Stevie Van Zandt will perform with Disciples of Soul, for one night only, at Freehold concert

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“This show could be the only Disciples gig, maybe, ever again,” says Stevie Van Zandt about the group’s upcoming appearance at ParkStage in Freehold. The July 17 show, titled “250//The Concert” and postponed from July 3 due to a forecast of extreme heat, will also feature The Jake Clemons Band, Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers (with special guest Gary U.S. Bonds) and The Weeklings; for tickets, visit ticketmaster.com.

Van Zandt put together the versatile Disciples of Soul — a rock and soul big band, capable of covering the broad range of sounds in his music — for tours in 2017-18 and 2019, with isolated shows in other years as well. (The lineup was almost entirely different from the Disciples of Souls’ previous ones, back in the ’80s.) But the tours were expensive and unprofitable, and he doubts he will ever do something like that again.

The band will probably continue to be the house band for the American Music Honors shows at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre (as they have been since 2023) and could reunite for other special events (as they did for the recent “Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us” concerts at Monmouth University’s OceanFirst Bank Center, where they served, again, as the house band). But as far as a full-length show fronted by Van Zandt … there are no plans for that, beyond the Freehold show.

Of course, Van Zandt has a lot of other stuff going on now, as usual, with his Underground Garage channel on SiriusXM satellite radio and syndicated “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” terrestrial radio show, his educational TeachRock organization, music cruises and more. (He also, of course, wrapped up a tour with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band in May.) He recently released a new single with The Disciples of Soul — a cover of The Jacksons’ 1981 hit “Can You Feel It” (listen below) — and produced “Make It Alone,” a song from the Dion musical “The Wanderer” that was released as a single.

JOHN CAVANAUGH

Stevie Van Zandt at the “Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us” concert at The OceanFirst Bank Center at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, on June 5.

This interview was conducted on June 29, the day before it was announced that the Freehold concert would be postponed. Van Zandt did discuss his concerns over the heat, but I have cut that part out, since it is not relevant anymore.

Q: Do you think there will be anything to reflect the 250 theme in Freehold, or will it just be kind of a regular concert?

A: Mostly regular. I mean, I’ve got a couple of things, through the years, that would reflect that kind of thing in general. You know, my thing was very political for a lot of years. I’ll probably pull out a couple of things to fit thematically, but not much. It’s mostly just a fun day, nothing really political.

Q: You obviously you could do “I Am a Patriot.” That would certainly fit.

A: Yes, that would probably be one that I would pull out.

Q: Of course, this is also the 50th anniversary of the 1976 bicentennial. Do you have any memories of the bicentennial celebrations in ’76?

A: I really don’t, you know. I had just joined The E Street Band, I guess, right?

Q: Yeah, and the Asbury Jukes’ debut album came out that year, too.

A: Right. And we were gonna do the big broadcast from The Stone Pony. It was right in that period.

Yeah, that was a wild year. But no, I don’t remember even acknowledging the bicentennial (laughs). But I wasn’t politically engaged yet. That would take another five years.

Q: Of course, “I Don’t Want to Go Home,” from that first Jukes album … that was one of the big encore numbers of one of the Springsteen Center-opening concerts a few weeks ago. Do you have any thoughts on why that song has become such an enduring anthem?

A: It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s really nice. I think it’s probably the most (musically) traditional, in a way … it’s the song that embodies, I think, our respect for tradition, you know what I mean? It’s a Leiber & Stoller-type of song, and Mike Stoller gave his approval of it, which was a thrill to me, in that documentary about me. That’s as thrilling as it gets, for a composer.

It just kind of ties together the past with the present and the future and it’s just, like I say, a salute to tradition. It wasn’t a hit: It didn’t go very far as a single. But it’s one of those things that’s easy to sing along, and has those traditional kind of chord changes. Very, very simple. Anybody who never even heard the song before, they hear it one time and they can sing along.

Southside Johnny and Steven Van Zandt perform together in 2017.

Q: Plus, obviously, it became one of the big numbers of every Asbury Jukes show, so fans of that kind of music have heard it so many times that it feels like a standard.

