{"id":330019,"date":"2025-08-09T07:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T07:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/330019\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T07:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T07:50:14","slug":"steven-van-zandts-tales-of-paul-mccartney-keith-richards-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/330019\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Van Zandt\u2019s tales of Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although he\u2019s indelibly associated with the E Street Band there\u2019s far more to Steven Van Zandt<\/a> \u2013 aka Little Steven, aka Miami Steve \u2013 than that famous bandana-clad association with his oldest friend Bruce Springsteen<\/a>. This veteran of the Jersey Shore bar-band scene, a self- confessed R&B\/punk\/British Invasion nutter, has also hit paydirt with his solo work, including the acclaimed Born Again Savage, and a string of albums with The Disciples Of Soul.<\/p>\n

A man of conscience \u2013 he was the steering force behind the 1985 Artists United Against Apartheid, which resulted in the Sun City album \u2013 an all-star affair featuring The Boss, U2, the Rolling Stones<\/a>, Bob Dylan<\/a>, Run DMC and dozens more. In the 21st century he turned his attentions to his own radio show \u2013 Little Steven\u2019s Underground Garage \u2013 and spin-off label Wicked Cool Records. Plus, he played Silvio Dante in The Sopranos, so he\u2019s mingled with the good, the bad, and the ugly ones in between.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2009, the bandana\u2019d one sat down with Classic Rock to look back over an eventful career.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\"Classic<\/p>\n

Jimi Hendrix<\/p>\n

I never met Jimi Hendrix<\/a>, but I was lucky enough to see him play four times. The closest I\u2019ve come to his company in a more intimate sense is that my wife Maureen went out with Mitch Mitchell for a while \u2013 as in she was his girlfriend \u2013 so that\u2019s a relationship twice removed. And I\u2019d better not go into further personal details! Except to say, what a magnificent drummer Mitch was.<\/p>\n

As for those concerts \u2013 I saw Hendrix the first time in a little cafeteria at a college in New Jersey when he got back home after making his career in London, so thanks for that Britain. Then I saw him at the now defunct Singer Bowl in Corona Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, NYC in 1968. I also saw him unveil the Band Of Gypsies, on New Year\u2019s night, with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox, which was kinda jazzy and loose, but great. That was 1969 which I believe was their debut show. Jimi was only around for a few years; it\u2019s amazing what his legacy became.<\/p>\n

Brian Wilson<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This feature was originally published in Classic Rock issue 138<\/strong> (Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

When I started the Underground Garage radio show as host and programme director in 2002, I consciously decided I didn\u2019t want to find guests and ask them to appear every week. We\u2019ve had a few however and their contributions have always been spontaneous. I find them through mutual friends or just because they happen to be in town.<\/p>\n

Brian Wilson<\/a> turned up via a mutual acquaintance and this guy told me it was the longest he\u2019d ever spent with anyone since the 60s. Brian suffers badly from Attention Deficit Disorder, which I also do. He has trouble concentrating, or relating to others for long, but he was totally coherent and together when he co-hosted a two-hour show with me.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

I figured he\u2019d walk out at any time so I tried to get him off on odd things he\u2019d done which don\u2019t get aired anymore. We played Farmer\u2019s Daughter and Cherry, Cherry Coupe, real weird Beach Boys<\/a> oddities. And he loved every minute of it, although maybe not as much as I did! A real legend.<\/p>\n

Ringo Starr<\/p>\n

Name drop time! Ringo I\u2019ve known off and on for many years. I knew him before he quit drinking and y\u2019know he could be a touchy guy. Mood swinger. Then he cleaned up his act one day just like that and became the nicest guy in the world.<\/p>\n

He has a good memory for background details; he\u2019s kind of an unpublished Beatles<\/a> historian in a way. He\u2019s come back on the show several times. Once we had a conversation about the early days of Rory Storm And The Hurricanes and how it was all about the cowboy thing in Liverpool, the C&W names, the Chet Atkins licks. He told me he was going to emigrate when that band were demoing because they didn\u2019t look close to a deal. He was desperately trying to go to the States. He wanted to live in Texas and become a cowboy. The trouble was he was dyslexic: because he was so sick as a kid he never went to school and therefore he couldn\u2019t fill out the official forms. That was the only reason why he didn\u2019t emigrate, which was funny. Talk about fucking destiny, or karma. I believe his next band did alright.<\/p>\n

\"Steven<\/p>\n

Steven Van Zandt with Paul McCartney and comedian Chris Rock in 2024 (Image credit: Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Disney)Paul McCartney<\/p>\n

I had a conversation with him on his channel on Absolute Radio via satellite when he put out his new Fireman record. He\u2019d got himself a channel for a month just to promote that. It was quite an honour for me because he wanted to have a couple of casual conversations with someone in the radio business and he chose me. I only knew him to say hello, we\u2019d never talked face to face, but we spoke for an hour and he was amazing. The thing I realised was I had to get some distance. I couldn\u2019t come over like a starry-eyed 13-year-old kid with a bunch of Beatles records. I had to remove myself because I wouldn\u2019t have been able to speak. Luckily he spoke enough for us both and played some of the best rock\u2019n\u2019roll music I\u2019d heard in years.<\/p>\n

