He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, where he plays guitar and mandolin, and as an actor on the television drama The Sopranos, where he plays Silvio Dante.

Van Zandt was born as Steven Lento in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Lento, remarried when he was young and Steven took the last name of his stepfather, William Van Zandt. The family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown, New Jersey when he was seven. [1] [2]

Van Zandt then grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend and pre-E Street bandmate of Springsteen. He subsequently arranged the famous horn intro to Springsteen's Born to Run track "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", and after that album he joined the E Street Band. In those early years, Van Zandt supplied a large amount of the lead guitar work for the band in concert, as can be seen on the 1975 concert DVD within Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition (later released as the CD Hammersmith Odeon London '75).

Van Zandt subsequently became a songwriter and producer for fellow Jersey shore act Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in the mid- to late-1970s, penning their signature song "I Don't Wanna Go Home", co-writing other songs for them with Springsteen, and producing their most-acclaimed record, Hearts of Stone. As such, Van Zandt became a key contributor to the Jersey Shore sound. Van Zandt then went on to share production credits on the classic Springsteen albums Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, and Born in the U.S.A..

Van Zandt has produced a number of other records, including an uncredited effort on the Iron City Houserockers' Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive). Less successful was his work on Lone Justice's sophomore album Shelter, which was a career-ending flop for the Los Angeles cowpunk band.

Van Zandt officially left the E Street Band in 1984 (Springsteen's song "Bobby Jean" is said to be inspired by the split) and has been involved in numerous solo musical projects and collaborations since then, ranging from soul music to hard rock to world music. In particular, he released four albums in the 1980s and one in 1999, sometimes fronting an on-and-off group known as Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. Van Zandt has written that these albums are each elements in a five-part concept cycle. The first of them, 1982's white soul Men Without Women, earned the most critical praise (Jay Cocks of TIME magazine dubbed it one of the ten best albums of the year), while its follow-up, 1984's Voice of America, did the best on the U.S. albums chart, although none of them were much of a commercial success. With Voice of America, his music became explicitly political, with the central theme being opposition to Ronald Reagan-era American foreign policy.

Continuing his involvement in issues of the day, in 1985 he created the music-industry activist group Artists United Against Apartheid as an action against the Sun City resort in South Africa. Forty-nine top recording artists, including Springsteen, U2, Bob Dylan and Run DMC, collaborated on a song called "Sun City" in which they pledged they would never perform at the resort. The effort was modestly successful. In 1987 he released the album Freedom - No Compromise, which continued the political messaging in an even more strident fashion. Some U.S. appearances in that year as opening act for U2's arena-and-stadium Joshua Tree Tour continued in the same vein � Oliver North was labelled a "criminal motherfucker" � but were not well-received by audiences, who found the sound overbearing and the performances lacking musicality. Both the record and his concerts were more popular in Europe, however. Little Steven's fourth album, 1989's Revolution, attracted little attention.

Van Zandt returned to the E Street Band when it was reformed (briefly in 1995, permanently in 1999) and remains with it. By now, his guitar playing had mostly been reduced to a background rhythm role, due to Nils Lofgren also being in the band and to Springsteen taking most of the solos anyway. Nevertheless, among E Street Band members he often gets the second-most amount of "face time" in concert after Clarence Clemons, frequently mugging for the audience and sometimes delivering his unpolished, nasal backing vocals while sharing a microphone with Springsteen. His playing or singing is most prominently featured on the songs "Glory Days," "Two Hearts", "Land of Hope and Dreams", "Badlands", "Ramrod", and "Murder Incorporated", among others. He features prominently in the video for "Glory Days," sharing the spotlight with Springsteen during the choruses, and swapping lines with him during the (non)fade.

In 1999 Van Zandt took one of the core acting roles in The Sopranos, playing level-headed but deadly mob consigliere and strip club owner Silvio Dante. Van Zandt had no acting experience, and the unusual casting choice was made by series creator David Chase, who had remembered him as having an "interesting look" on Springsteen album photos. [3]

Van Zandt has gained acclaim for his performance as Silvio, but has contended that he has no interest in acting beyond The Sopranos. His appearances in the show's second season were limited somewhat by conflicts with the E Street Band tour schedule. In later seasons his role resumed in importance, with sixth season plot developments especially giving him prime focus. His real-life wife Maureen Van Zandt is an actress who makes occasional appearances on The Sopranos playing Silvio's wife Gabriella Dante.

Van Zandt maintains a certain look, always wearing gypsy clothes and a bandana on stage, while donning a noticeable hairpiece on The Sopranos. Both are to cover permanent loss of hair from a car accident where he hit the windshield with his head. [4] [also NPR interview]

Starting in 2002 until the present, Van Zandt has hosted Little Steven's Underground Garage, a syndicated radio show that celebrates garage rock and similar rock sub-genres. He is the program director for the Sirius Satellite Radio station of the same name, as well as Sirius' Outlaw Country channel.

He is also the executive producer of Sirius's Wiseguy Show, which features fellow Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore (Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero) as host.