Bruce Springsteen

Original Article Published On The JNS

As the E Street Band opens a U.S. and European tour following a long absence, Jewish “Spring-Nuts” share what it’s like to be faithful to God and the Boss.

Maureen Ash, 61, arrived in Tampa from her Chicago home in time for last Wednesday night’s Bruce Springsteen show. The longtime fan—called a Spring-Nut, as a nearly 50,000-strong Facebook, Twitter and Instagram fan community puts it—who saw her first show in 1980, did not have to worry about accommodations for Shabbat nor holidays this time, given the middle-of-the-week show.

She stayed in Boynton Beach, a three-and-a-half hour drive away, for Shabbat, and plans to catch the Boss again in concert on Tuesday, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, Fla.

Ash was one of many Jewish Spring-Nuts who descended on Tampa for the E Street Band’s tour, which opened Feb. 1. There are no official numbers on how many Jewish fans of the Boss are out there, but there are obviously a lot of them.

For previous Springsteen tours, Ash hosted Shabbat dinners for Jewish and non-Jewish fans, whom she introduced to her home-baked challah. Her one house rule must have surprised many of these guests.

“I tell them to please leave the bathroom light on,” Ash told JNS.

At one Shabbat meal, she asked an observant Jewish male friend to recite the kiddush and hamotzei blessing on the wine and challah respectively. He brought the lyrics to “Thunder Road,” which the group sang in unison. (The lines “Make crosses from your lovers” and “Waste your summer praying in vain/ For a savior to rise from these streets” must have presented quite the contrast to the Hebrew prayers.)

There has been plenty of normal superfan engagement too. Ash’s daughter–then 11–was the lucky one invited on stage to sing “Waiting’ on a Sunny Day” with the Boss, and Ash twice got his autograph, on a copy of his biography and on her denim jacket. She told him her first show of his was Oct. 9, 1980 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. He wrote “80” alongside his name.

“I know he was really listening,” she said.

Without knowing it, Springsteen has introduced many Jews to one another. A congregant approached Ash at the kiddush after services at a N.J. synagogue. “I hear you are a Bruce fan,” he told her. “I should know you.”

At a show, she struck up a conversation with a woman wearing a skirt. The two realized they were both skipping the Friday show because they are Sabbath-observant. (Ash also will not attend Springsteen shows during the Omer period between Passover and Shavuot, which is a time of mourning.)

To other fans, hearing the Boss live is a religious experience. There is a lot of talk in the Jewish Springsteen fan community about the Passover seder of 2012.

Warren Rosen, from Massapequa Park on Long Island, worried he would never make it to a show at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan if he left after his seder at home. So Rosen, who has been to more than 200 Springsteen shows, booked a private room at Ainsworth Prime, a restaurant in the arena, and invited friends (of all faiths) via Facebook. He also invited the band.

The saxophonist Jake Clemons, nephew of the late Clarence Clemons—the E Street Band’s original sax player—read from the Haggadah, which featured Springsteen’s face on the cover. There was also a rendition of the new composition “Matzah Ball,” sung to the tune of “Wrecking Ball.”

Bruce Springsteen performs in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 1, 2023. Photo by Howard Blas.

Some Orthodox Spring-Nuts bolt out of the house the moment Shabbat or a holiday ends, bound for a show. And some, if they are Howie Chazanoff—who runs the Spring-Nuts Facebook group, where he is known as Howie Chaz, with his wife, Julie—can almost pull off the music fan equivalent of Joshua holding up the sun and moon during the bombardment of Jericho.

In September 2017, Chazanoff, 54, contacted E Street Band guitarist and “Sopranos” actor Stevie Van Zandt on Twitter, asking when exactly the show would start.

“I ask, because I have tickets for the 23rd and have to wait for [the) Jewish Holiday to end,” he wrote. The exchange has since been deleted, but according to a screenshot that Chazanoff provided, Van Zandt wrote back, “Oy vey! When does it end? Thanks for the heads up. We’ll wait for you.”

