Steven Van Zandt Quotes

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Steven Van Zandt

Profession : Musician

Birth : November 22, 1950

I was a gambler when I was a kid, so when we got to Las Vegas, it was like Mecca.

Steven Van Zandt

To walk into a studio, for me, is just like walking onto a beach or something.

Steven Van Zandt

The only reason why I made solo records was because I got so obsessed with politics, and that is quite personal. I don't really philosophically believe in solo records.

Steven Van Zandt

I was deep into it - worldwide liberation politics as well as domestic - but by the end of the '80s, I had decided it all comes down to one single issue: campaign-finance elimination.

Steven Van Zandt

You ask people to fall in love with you. To need you. To want you. To buy your records and come see you. You have an emotional contract with people. To break up is to violate that contract.

Steven Van Zandt

It's so liberating to play a song in front of 50,000 people that you've never played before. Not something you played a long time ago and have forgotten: Never. Played. Before. There's something magical about it.

Steven Van Zandt

I tell everybody, if you've got a band that works, it's a miracle. It's never going to be perfect, but if it works on some level, hold on to it with both hands and don't ever let it go.

Steven Van Zandt

Bands should never break up.

Steven Van Zandt

Sometimes there's no qualitative difference between two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half hour shows. It's just a matter of how long you do it. It's not like the show must be three hours and 30 minutes to work. That's just not the case.

Steven Van Zandt

This conversation with the audience has been going on since, what, '72, '73... Sometimes it's like a conversation after dinner with friends. You're in a restaurant, and you got there at 8 o'clock. Suddenly, you realize it's midnight. Where did the time go? You're enjoying the conversation. It's sort of a natural, organic conversation.

Steven Van Zandt

I tried to get Primal Scream to come over to America several times.

Steven Van Zandt

Primal Scream could be the biggest band in the world. They are fantastic when they make rock records - once every 10 years.

Steven Van Zandt

Little Richard opens his mouth, and out comes liberation.

Steven Van Zandt

I learned everything I know from leaving the E Street Band. And of course, one of the things I learned is, I never should have left.

Steven Van Zandt

I believe that hundreds of years from now, history will be divided into pre-1960s and post-1960s.

Steven Van Zandt

Every successful person needs to have at least one person in their life who's not afraid of them.

Steven Van Zandt

I learned a lot from Bruce Springsteen and David Chase.

Steven Van Zandt

People want to learn how other people live. It's just human nature.

Steven Van Zandt

Stevie Van Zandt could not walk on to a set and act. I don't know how actors do that! It's the scariest thing in the world.

Steven Van Zandt

Your celebrity capital rises and falls in any given year. And when you have some - temporarily, usually - you try to use it for some good.

Steven Van Zandt