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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
David Smith in Washington

Stevie Van Zandt: ‘My religion switched right over to rock’n’roll’

Van Zandt Stevie Van Zandt Bruce Springsteen Religion Beatles Nelson Mandela Paul McCartney Ronald Reagan Silvio Dante South Africa
‘If I’d continued to dedicate my life to Bruce Springsteen’s vision I would never have realised my potential’ … Stevie Van Zandt
Stevie Van Zandt: ‘If I’d continued to dedicate my life to Bruce Springsteen’s vision I would never have realised my potential.’ Photograph: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

For Stevie Van Zandt, unique as the consigliere to both Bruce Springsteen and Tony Soprano, the moment of political awakening came four decades ago in white minority rule South Africa.

“I was in a cab and a Black guy stepped off the kerb and the cab driver swerved to try and hit him,” Van Zandt, 73, recalls. “He [the driver] says, ‘Fucking kaffir’, which of course was the Afrikaans word for [N-word]. I couldn’t quite believe what I’d just seen – whoa! let me out.

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