Steven van Zandt (born November 22, 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American musician, actor, and radio disk jockey. His is most known as one of the founding members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band where he plays guitar and mandolin. In addition he is an accomplished songwriter, arranger, and producer, notably for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes .

Van Zandt frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve.

He left the E Street Band in 1984 (Springsteen's song "Bobby Jean" partly describes this split) and has been involved in numerous musical projects and collaborations since then, ranging from soul music to hard rock.

Always active in political causes, in 1985 he created the music-industry activist group Artists United Against Apartheid as an action against the Sun City resort in South Africa. Forty-nine top recording artists, including Springsteen, Bono, Bob Dylan and Run DMC, collaborated on a song called "Sun City" in which they pledged they would never perform at the resort.

Van Zandt returned to the E Street Band when it was reformed in 1999 and remains with it.

In 1999 he took a regular acting role in the television drama The Sopranos, playing mob consigliere Silvio Dante.

Starting in 2002 he hosts Little Steven's Underground Garage, a syndicated radio show that celebrates garage rock and similar rock sub-genres.

Discography

• 1982 Men Without Women
• 1984 Voice of America
• 1987 Freedom - No Compromise
• 1989 Revolution
• 1999 Born Again Savage
• 1999 Greatest Hits

External links

• Official website