopranos.’
In a recent interview with Music Radar, Steven talked about Bruce and revealed the only thing he envies about the icon which was his ability to scare everybody. He went on to say that the only person who wasn’t scared of Bruce was himself because he believed in honesty in friendship. If there was a problem that needed to be told, he would take the role on himself and accept that Bruce might be angry and lash towards him after hearing the bad news.
Here is how he stated his envy towards Bruce Springsteen:
“Honesty is part of the obligation of friendship, I do sincerely believe that. To do this day, I’m probably the only guy in the world not afraid of Bruce Springsteen. Believe me, it’s the one thing I envy about him: he has this wonderful, wonderful ability to scare the hell out of everybody!
I did feel back then that it was the obligation of friendship, of the best friend, if you will, to sometimes deliver the bad news because no one else is going to do it. And, of course, you’ve got to take the heat – no one likes hearing bad news, and they’re going to, at first, be angry with the messenger. Then later, on thinking about it, they’re going to realize it was really the message, not the messenger, but you’ve got to say to yourself, ‘Hey, if you’re going to be somebody’s friend and not just be some guy hanging around, you’ve got to do it.’”
Steven continued to give more information about his relationship with the rockstar. Since he wouldn’t be shy to give him bad news, Bruce would lash out at him often, and apparently, there was this dynamic between the two musicians for a long time. Although it might seem exhausting, this inspired Steven for his role in The Sopranos.
He stated this inspiration as follows:
“We took that relationship right into The Sopranos, by the way, and we used it. There are scenes where Silvio is telling Tony Soprano something he doesn’t want to hear, and Tony goes off on him, you know? It was the same schtick. I’d written a biography of that relationship where I had Silvio and Tony growing up together and basically used my relationship with Bruce in that fictitious biography.”
Bruce Springsteen grew his career by gaining respect from many musicians all over the world. He is also known as ‘The Boss,’ which gives out ‘mafia’ vibes, but in reality, he was given that name for distributing their salary equally amongst the band members including himself.