Evidently, the band did wait for Chazanoff to arrive after Rosh Hashanah ended, because the latter tweeted on Sept. 24, 2017, “I can’t thank you enough for waiting! Thanks for acknowledging me and my sign and being a ‘mench!’ Happy New Year brother!” The sign Chazanoff held in the picture thanks the band for waiting for the “Tribe.”

Chazanoff told JNS that when he and friends held up the sign, Van Zandt said, “Happy New Year” to them. (For the record, though, and Twitter being what it is, someone responded to the tweet, “Yeah, but he is playing in Boston on Yom Kippur. So much for thinking about his Jewish fans.”)

“My impetus in starting Spring-Nuts was to create a distraction not only for Springsteen fans but for myself as well from all the trials and tribulations in this crazy world,” Chazanoff said.

What began as a 500-member Facebook group grew to become acknowledged by Springsteen and the band eight years later, in large part for its charity work. The group has supported WhyHunger, Fulfill, Kristen Ann Carr Fund, Pink Fund, Light of Day, NJ Pandemic Relief Fund and Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County.

“We have helped out numerous individuals, who either lost jobs, or needed help paying for hospital costs and even, unfortunately, funeral expenses,” Chazanoff said. “What was originally created as a distraction has now become a haven for Springsteen fans around the world.” (In his professional life, Chazanoff also helps people. He is director of home- and community-based services at Yedei Chesed, which supports persons with developmental disabilities and their families.)

Springsteen too is philanthropically minded.

At the Tampa show, as at each stop of the tour, he asks fans on their way out, to donate food or money to a local food bank. Last May, Springsteen surprised the Spring-Nuts with a recorded message at the Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, N.J., site of the annual Spring-Nut Seaside Serenade. That year, it raised $50,000 for WhyHunger. The rest of the band has sent video messages of support too.

David Kalb, rabbi of the Jewish Learning Center of New York, takes religious fanhood to another level. He is proud to have experienced some of Springsteen’s longest-ever shows, more than four hours, on the last tour.

Kalb references Springsteen’s lyrics often in his sermons and writing. “It was not just the length of the New Jersey concerts that made those nights utterly magical to me,” he told JNS. “It was the fantastic music and the passion of this amazing man.”

The rabbi appreciates particularly what he calls themes of redemption, introspection and transformation in Springsteen’s music. “These themes thoroughly resonate with me, as they are reminiscent of the Prophets of the Bible, who also critiqued their world for its moral ills,” Kalb said.

In 2017, Kalb penned the Huffington Post article “Getting Ready for the High Holidays with Bruce Springsteen,” as he observed those themes in shows during the Hebrew month of Elul, which leads up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He even called his attendance of Springsteen concerts his own preparation for the High Holidays, which is what the month of Elul is supposed to be about.

“These concerts have given me a tremendous start to my High Holiday prep,” he said. “I am now much more focused on how I can better myself and the world, and I believe that anyone who chooses to reflect on these issues could find similar messages in Bruce’s music.”

In 2016, Kalb got to spend 20 seconds with Springsteen, when the musician signed his book and a photograph at the Barnes & Noble on Manhattan’s Union Square. Other fans trekked internationally for that privilege.

Amy Kalman, who made aliyah from Toronto in 1981, has flown from Ben-Gurion Airport to Paris, Montpellier, Zurich and other European cities to hear the Boss.

“The first time you see him live, it grabs your kishkes!” she said, using the Yiddish for “guts.”

Kalman reports a “strong” group of Israeli fans, many of whom have gone to shows in Europe and will go to this tour as well. She and her husband were “on such a high” from a 2016 Paris show that, upon returning home, they planned a 36-hour trip to Zurich, so they and their children could hear Springsteen.

If the rest of the tour goes how Chazanoff figures it did in Tampa, there will be many other converts to the Gospel of Springsteen, Jewish and non-Jewish.

“After six long years, and being in their 70s, Bruce and the band showed that age means nothing when you’re the legendary E Street Band,” he said. “They absolutely rocked Tampa as if they were in their 20s, and as if they never had a hiatus.”