Ray Davies<\/p>\n

We talked about everything. I love The Kinks<\/a> \u2013 they are one of the big seven bands of the British Invasion. I said to him that I saw his singing style as unique. The more I went back to listen, the more unusually conversational it sounded. So I said: \u2018It occurs to me you got your style\u2026 ahem\u2026 or it seems similar to, the vocal on Louie Louie by The Kingsmen. Specifically Jack Ely\u2019. Incidentally, The drummer\u2019s mother trademarked The Kingsmen name for her son\u2019s benefit just before the record was breaking. So they made the original or proper singer Jack Ely play the drums! Obviously he quit.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I said \u2013 \u2018Ray you sound similar!\u2019 and of course, The Kinks did Louie Louie in their early set. He said it might be that, but it was just as much the fact he was in a Latino\/R&B group called the Dave Hunt Blues<\/a> Band that did a lot of samba and calypso things with a Trinidadian singer. In fact, he sounds quite black to the American ear, as if he\u2019s singing a kind of patois.<\/p>\n

He also talked about his relationship with his brother, Dave. Ray had been with Hunt then when he left to form The Kinks. His brother had become a better guitarist than him, so he started slicing up his amp speakers with a razor blade.<\/p>\n

Jack Black<\/p>\n

Jack Black was promoting School Of Rock which is quite a funny film \u2013 not his best though, he\u2019s a funny very guy. He wrote a theme song that went \u2018Let me take you down to the Underground Garage\u2026\u2019 to the tune of Strawberry Fields which he improvised throughout my show. He was also my first co-host. He spun a few classics from the Ramones<\/a> and The Who<\/a>, plus a few of his own. It was a real honour because Tenacious D were a big influence on me growing up\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Steven<\/p>\n

Steven Van Zandt with Keith Richards in 2001 (Image credit: Evan Agostini \/ ImageDirect)Pete Townshend and Keith Richards<\/p>\n

During the making of Sun City, Pete Townshend<\/a> and Keith Richards<\/a> were great allies. Pete couldn\u2019t have been more helpful. He took us to his studio at Eel Pie where he put the guitar on a couple of takes and off he went. Keith ended up cutting the Bono song Silver And Gold with Ronnie Wood, Steve Jordan and Peter Wolf from The J. Geils Band. I think Daryl Hannah and Daryl Hall are in there too. Plus Keith gave me my first ID for the radio show and Ringo gave me the second \u2013 this was even before it was on, so they didn\u2019t know whether it would be any good or successful. You never forget that kind of graciousness.<\/p>\n

Lou Reed<\/p>\n

Lou is a character; he\u2019s a piece of work for sure. A New York City legend. He\u2019s hard to get next to, he\u2019s just an odd guy who doesn\u2019t seem to want to be close or friendly, so I don\u2019t want to hang out with him. He has his own space \u2013 you feel like you\u2019re building a rapport, then he turns on his heel. I guess he doesn\u2019t suffer fools gladly.<\/p>\n

Miles Davis<\/p>\n

The scariest encounter of the Sun City project had to be Miles Davis. I wrote the intro for him to play and he is the scariest individual I\u2019ve ever met \u2013 not that I\u2019ve seen, that\u2019s definitely Howlin\u2019 Wolf \u2013 but Miles was extremely frightening. He\u2019s just not friendly. He makes Lou Reed look like a pussycat, Hari Krishna guy next door. Oh my God. The fact that he showed up at all was a real miracle.<\/p>\n

He came in, sat down and I played him the Silver And Gold tape. He\u2019s sitting next to me and he turns to me, and he talks real low and slow, and right in my ear: \u201cHey man do you want me to fucking play or what?\u201d So he does his take, and I asked him to re-do it with the mute on. I went and reassembled his old quintet with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Fact was he was into the concept. Once people knew about the repulsive and blatant nature of South Africa: which was \u201cWe are gonna have slavery and you can\u2019t do a fucking thing about it\u201d, then I guess Miles agreed with me. \u201cYeah you muthafucker, we\u2019ll see about that.\u201d Maybe that\u2019s all we had in common, but it
was enough.<\/p>\n

Freddie King<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s a case. Doing the Sun City album I met about 50 of my heroes, which did make me nervous. I avoided that for years because it worries me. If your hero turns out to be an asshole what are you gonna do? It affects you. I went to see the Rolling Stones at Convention Hall in Asbury Park with a few friends years ago and afterwards they wanted to go to the hotel to get their autographs.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to go to this smart Berkeley Ocean Front place but we tripped down the hallways like a bunch of kids. One of us noticed that Freddie King who had opened the show had his door ajar so my friend pushed me inside and said: \u201cLet\u2019s go in and meet him\u2019\u201d. Like a fool I asked, \u201cCould we have your autograph?\u201d He picks up a pillow off his bed, and underneath is a big fucking .45 which he grabs and gives me a fucking dirty look and tells me where to get off. To this day I don\u2019t play any Freddie King licks. I won\u2019t play his songs. See it does matter \u2013 heroes can let you down.<\/p>\n

This feature was originally published in Classic Rock <\/a>issue 138<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although he\u2019s indelibly associated with the E Street Band there\u2019s far more to Steven Van Zandt \u2013 aka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-330019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114997718319067312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}