Steven Van Zandt hints at retirement from E Street Band

25 August 2018

Steven Van Zandt has hinted that he may be retiring from the E Street Band.

Steven Van Zandt

The 67-year-old former 'Sopranos' star - who has served as Bruce Springsteen's right-hand man in the group since 1975 - could be set to take his talents from the stage to behind the scenes.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, he revealed: "I don't know. The performing part of what I do in general is fun and important in its own way, but what really gets me off and what I really dig is the creative stuff which is producing and writing.

"I've always had more of an interest in the behind the scenes sort of thing rather than being necessarily in the spotlight."

The musician - who previously left the band from 1984 to 1994 - has set his sights on returning to his TV roots but this time taking an active role in the creative process.

He added: "I've never really had that need to be in the spotlight as a performer.

"You know I do it and I enjoy it but the real important thing to me is the creative stuff whether it's writing and producing. Whether it's producing a radio show, a TV show, I produced a Broadway show a couple of years ago."

Steven went on to speak about the rewarding feeling he gets when creating a project from scratch, adding that the fun part was "taking nothing and creating something from a blank page and that's exciting to me and that's what's most important to me."

However the 'Soulfire' hitmaker - also known as Little Steven - hasn't ruled out remaining on the stage whilst living out his dreams as a creative behind the scenes.

He shared: "The performing part can come and go you know and I could see stopping that possibly but I enjoy that also so there's no reason why I can't continue to do both."

Despite his future ambitions of creating content, Steven did admit that one major obstacle he may face would be securing funding for future projects.

He said: "There's hundreds of things, hundreds ... I've got dozens and dozens of ideas for various shows TV shows, live events, you know you name it.

"Unfortunately I can create the content but you need the finance to actually get it done and that's why more often than not in the past I just invested in my own ideas just using every penny I had just to keep the creative process going."