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Original Article Published On The JPost

TAMPA – When the house lights went down at exactly 8 p.m. Wednesday night at the Amelie Arena in Tampa, Florida, and Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band took the stage for the first time together in some six years, I knew I had made the right decision.

After deliberating for weeks, I bought a ticket and flew from New York to join thousands of other Springsteen fans to celebrate his return to stage at age 73 for the opening night of a six-month tour that will see him traverse the United States and Europe, but not Israel.

I have seen Springsteen over the years in arenas and stadiums from St. Louis to Philadelphia to Bridgeport, Connecticut and in such famed venues as Madison Square Garden and the old Meadowland “somewhere in the swamps of Jersey.” I have enjoyed shows with my kids, my wife and my father-in-law.

I was eager to get tickets to a show somewhere in the northeast on this tour. While I knew competition for tickets would be fierce, I was hopeful. When tickets were announced, I followed proper procedures and submitted names of three or four arenas within a couple of hours of my home that I would consider attending. I received the presale code for the venue closest to my home and I was pleased.

When the sale went live at 10 a.m. on the given day, I eagerly watched my I got closer in the queue. I waited and waited. Prices reached $600 (NIS 2,055) before running out entirely. I, like other fans, felt betrayed and disappointed. Loyal fans who view Bruce as the champion of the working person had their first introduction to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model. The real cost of the ticket was nowhere to be found as prices were automatically adjusted. The cost of the tickets was adjusted based on supply and demand in real-time. And some tickets quickly reached $5,000 (NIS 17,144).

I tried to put the shows out of my mind until the tour start date neared. I secretly checked Ticketmaster and Stub Hub every day, multiple times a day. Prices varied so widely. From $600 (NIS 2,055) in Connecticut to an almost affordable $250 (NIS 857) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Ohio. Admittedly, those seats were very high up in the $300 (NIS 1,028) or $400 (NIS 1,371) section. Nonetheless, I started working on my wife to agree that both or one of us would catch the March 5 and 7th shows.

Then, I got an even crazier idea: go to Opening Night. The know it all on the plane told me he hadn’t missed an opening night since 1990. I came to learn that he is not unique.

While continuing to monitor Tampa Bruce ticket prices, I also checked airfare, hotel prices and affordable options for airport parking at LaGuardia Airport. Airfare was not bad and to my surprise, ticket prices seemed to keep coming down. Slowly, slowly. I watched. I dreamed. When I travel, I am a very efficient planner. I plan routes for road trips, hotels and attractions, and I pack way ahead of time.

Waiting until the last minute would not usually be an option. In this case, it might work in my favor.

My children and wife would mostly be out of the country, I could theoretically go to the show. More importantly, my family gave the green light and I was off and running.

Delta Airlines flies from NYC to Tampa and the price for parking at the airport was reasonable. Now to figure out lodging, given those hotels close to the venue were outrageously expensive: not worth $400 (NIS 1,371) or $500 (NIS 1,714) a night for 2 or 3 nights.

THEN A lightbulb went off: Chabad is everywhere. They have helped me in Saint Thomas and Copenhagen and Beijing so why not Tampa? The website for Chadad in the lovely Hyde Park neighborhood listed three hotels nearby. Then, in small letters, it mentioned a room in the Chabad House for rent over Shabbat and holidays. I called Rabbi Rifkin, explained my predicament and asked if the Shabbat rooms might be available on weekdays as well. I am writing my review from the 2nd floor of the Chabad House in the residential Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa – a 40-minute walk from the Amelie Arena and around the corner from a large Winn Dixie supermarket which has a very nice kosher selection.

All I needed was a ticket to the show. Could I actually bring myself to come to town empty-handed and gamble that prices would continue to plummet? Maybe Five days before the show, I was connected to some nice people from Spring Nuts, a Springsteen superfan group that meets in person at shows and on social media. Members of the 10,000-plus member group discuss possible show openers and share wisdom on what shoes or sandals and shirts (short or long sleeve) to wear given the anticipated amount of standing and the 80-degree temperatures. They also share wisdom about tickets.

