During a new chat with Rolling Stone, Steve Van Zandt spoke candidly about his relationship with Bruce Springsteen — as well as his decision to leave the E Street Band in 1984. When pressed about what he would say to himself before making such a fateful decision over 35 years ago, Van Zandt revealed he would tell his younger self: “Don’t do it! It’s the one defining moment of my life. It was a mistake I’ve never recovered from. Financially, it was apocalyptic. That said, we did take years off the life of the South African government (Van Zandt created Artists United Against Apartheid in 1985). But is that worth losing all of my friends, all of my power base, all my juice, all my celebrity capital, to save a few lives? And you’ve got to say, 'Yeah, sure. It was.' But I look back and think, 'Jeez, if only I could’ve done those things and stayed.' I would’ve had the perfect life.”
Van Zandt, who became friends with Springsteen back in 1966, was asked how he's been able to keep business and creative issues out of their relationship: “Our friendship is deeper than any of that, and it’s forever. I decided that very early on. Remember, he was a very different person the first 10 years I knew him. He wasn’t the world’s greatest entertainer. He was like one of those grunge guys with long hair that just stares at his shoes. But I got extraordinary strength from finding one other person on the planet that felt the same way I did about rock n' roll. You only need one so you don’t think you’re insane and you don’t think you’re a loser by not fitting into society. And I didn’t fit in and he didn’t fit in, and so we kind of had each other there in the beginning. This is when rock n' roll was not a business yet. It was not hip. You didn’t get the girls by being in a rock band. They still were going after the football players and the surfers. It wasn’t like A Hard Day’s Night in New Jersey, OK? That was not being acted out.”
When asked about the likelihood of a 2020 E Street Band tour, Van Zandt admitted: “Until I see a press release, I don’t care what he says, alright? I mean, I’ve gotten in trouble before, so I’ve learned my lesson. I don’t care what he says. Yes, I hope so. I even may think so. But until there’s a press release, all I can say is that I hope so and I think so. . . To be honest with you, it’s like a vacation.”
In one of the most candid moments of the E Street Band's 2014 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen recalled a conversation he had at his home with Steve Van Zandt, who had urged Springsteen to force the Rock Hall’s hand and induct the E Street Band along with him in 1999. Springsteen talked frankly about the reasons and situations as too why he elected to go in as a solo act. Backstage, Steve Van Zandt was asked his feelings pertaining to that: “Y’know, we were having many conversations about, y’know, the reunion, and all that. And Bruce had tried some things with other players — as he absolutely has a right to do — and who can blame him, him trying different things with different people. But at that point, my conversation was: ‘From now on, anything you wanna do — anything you can think of — we can do with the E Street Band.'”