'Everyone needs reminding they were once nobody'

Actor, activist and Springsteen lieutenant Steven Van Zandt tells Craig McLean why he has no plans to 'retire on a yacht'

- Craig McLean

Some 150,000 Wembley-goers can't be wrong: Bruce Springsteen is worth every penny of his newly minted status as A Billion Dollar Rock Star. This past week the 74-year-old boss of all bosses played twice at the stadium, earthquaking event concerts that The Independent’s reviewer characterised as a “three-hour shift of blazing, hi-octane rock’n’roll [with] no sign of the wear and tear dogging other such Sixties and Seventies greats”.

That cash valuation came from the blue-chip bean-counters at Forbes, their calculations arising in large part from Springsteen selling his song catalogue to Sony in 2021 for a reported half a billion. Then there were the 1.6 million gig tickets he sold last year, bringing in another $380m (£295m).

How meaningful, one wonders, is that $1bn status to a superstar who’s sold 141 million albums and won 20 Grammys, an Oscar and a Tony in a 50-year-plus recording career? His best pal probably has the answer.

“It’s great for me because I’m gonna definitely borrow some money, I tell you that. I’m joking, of course,” says “Little Steven” Van Zandt, the guitarist who’s been standing stage-left of Springsteen, on and off, since their shared teenage garage-band origins in New Jersey. “My bookie’s gonna love him. I’m joking again!

“I’m not sure how accurate that is, first of all. But I don’t think it matters, honestly,” continues this time-served stalwart of the outfit Springsteen introduces from the stage as “the heartstopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, lovemaking, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, death-defying, legendary E Street Band”.