With three days to go, a fan texted me that more tickets had dropped and were available for $199 (NIS 682). They were in the $100s, right behind the stage. I was nervous about sitting behind the band but the group was encouraging: the sound quality is excellent, you are very close and Bruce faces you a few times during the show. With that, I took the plunge and got a single ticket. Some fans posted on Facebook that they had paid $550 (NIS 1,885) for those same seats when they first went on sale.

The Opening Night concert

Despite morning snow in New York resulting in a two-hour departure delay once we had already boarded the plane (so the plane could be de-iced twice), we made it to Tampa with plenty of time to spare. I even got to meet up and tailgate with fellow fans at Sparkman Wharf.

There was a large crowd waiting to enter the arena at 7 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. show but everyone – mostly in their late 50s to 70s – was patient and in good spirits.

When I found my way to section 124, Row R, I smiled. I was in the third row behind the stage and the sight lines were amazing.

Bruce and his animated sergeants at arms – Steve Van Zandt on guitar and Jake Clemons (the nephew of the late E Street sax legend Clarence Clemons) – did indeed turn to our section many times and we had amazing views of the 18 backup singers and brass and percussion players who joined the ban for this tour.

Bruce looked relaxed, fit and handsome in his new short haircut. He was all smiles and high energy as he directed the band through 28 songs in 2 hours and 43 minutes, introduced seven new songs and didn’t disappointed with such fan favorites as “Born to Run,” “Rosalita,” “Glory Days” and “the Rising.”

My personal favorites were real seminal tunes “E Street Shuffle” and “Katie’s Back,” which were both long and full-spirited.

The highlight for me was sitting close enough to watch Bruce direct each band member and change guitars after every single song. I felt a strong connection to Mighty Max Weinberg, the drummer. In addition to being a proud member of the tribe, he is such a talented drummer. From up close, you can see just how integral he is to the band and how Bruce relies on him to keep pace. I left Tampa with a smile on my face and a desire to grab affordable tickets for me and my family members for later in the tour. I now know that sometimes, good things do come for those who wait.

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Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

Max Weinberg will perform at three fund-raising events for ITEC titled “Playing for Peace: Featuring Max Weinberg’s Jukebox.”

NEW YORK – Max Weinberg, the drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, is lending his famous name and talents in support of the Israel Tennis and Education Centers Foundation (ITEC). Weinberg will perform at three fund-raising events for ITEC titled “Playing for Peace: Featuring Max Weinberg’s Jukebox.” The galas will take place November 9 in Chicago, November 16th in New York and December 7th in Florida.

The three events will include alumni of the 14 Israel Tennis Education Centers throughout Israel sharing personal stories. Following a scholarship auction, Weinberg will perform his Juke Box Tour, in which will auction off various items as well as the opportunity to play drums and sing with him. Attendees view two screens exhibiting 200 songs – from such music legends as Springsteen, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Lauren Rabner, ITEC director of Mission and Special Events said that a donor connected to the drummer’s agent suggested that the organization approach Weinberg about participating.

“I am delighted to be able to participate in these several fantastic gala events to both raise funds for and promote the ideals of the Israel Tennis and Education Centers,” Weinberg told The Jerusalem Post.

“The work they do is so impressive and their mission to bring children of differing backgrounds in Israel together on neutral ground to engage one another through sports is a refreshing endeavor in the world today. As we all know throughout the world sports, as well as music, have the unparalleled ability to transcend barriers of language, politics, and religions. The ITEC maintains sports activities for Jewish, Arab, Druze, and Bedouin children and in doing so absolutely brings a engaging powerful energy to the task of peaceful coexistence.”

When Weinberg isn’t behind the drum kit for the E Street Band – a job he has had almost continuously since 1974 – the proudly Jewish drummer spends his time living by the Jewish principle of tikkun olam, repairing the world. He has successfully drummed up donations for local New Jersey, national and international organizations through playing music and donating memorabilia for charity auctions.