A: Well, that was the idea: trying to write at a level of quality of those standards. You reach for it, and you never know how close you’re gonna get, but that was what The Jukes were all about. Everything I wrote for The Jukes, really. It was really obvious on the second album. We brought in The Drifters, we brought in The Coasters, we brought in The Five Satins. We had brought in Ronnie Spector and Lee Dorsey on the first album, and I was just trying to write those kind of classic songs. It didn’t really get personal for me until I started making my own records.

Q: The song “Make It Alone” (from the Dion musical “The Wanderer”) that was just released as a single … I know you were a consultant for the musical. Was it your idea to use that song in the musical?

A: No. They had chosen that. They had worked with Dion very closely, about which songs to use, and then Charles Messina, a brilliant writer who wrote the script, ties together the songs that fit in the story line. And quite a few do fit. It was really a wealth of things to choose from, and they chose that. And there’s a second single we’re also gonna put out from the cast, called “Ride With You,” which is another great one. So it’s gonna be a hell of a soundtrack album once it gets to Broadway, but we thought we’d give everybody a taste of it right now, with that single, and then we’ll do one more in, whatever, six weeks or so, just to kind of whet the appetite. And hopefully a theater will open up, because this thing’s ready to go.

Q: I used to work with a theater critic who would correct me every time I said “soundtrack album.” He would say, “No, for a Broadway show, it’s an ‘original cast album.’ “

A: (laughs) OK, whatever!

MARK WEISS

Eddie Brigati of The Rascals with Steven Van Zandt at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, Aug. 9.

Q: So do you think maybe it could come to Broadway next year?

A: We’re hoping for that. It’s very unpredictable, that world. We had quite a taste of it with “Once Upon a Dream” … me and Maureen (Van Zandt’s wife) and Marc Brickman brought that Rascals show to Broadway, 10 years ago or whenever that was (Note: It was 2013.) We got a real taste of the whole Broadway world, having staged a Broadway show before, and it’s a tough business, man. A tough racket. It’s hard to get in. I mean, there’s 41 theaters, and they’re all packed. It’s amazing. I mean, I’m happy Broadway’s doing so well. But we’re waiting now, and a lot of people are expressing interest. A lot of people are involved, a lot of the investors are in. It’s just waiting for that theater.

Q: I know there was talk at one point of bringing the Tommy James story to Broadway. Were you involved with that?

A: No, although Tommy’s a friend of mine and his book is terrific. If people have not read that book (“Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells”) … it’s one of the best rock books. But I don’t know where that went. These things … it’s very easy to stall, because it’s quite an expensive proposition, first of all. I mean, you’re talking basically $20 million. You’ve got that, and then you’ve got the fact that there’s a line waiting (for theaters).

We have another show, also. We have the Bert Berns show, “Piece of My Heart.” That one’s looking good for the West End in London, at the moment. We’ll see what happens with that one. But that’s another great show, you know. All the Bert Berns music: “Twist and Shout” and “Piece of My Heart” and “Hang on Sloopy” and about 20 other hits. And that’s a great, great story.

You know, these stories are not just jukebox musicals, per se. These are really good stories, really good scripts, beyond just a story about fitting a bunch of songs into a play.

The cover of Stevie Van Zandt & the Disciples of Soul’s 1982 “Men Without Women” album.

Q: You’ve done a lot of vault projects recently. Is there any unreleased music left, or have you totally exhausted it by now?

A: I never had that much; I never had a lot of outtakes. I have one album from this band of mine, The Lost Boys, which I will eventually put out when I can promote it. Possibly next summer. We’ll see. But that’s the only album I have on the shelf. And a couple of those songs escaped … I’m still not sure how, but they escaped into “The Sopranos” soundtracks. I guess I was fooling around with them in the studio and David Chase happened to be there. But most of it has not been heard. So we’ll see what I’m gonna do about that.

You now, I’ve got kind of a film idea attached to it, which I’m taking around right now. So it may turn into the soundtrack of a film. I’ve got a script that goes with it, so I’ve been kind of holding that back, hoping I can get the film made. I’ve got six scripts which I’m taking around, and that’s one of them.

