
"Little" Steven Van Zandt (born 22 November 1950), born Steven Lento, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Born in Winthrop, Massachusetts to Italian-American parents, he was raised in Middletown Township, New Jersey from the age of seven. He befriended Bruce Springsteen at the age of 15, and he was active in the Jersey Shore music scene for several years before joining Springsteen's E Street Band in 1975. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band, for which he played guitar and mandolin. He also had a successful acting career, often playing Mafia types.
Van Zandt was a politically active liberal, cofounding "Artists United Against Apartheid" during the 1980s, raising awareness of American military interference in governments of Central America, and endorsing Democratic Pennsylvania US Senate candidate John Fetterman in 2022.