Hank Azaria’s career has always been about voices. As the man behind some of the most iconic characters in The Simpsons (including Chief Wiggums, Moe the bartender, Comic Book Guy), he’s spent decades perfecting the art of mimicry. But now, at 60, Azaria has turned his talent toward a new, unexpected project: Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band – a full-blown, high-octane Bruce Springsteen tribute band.
It’s a labour of love born from a lifetime of fandom, sparked when an 11-year-old Azaria first heard Born To Run at summer camp in 1975. “It was like Bruce was singing directly to me,” Azaria recalls. That connection has only deepened over the years, with Springsteen’s music becoming the soundtrack to his life.
Speaking to Classic Rock over Zoom this morning, Azaria sports Springsteen’s close-cropped coif, occasionally falling into the Boss’ persona in the middle of a thought. The idea for the tribute band came as he was grappling with turning 60. Many years sober, staring into a new decade and facing a birthday party with over 500 people, the light flickered. “I’m a mimic – that’s my job,” he says. “And one of the voices I’ve always imitated was Bruce. I was trying to cheer myself up, turning sixty, and I thought, (as Bruce) It might be fun to try that and sing some songs.” And so he set to work, assembling a band and conceiving a surprise gig for his party.
Mastering the voice of Springsteen, was anything but simple. “I had to really try to learn how to sing,” Azaria says. “It’s something I’d put off my whole career, thinking, (speaking as Bruce) I’m not going to bother with the ABCs of singing. Finally, because I wanted to sound like Bruce, I thought, OK, let’s see if I can really learn this.”
Although the band’s inaugural performance thrilled a gobsmacked crowd of revellers, he first had to face a debilitating case of pre-show jitters. “I had a full-blown panic attack,” he explains, “because I just wasn’t sure I could do it. And it was a surprise! I had 550 people there and only like six of them knew that I was going to do this. And I wasn’t sure I was going to do it and I was over-rehearsing, trying to do it right, and I kind of blew my vocal cords out a little bit. I had to get some cortisone on that day. I ended up having a full-blown panic attack. I threw up from nerves, which I’ve never ever done in my career. Between the cortisone and some deep breathing, I was able to function.”
What began as a birthday surprise for friends has evolved into a full-blown obsession. With the first performance done and dusted, they played their first public gig at Le Poisson Rouge, in New York City, on August 1. Azaria says, “It was amazing. It went beyond my expectations. The folks in my band are all pretty young – most of them, except for one, didn’t grow up with Bruce’s music. Even my wife is not a tremendous Bruce fan. Nobody believed me that if you do this in front of Bruce fans, they’ll all sing every word. They were like, ‘It’s never going to happen,’ and I said, ‘They’re gonna. I’m telling you. It’s going to be a big celebration of Bruce.’ And that’s what it became!”
Azaria is ready to take his act on the road. Their next gig is Aug. 23, in Amagansett, NY, with many more dates to follow. The proceeds from these shows will benefit his Four Through Nine Foundation, which supports social justice, education and other wellness causes. “It’s all for charity,” he says, with the same passion that drives his tribute to The Boss. And, in true Springsteen fashion, he’s aiming high – hoping to fill 2,000-seat theatres and make each performance a celebration of music, life, and community.
We asked Hank to winnow his all-time favourite Springsteen songs down to his top ten. Like mastering Bruce’s voice, it proved anything but easy.
10. The Promised Land (Darkness On The Edge Of Town, 1978)
I think the hope of that song in the middle of the darkness of that album always spoke to me, especially as a teenager. And I consider a companion piece to that song, from The River, the song The Price You Pay. He even mentions “Promised Land” in that song. I relate to that song a lot because I had dreams of Hollywood, many of them that came true, and then I learned about the price that you pay for those dreams, even if you get them.
9. She’s The One (Born To Run, 1975)
Born To Run is definitely my favourite album and She’s The One expressed that teenage – any age – enthusiasm over first love and passionate love. It has that Bo Diddley beat and he does a version of it live where that beat starts and he does Not Fade Away, from Buddy Holly, and into that song Mona, or Gloria, all with the same Bo Diddley beat, and then he goes into She’s The One and it’s like the history of rock and roll in fifteen minutes. I do it in our show. I don’t do that progression that he does but I tell the story of how I met my wife as an intro to the song.