He grew up in a Newark, New Jersey, Jewish family, celebrated his bar mitzvah and confirmation and was very involved in the life of the synagogue which his grandfather helped found. Weinberg’s Russian great-great-grandfather immigrated to mandatory Palestine in the late 19th century and is buried on the Mount of Olives.

Weinberg said that he was proud to carry on his family’s connection to the Holy Land.“I am proud and humbled to bring the music to help with the mission of the ITEC. My great-great-grandfather, Lev Mindlin, buried at the Mount of Olives and a lifelong Talmudic scholar, would expect nothing less from me!”

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Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

The longtime timekeeper for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Max Weinberg, talks about his Jewish heritage and his upcoming first visit to Israel.

While his more famous “boss,” Bruce Springsteen, has been out front on international sold-out stages for over 40 years, drummer Max Weinberg has been a powerful anchor, perched on a platform in back, stoically keeping a powerful beat that propels Springsteen’s music.


Max Weinberg on His Future With Conan and Bruce (YouTube/The Rolling Stones)

But don’t be fooled. The New Jersey-born 66-year-old Weinberg, who joined the E Street Band in 1975, is just as comfortable in the foreground as in the background. When Springsteen put the band on hiatus in 1989, Weinberg moved to the front of the stage, serving as bandleader of The Max Weinberg 7 for Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and later for The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, as leader of Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band.

Weinberg’s allegiance to Springsteen proved paramount and when the Boss reconvened the band in the late 1990s, Mighty Max, as he is introduced onstage by Springsteen, was back in the drummer’s seat, where he’s remained ever since. Wrapping up their most recent tour in Auckland, New Zealand last February, The E Street Band is once again on a break and Springsteen has been busy performing his Bruce on Broadway solo show to sellout crowds since October.

But Weinberg continues to keep busy. He has traveled across the country performing as part of the Max Weinberg Juke Box Tour, a fun-filled show in which he and his crack soul-rock band pick songs to play from a long list of classics. He also regularly gives lectures about his life and drumming.

And as a Jew proud of his heritage, he seems to enjoy getting to know synagogues in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. According to Ariella Rosen, rabbi of Philadelphia-area synagogue Adath Israel, Weinberg had so much fun at the synagogue’s annual fund-raiser in 2016 that he came back a second time in 2017.

“There is mutual affection between Max and the congregation,” notes Rosen. “He played drums during havdala as Rabbi Eric Yanoff played keyboards – two years in a row. He enjoyed getting to know members of the congregation and he loved it when we presented him with an honorary member’s certificate.”

Weinberg spoke with The Jerusalem Post after Juke Box Tour twice – after an appearance in Jersey City, New Jersey, late last year, and for a longer interview in January, in which he proudly revealed he will be making his first trip to Israel next month.

I grew up in the suburbs of Newark, New Jersey, in a Jewish family. My grandfather was one of the founders in the early 20th century of our synagogue. My mother and her four sisters were very involved in temple life and the sisterhood and of course I had a bar mitzvah.

Some of my earliest musical experiences took place at the synagogue. In my own personal case, our rabbi was a very inspirational guy who approached the rabbinate artfully through music and poetry. That made a big impression on me. Music in the service itself was what they would call high church – very old school. I really enjoyed that. We had a 15-voice choir that was on the second floor, above the bima, behind a curtain, so you never saw them – with the organist. It was very majestic. And it was my first experience with organized music. These are the Reform Movement’s original hymns.

Our rabbi (Avraham Soltes) was a well-known rabbi in the United States. He had a TV show in the early 1950s – Lamp Unto My Feet. His son (Ori Soltes) is actually a very esteemed professor of Judaica and Hebrew studies at Georgetown University, and he was my best friend as a kid.

So that was very present in my family growing up.

Can you share more about your family? It sounds like the temple was an important place for you and your family.

I have two older sisters and a younger sister. Between Hebrew school, Sunday school and services, I probably spent more time in the temple than I did any place else! My initial musical experiences performing took place there.

What is your memory of your bar mitzvah?

I played at my bar mitzvah! Like most young 13-year-olds, the studying and the struggle to speak Hebrew mellifluously had you practicing a lot.

