Steven Van Zandt

Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He has appeared in several television drama series, including as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos (1999–2007) and as Frank Tagliano/Giovanni 'Johnny' Henriksen in Lilyhammer (2012–2014). Van Zandt has his own solo band called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, intermittently active since the 1980s.

In 2014, Van Zandt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. Van Zandt has produced music, written songs, and had his own songs covered by Springsteen, Meat Loaf, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Nancy Sinatra, Pearl Jam, Southside Johnny, Artists United Against Apartheid, and the Iron City Houserockers, among others.

Van Zandt was born Steven Lento on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to Mary Henrietta Lento and Vince Borello, and raised in Watertown, Massachusetts. He has Italian ancestry; one grandfather was from Calabria and one grandmother's parents were from Naples. His mother remarried in 1957, and he took the last name of his stepfather, William Brewster Van Zandt. Actor Billy Van Zandt is Van Zandt's half-brother and actress Adrienne Barbeau is his ex-sister-in-law. He also has a half-sister named Kathi, who is a writer. When he was seven, the family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jersey.

Van Zandt found his love for music at an early age, when he learned how to play the guitar. He watched the performances of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and the Rolling Stones on Hollywood Palace in 1964, and referred to the former as "The Big Bang of Rock n' Roll". He said that when he was 13, George Harrison was his favorite Beatle, and he later became friends with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Around August 1964, he formed his first band, the Whirlwinds, which was short-lived. He later formed the Mates in 1965 and joined the Shadows in May 1966. Van Zandt has cited British Invasion bands such as the Dave Clark Five, as well as Ravi Shankar and the culture of India, as early influences.

Van Zandt attended Middletown High School in Middletown Township, New Jersey, where he was expelled after refusing to cut his long hair. He later returned to school in 1968, largely to appease his mother. As a teenager, he was involved in a car accident that caused him to smash his head through the windshield, leaving several scars on his head. To cover this up, he began wearing hats, and later, large bandanas, which has become his characteristic look.

Van Zandt grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend of Bruce Springsteen, before the formation of the E Street Band. The two first met when Springsteen was at the Hullabaloo club in Middletown, New Jersey, and heard Van Zandt performing "Happy Together" with the Shadows. They performed together in bands such as Steel Mill and the Bruce Springsteen Band.

During the early 1970s, Van Zandt worked in road construction for two years before returning to show business.