8. Incident on 57th Street (The Wild, the Innocent & The EStreet Shuffle, 1973)
I’ve got to do one of the obscure ones. Incident On 57th Street is such an epic, beautiful song. If I can give 8 a) and b), then from that same album, New York City Serenade. As a kid growing up in New York, in Queens, on and off the street and getting a glimpse of that life, the idea that somebody could write like an operatic version of what was going on on the street just blew my mind. It made me feel like there’s art and beauty that can be made out of the kind of awfulness all around.
7. Thunder Road (Born To Run, 1975)
I just love the song so much. The greatest expression of a desire for freedom and to break out of your current circumstance. It’s the ultimate of that car metaphor that he used.
6. Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Darkness On The Edge Of Town, 1978)
That whole album speaks of that kind of lonely, stubborn self-reliance that we tend to call, in recovery rooms, ‘terminal uniqueness.’ The desire to run away with everything you’ve got up to the hill you're willing to die on. To me it speaks to dying on that hill and that isolation that alcoholics know really well. But anybody who’s gone through any kind of pain knows that feeling well.
5. Growin’ Up (Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., 1973)
I really felt like he was speaking to me, personally, as a teenager. We all did. All the lyrics to Growin’ Up are on my senior page of my high school yearbook. I got to tell that to Bruce in a crazy, excited fashion. I was barely coherent and made kind of a fool of myself, one of the times I met him. That song, to me, really sums up that feeling you get that Bruce really understands you personally and is singing to you personally, and he’s been through what you’ve been through and somehow manages to turn it into poetry and music that makes sense.
4. Badlands (Darkness On The Edge Of Town, 1978)
I can’t leave this one out! With a lot of Bruce’s songs, if you listen to the words, it’s a horrible thing he’s describing, it’s not good what’s going on, like working in the fields while you get your back burned. He’s singing about someone in a really bad circumstance but the song is so upbeat that it becomes a triumph just to survive, which is how I felt a lot, growing up. It’s that celebration of overcoming really bad circumstances, ultimately summed up in that song. He opens with it a lot and it’s hard not to be excited and full of joy hearing that song.
3. Backstreets (Born To Run, 1975)
We’re definitely going to do Backstreets and how I’m going to intro it is, (as Bruce) I remember when my heart was broken, back when I was a teenager and I don’t know about you, but I ate a pint of ice cream a day for three weeks and I think I discovered drinking, about then. Bruce, when he got his heart broken when he was seventeen, he fucking wrote Backstreets!
That’s the difference between Springsteen and everybody else! To me, it still is the ultimate expression of that loss of love. I saw him sing it at Met Life less than a year ago and he does this whole riff on that girl Terry that he’s singing about who broke his heart in that song, and what he remembers about her, and what he’ll always remember about her and what he’s going to take to his grave about her. It’s really heartbreaking that this song that he wrote as a teenager still resonates so much.
2. For You (Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., 1973)
This song means more and more to me as I get older and as I’ve lost people. That song’s about a friend of his who committed suicide. I just turned sixty and I’ve lost a lot of folks to alcoholism, drug addiction, old age, other diseases, you name it... . As a young man, I thought, “Wow, he really described in that song what it’s like to lose somebody.” I’m old enough now to say, ‘Yup, he was right – that’s just how it feels.’” And that desire to save someone when you can’t.
One close friend of mine, in particular, went in and out of sober rooms and eventually it got him. I just thought, it was one of those things that you take personally. Like, “How can you pick that shit over this life, that I’m in with you? If nothing, just how much we laughed together! Isn’t that so much better than dying from that disease?” I want to work up that song, too, and dedicate it to that buddy of mine.
Classic Rock: We’d like to point out that so far, there are no Born In The U.S.A. tracks on this list.
You know, I love that album but as I said earlier, to me, that was like Bruce being shared with the world. It’s great, but what’s closer to my heart and soul is the stuff leading up to that. And so, I give the Number One spot to...
1. Jungleland (Born To Run, 1975)
I guess I’ve got to go with Jungleland. That song is everything to me. It’s teenage heartbreak and hope, that epic poetry out of the everyday... It’s a great rock and roll song. I’m a huge Zeppelin and Skynyrd fan and I’d put Jungleland with Free Bird and Stairway To Heaven; these are fast/slow songs that belong together and give you two distinct emotions. So I’d go Jungleland for the top of the list.
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