My bar mitzvah was very modest – a lot of family, a lot of friends – but not a big full-blown affair. My parents didn’t have the resources for that.

I remember fondly getting my first real suit, which kind of started a fascination with dressing up. I still have the tie I wore at my bar mitzvah!

I was confirmed. It was important in my family to appreciate the cultural heritage of our Judaism. My mother’s grandfather, who would be my great-grandfather, came from Russia around the turn of the 20th century and chose to go live around 1910 or 11 in Palestine. He died there in 1916 and is buried on the Mount of Olives. His name was Joshua Mindlin. So when you see pictures of my sister – my younger sister and I – we are the youngest of many first cousins. So it was quite a big extended family that immigrated here [to the US] in the late 1870s.

Where did your family come from originally?

They came from Europe through Ellis Island, then to Brooklyn and then to New Jersey. The heritage of being Russian, specifically Ukrainian Jews and Polish Jews, was something I was very aware of my entire young life, especially with a name like Max Weinberg. What is interesting is that it was not my father’s family name when they came here – it was a German name that was given to them when they came through Ellis Island and they never changed it. You know, in show business in the 1950s and ’60s, it was a bit in vogue to Anglicize your name, but I never did that.

I’ve fortunately through the years been very pleased to have support from the worldwide Jewish community, including Israel, and in places I’ve played – as someone who is not only aware of my heritage and my people and where I came from, but in many ways, as assimilated as my family became – I still maintained those ties.

Have you been to Israel?

I am actually going in February! Most of my family has been to Israel. My mother, many times. My first cousin went there in 1962, was on a kibbutz and ended up staying. She met her husband there and she moved back here [to the US] in the middle 1990s.

We had hoped that we would be able to play there. To tell you the truth, I haven’t been anywhere that I haven’t played. I have played everywhere and have traveled so much that I have virtually never taken a trip where I didn’t perform!

I feel remiss in not visiting before. I have many Israeli friends. [Well-known Israeli musician] David Broza is a good, close friend that I have performed with. He’s performed with my band. I have performed with his musicians. So I am very much looking forward to my trip.

My daughter and son-in-law just got back from Israel. I expect to see my great-grandfather’s grave.

I don’t know anyone who has been to Israel and has not fallen in love with it, so I look forward to having a marvelous experience.

Would you want to play on this trip to Israel?

My playing internationally is more related to my playing with the E Street Band. That’s why I haven’t really been many other places. I do expect some day to play there, but not this trip.

This is a pleasure trip and to see friends. Both my wife and I are very much interested in history generally. Whenever I have been on tour with the E Street Band, we have really tried to take in as many historical sites around the world – the United States a little bit, but particularly in Europe and some of the more exotic places we’ve been.

There has been a lot of talk in the musical community about the BDS movement, Roger Waters, for example. I wonder if you have ever spoken with Bruce about Israel, if BDS has ever come up, or is that something you guys stay away from? Have you guys ever talked about playing in Israel?

We talk about so many different subjects. It is good question about why we haven’t played there. I used to get a lot of letters from Israelis when I was on the Late Night with Conan O’Brien Show who seemed to be very proud of me – that here I was with the Max Weinberg name on my bass drum. So I got a lot of support from my Israeli brothers and sisters. I appreciated that very much.

You have been playing with Bruce for so long that you probably overlapped with Suki Lahav, the Israeli violinist who played with Bruce Springsteen for part of 1974 and 1975.

I certainly played with her. She was a brilliant musician. She played violin and her former husband, Louis, who I believe lives in South America now, was our engineer/ road manager/driver. They were both Israeli, of course. He was the first person I met associated with Bruce and the band when I auditioned. Suki was not in the band very long. It was 1974 and 1975 for six or eight months, but certainly made her mark. Frankly, when you hear the intro to “Jungleland,” if you are in the E Street Band, you think of Suki Lahav.

Can you share any stories or memories of being Jewish “on the road”?

We have a very dear friend who is the promoter in Germany. We once had Passover Seder years ago with this friend of ours. That would be something that I would point to as a special experience. He is originally from Berlin.

