Steven Van Zandt talks Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Were not just getting older were getting better

When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band reunited in a New Jersey music room in 2023, Little Stevie says the vibe was a little different.“It took an extra minute because usually we don’t rehearse at all,” guitarist Steven Van Zandt told me during a chat with Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau.“We get together for two or three days just to kind of say ‘hello’ to each other again.”But this time, it had been more than six years since the group last toured. And during that unusually long hiatus from the road, Bruce, 75, got deep with his hit bio-show “Springsteen on Broadway” at the St.James and Barrymore Theater, there’d been a grind-to-a-halt pandemic and new faces joined the fray.“So we actually did have to rehearse,” Van Zandt, 73, said.

“I don’t know what it was altogether.Two weeks at the most.”While the E Street Band worked out the kinks, they were joined by veteran documentary director Thom Zimny and his cameras to record the exciting journey.Landau, 77, remembers conversations about the shape the doc should take: “Bruce just sort of said, ‘Well, OK, so what’s our story?’” But the narrative became obvious right away: A beloved five-decade-old band with multiple members in their 70s making their triumphant return and showing the world they’ve still got it.

The Glory Days are right now.“We have been away for six or seven years, and people didn’t know what to expect from us,” Stevie said. “Everybody’s getting a little older, you know.And it was up to us to go out there and say, ‘Hey, we’re not just getting older — we’re getting better, OK? And, yes, we’re closer to the end than we are to the beginning, but we’re still very productive here.” That early practice would kick off a new world tour — 130-some shows lasting through summer 2025 — an experience chronicled in the excellent new movie “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” which hits Hulu Oct.

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