Q: These are, like, original scripts that you’ve written for movies?

A: Yeah, they’re mostly … you know, there’s a fine line between TV pilots and independent film. It’s a close call on a lot of them. A lot of them will make great TV series,  but whether the first glimpse of these things is in the form of a pilot or in the form of a film, that remains to be seen. But a lot of my pilots are long: They’re like 90 minutes, you know, 100 minutes. It wouldn’t take much to turn them into films.

Q: How about the “Men Without Women” film? Is there any chance that might come out at some point?

A: You know, they found that thing. I should get that thing released. I took a quick glance at it when they found it. It surprised me. I didn’t realize we had done that much because … it makes more sense than I figured it would (laughs). I thought it was more, almost like an outline of what the film was going to be. But in that sort of shape, it kind of feels like a  French new wave kind of vibe — not really overdoing the exposition. It’s kind of impressionistic. It’s interesting, and it kind of works as its thing.

JOHN CAVANAUGH

Marc Ribler (front) and the Disciples of Soul horn section at the 2023 American Music Honors show at The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

Q: Any other touring or recording plans you can tell me about?

A: Well, you know, the Disciples … they’re so busy. They are just the most popular session people in the world. I’m lucky I got them together for this (Freehold) gig. I mean, it’s been hard getting together to rehearse a little bit, because everybody is all over the place. You know, different countries, different states.

It’s a bit of an expensive proposition to take out, and I don’t expect to do that, possibly, ever again. You know, I’ll be paying for those first two tours for the rest of my life (laughs). I mean, I’m glad I did them in ’17 and ’19, to go with the two new records, Soulfire and Summer of Sorcery. But man, it’s expensive. I basically was taking around an arena band, playing in clubs. That’s all we could do, was clubs. The audience just wasn’t there for it, man. You know, you gotta face facts eventually (laughs). It takes me a while to face facts, because, as I’ve always said, no artist tolerates reality. And that’s certainly my story. But it eventually got to me. I’m like, “Oh man, it’s a very expensive hobby.”

So this show could be the only Disciples gig, maybe, ever again. But certainly this year, unless we find a patron of the arts ready to shell out half a million dollars a week, which is not likely. And it’s a shame, because it’s a lot of fun. We did a couple of rehearsals this week and I gotta say, it’s fun playing those songs with this band, ’cause the songs really require a bit of sophistication, and they can just play anything. They can do the whole waterfront of genres that’s required for one of my shows. It’s pretty wide-ranging, in terms of the styles and genres, etc. But it’s been a lot of fun: I enjoy rehearsals as much as the gigs.

JOHN CAVANAUGH

The Disciples of Soul back Bruce Springsteen and Kenny Chesney at The OceanFirst Bank Center at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, June 5.

Q: They did such a great job as the house band for the recent Monmouth concerts and the American Music Honors shows. Has any thought been given to them going out on their own as a self-contained unit?

A: First of all, there’s no other band that could have pulled that off. Nobody. That’s a fact. And they do it every year at the Archive (American Music Honors) show. It’s an incredible show every year, and I salute (Springsteen Center founding executive director) Bob Santelli for his curation abilities. He’s really risen to the occasion. You know, he wasn’t exactly making his living as a (concert) promoter, but he’s turned out to be quite a good promoter, among other things.

But in terms of going out on their own, and as I’m going to mention (in Freehold), this is the only band I know of with five solo acts in it. So they’re kind of on their own, already, individually, you know what I mean? We put out Marc Ribler’s album (on Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records label). We put out a Jessie Wagner album, and we’re about to put out Banana’s (Lowell Levinger’s), album, which is unbelievable. Well, probably not till next spring. And we just put out Anthony Almonte’s album. So you’ve got five solo artists in the same band, so that shows you the quality level of these guys.

(In Freehold) we’re gonna give a little taste of some of these things: showing off the variety of the band, rather than just exclusively my stuff.

Q: It sounds like it’s gonna be a great show.

A: Yeah, it’s a great bill: a lot of friends on the bill. It’ll be a lot of fun, I think.

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