Have you seen Bruce on Broadway?

My wife and I attended his opening night back in October and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a magnificent evening. It was very gripping, dramatic, funny, touching and moving – which we of course knew it would be – because that is what he does.

What is it like for you and the band when you have time off?

We have a terribly strong bond, all of us, but again, we all very much enjoy our break from playing, and everybody stays pretty much involved with music in a variety of different things.

I am very busy these days. I work 10 days a month between a variety of venues and bands and public speaking. Also, I did a guest spot on the CBS show Blue Bloods (aired January 19). So I try to keep busy.

Can we look forward to seeing Bruce and the E Street Band back on the road?

We always read the tea leaves. So we don’t really discuss much at all and it seems to always work out that way.

What are the hardest and best parts of being on the road so much?

I love it! I love being out on the road, in whatever capacity I may be doing it. Whether it is with my own group, or certainly with the E Street Band, I really enjoy traveling. I enjoy seeing sites. I like being on the go – that’s my personality. I like meeting people. I enjoy different cultures. We’ve had marvelous experiences around the world, playing in Africa, India, Asia and South America. It is a privilege to be able to work in that capacity when you are traveling – a little like a traveling salesman. What you are selling is your music. The ability to provide for people an opportunity as Bruce says often, “To dance all over their problems.” That is a mitzvah to me. In my own way, and with my background, I have kind of interpreted that as my own way of providing tikkun olam.

That is beautiful. If our clergy was half as inspiring as Bruce and the E Street Band, religion might be doing much better. It is really a religious experience going to a concert.

The idea of being useful is something that has always been stressed by Bruce, and within the band, of being of use in doing what you do. To bring joy to people through music has always been in the forefront of the thing we do individually and collectively. It really is a blessing to be able to do that.

It probably, in my case anyway, harks back to the feeling I got of sitting in the synagogue, which was a very imposing architectural edifice, listening to the music. We had the most amazing cantor in my temple, who was a baritone, in credible voice – Cantor Herman Dansker, in the 1950s; he retired in the early 1960s.

Is it true that you were a drummer in a bar mitzvah band at age seven – when you sat in on a bar mitzvah band playing “When the Saints Go Marching In?

I definitely played bar mitzvahs. You name it, I played it. Cruise ships. The Catskills. I played many of the Catskills resorts when I was a teenager. From Grossingers to Kutschers, to the Concord to the Nevele. There was a place that was owned by Neil Sedaka’s family called the Esther Manor – I think Esther was his aunt. It was in Libertyville, New York, which of course was the Borscht Belt, the center of classic Jewish show business from the middle 1930s to the beginning of the 1970s. But I caught it at the end of the 1950s and in to the ‘60s.

How did you get started in the first place in this whole drumming business? You have spoken before about the role of the drummer and you have used the word seder (order).

If you’ve read that concept, then you know it was seeing Elvis Presley on The Milton Berle Show, before Ed Sullivan. I already was pretty musical, singing, which I don’t do anymore. I was musical and seeing Elvis and his band, particularly his drummer, D.J. Fontana, just kind of grabbed me. Then, of course, four or five months later, he was on The Ed Sullivan Show and everything just… well, that was the Big Bang. So my experience wasn’t that different from many other young people my age and older, obviously. I guess I was five when that happened and it really made an impression on me. The beat really just grabbed me. I know it is a cliché, but it was really true. I was just very directed to being in that world. As a teenager, I was actually able to go out and make money and play jobs. It just sort of naturally fit me. I am just glad to continue to do it.

I have always wondered, there is this line in Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City: “I’m gonna throw a rock and roll exorcism… a rock and roll baptism and a rock and roll bar mitzvah!” Are you the inspiration for the bar mitzvah line? Or is Bruce just being playful?

Sure it is playful, it is also those that he described are all celebrations and that’s what we try to accomplish – a celebration. Whatever the religion, ethnicity or nationality, it is all a human joyful experience. That’s what music does – it breaks down those barriers, which is why we need more of it.

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