"Rock 'n' roll died," says Steven Van Zandt. "The rock era ended. It ended around 1995 or so. After being the mainstream that informed our culture for 30 years, it just no longer was."
From another fiftysomething rocker who hasn't done a solo disc this century, Van Zandt's complaint would be sour grapes. But unlike many peers, Van Zandt is also an icon, the guitarist for the E Street Band, and is therefore short of neither money nor opportunities. Van Zandt's Boss still pulls a big enough crowd to make last years' romp with the E-Street Band 2003's top-grossing tour. Van Zandt is also a regular on the popular series, The Sopranos. In fact, Van Zandt is so successful that rock was dead by his reckoning a few years before someone told him about it.
"I go to do a radio show a few years ago and I am told by the syndicators that they can't get rock 'n' roll on the radio anymore. The only new music was hard rock, hip-hop and pop. Nothing wrong with those three things, but rock 'n' roll was invisible. I was like, 'What do you mean that you can't get rock 'n' roll on the radio anymore?' That's not acceptable to me. I'm not going to live in a world without rock 'n' roll on the radio."
So, Van Zandt began a crusade to save rock radio by starting his own syndicated show, Little Steven's Underground Garage. In defiance of convention, Van Zandt defined the format as broadly as possible: "Once the Beatles played Ed Sullivan on February 9, 1964, the whole world changed. We went from no one having a rock 'n' roll band in America to everyone having one overnight. The term comes from bands that literally practiced in their parents' garage, and that is when I grew up. Now we have a whole new generation of garage rockers that I didn't even know existed until a few years ago."
The new bands, too, couldn't get songs on commercial radio: "Things have gotten to the point where we are completely dependent on familiarity, and I philosophically disagree with that. It is human nature to want to be surprised. We need to reestablish a relationship between the audience and the DJ, between the audience and the radio station. That's what I grew up with."
And so Little Steven's Underground Garage became the only show on commercial radio to offer side-by–side everything from forgotten '60s acts like the Nazz to breaking bands like Austrialia's Jet. "It's a way of saying thank you for what rock 'n' roll has done for me. It is a way of supporting the new guys and saying thank you literally to the great artists we play that you don't hear anymore."
As different as they are in their scope, approach and ambition, Van Zandt and his legendary colleague, Bruce Springsteen, have both kept faith with their teenage love of rock 'n' roll by allowing it to guide them throughout their lives. To this day, Van Zandt remembers what rock music first said to him as a kid because it still speaks to him now.
"The minute Little Richard opened his mouth, what he said was liberation. It may not have been in the lyrics, but the emotional content contained freedom, liberation and adventure. When I hear a really great new record, it is just as exciting to me now. There aren't a lot of great records, of course. But I am on a hunt for them all the time, and when I hear one, I just get very excited."
So, on Little Steven's Underground Garage, the Ramones are always in the top rotation. That alone would scare away most commercial programmers. At first, Van Zandt says, only 23 stations signed on (among them, KKLZ 96.3-FM, which airs the show Sunday at 10 p.m.). Even they were probably expecting a Springsteen tribute with lots of Southside Johnny thrown in.
But Steven Van Zandt knows how to fight for a cause. For those who don't remember, Van Zandt, as a solo artist in the '80s, released among the most politically driven albums this side of the Clash, with titles like Freedom No Compromise and Revolution. Also, Van Zandt organized Artists United Against Apartheid, which helped focus the first MTV generation on the racist regime in South Africa.
"I spent 10 years doing nothing but politics in the '80s, including five political records. When I started doing this, all of those political instincts came tumbling out of the closet. This became a revolution. I am fighting to bring back rock 'n' roll. It's been a war every single day. It's very, very slow, but we're winning."
So Van Zandt was in town working it for CES a couple weeks ago. And the effort is paying off. "As of last week, I think, we are now up to 132 stations." Just as rewarding to Van Zandt has been watching bands—like the Strokes, the Hives, the Vines and the White Stripes—that received early exposure on his show go on to success.
"It isn't just the ones who've broken through. Twelve of our bands have been signed to major labels since we started. Take Jet, who is now starting to break through. We played Jet's demo six months before anyone else heard it."
Of course, a victory or two doesn't change facts. Jet may be finding a bit of success now, but it is on Xtreme radio outlets (and in an iPod commercial). Outside of the show itself, the band is not on the classic rock stations that host Underground Garage. So Van Zandt understands that although he has created an oasis for most rock 'n' roll bands, the music industry remains a desert.
"Fifty or 60 of our bands probably work during the week and play in a band on the weekend. I'd like all these bands to be able to make a living playing rock 'n' roll. Right now they can't. That isn't acceptable."
Contributing editor Richard Abowitz covers entertainment for the Weekly.