He has been a central player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, the biggest rock band of the last 20 years. He rallied musicians to their loudest public denunciation of South African apartheid just as the moral weight of the world was toppling that system.
But Steve Van Zandt doesn't think for a second that those are the norms. Most musicians sweat for a living, he points out, and most change comes slow.
Which helps explain why, even though he still believes rock 'n' roll changed the culture and he still says we need to pay more attention to the world around us, he went on break for much of the '90s.
"I spent 10 years walking the dog," he says, in a bemused tone reminiscent of the look he wears when he walks onstage with the reunited E Street Band. "I wasn't sure there was a place for me in music anymore. When Bruce called me to do this tour, I hadn't picked up a guitar in probably five years."
This gives an undercurrent of rejuvenation to his new record, "Born Again Savage," which goes into stores today - and that's appropriate, because the theme is religion. It's the fifth and last CD in a series Van Zandt conceived around 1982 to tackle the Big Issues, and he began working on it 10 years ago, before he took out the dog.
"Born Again Savage" doesn't sound like any other Van Zandt record, and that's intentional. "It's my first pure rock record," he says, and the sounds range from punk to Dylan to heavy metal. The message, to oversimplify a bit, is that Westerners from the Judeo-Christian tradition should not assume that because we have more microwave ovens, we have all the other answers.
It's not a record that he expects will challenge the Backstreet Boys on the charts. "My records have never been huge sellers," he says. "But when I'm making a record, I'm not thinking, 'Does anyone care about this other than me?' I make records for myself, and after you've done it a while, you assume someone else will like it, too. My fans are very attentive."
But he doesn't have kind words for the music biz.
"Most of the record industry isn't in the same business I am today," he says. "To them, musicians and artists are a pain. They'd rather deal with 14-year-old boys. For 30 years, this music informed the culture. That's over."
But Van Zandt is back anyhow, enjoying the Springsteen tour, thinking about more music and having a good time acting on the HBO hit "The Sopranos" - his new career.
"I'd do more acting if the right part comes along," he says. "But I probably won't go looking for it. That's been generally true in my career - it's better if they come to you."
