Steven Van Zandt Talks Springsteen Documentary ‘Road Diary’

Even if you’ve never experienced a live performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, you probably know their shows are the stuff of legend — epic, three-hour music marathons that celebrate the struggles of everyday Americans with joy, communal spirit and, of course, world-class rock and roll. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have arguably set the gold standard for touring, packing arenas since The Boss’ breakthrough album, Born to Run, became a national sensation 50 years ago.

Outside of his poetic lyrics about the human condition, Springsteen — a 20-time Grammy-winner — has been a man of few words. He values his privacy and is most comfortable around familiar faces and people who have earned his trust. This includes longtime collaborators like guitarist Steven Van Zandt, as well as filmmaker Thom Zimny, who chronicles behind-the-scenes prep for his ongoing global tour in Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The highly-regarded documentary — an Emmy contender — features rare access to rehearsals, backstage moments, live performances, archival clips and personal reflections from Springsteen himself, which Zimny has fashioned into voice-over narration. Most avid Springsteen fans would agree that the Hulu film offers the most in-depth look at the man and his process ever recorded.

“I didn’t want it to be a concert film. I didn’t want it to be a pure documentary. It has Bruce in voiceover,” Zimny tells Deadline. “All these elements are tools to tell a story.”

Despite both Springsteen and his manager, Jon Landau, being credited as producers on the project (along with Zimny, Adrienne Gerard, and Sean Stuart), Landau and the Boss didn’t exert control over the direction of the documentary — leaving creative and editorial decisions to Zimny, who has already won a Grammy and an Emmy for his previous work with them (in 2007 for Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run, and in 2019 for Springsteen on Broadway, respectively).

“I never really had any dialogue with anybody on the themes I saw, or what I thought was going on. I let the film tell me that in the cutting room,” Zimny says.

“Out of all the 14 films Thom has done for Bruce and the E Street Band, I think this one is different in that way,” recounts Van Zandt, bandmate and E Street musical director, one of half a dozen or so band members interviewed in Road Diary. “It really does show the transformation of the band into a performing band, from guys just hanging out and coming together at rehearsal and slowly making that transformation.”

The film begins as Springsteen reunites in-person with his longtime cohorts to prepare for a world tour that kicked off on February 1, 2023 in Tampa, Florida, following the release of Only the Strong Survive, the singer-songwriter’s 21st studio album. The arena trek would mark the first time Springsteen and the E Street Band had performed together since 2017.

“We had been gone six or seven years, counting COVID and everything else, so we hadn’t gotten a chance to really play the new album live,” Van Zandt recalls.

Recorded during the pandemic, the LP features cover tunes steeped in R&B and classic soul. Thematically, it reflects the uncertainty of that point in time. (Side note: After the tour commenced, Springsteen developed a peptic ulcer and was forced to pause the tour; his wife and bandmate, Patti Scialfa, announced her battle with multiple myeloma, a serious blood cancer; and his mother, Adele, passed away at the age of 98)

Van Zandt — who has known Springsteen since the two were teenagers — is candid about the album’s message, as well as what it seemed to foreshadow.

“This record was specifically about mortality,” says Van Zandt. “But we were very much interested in making sure we balanced that mortality with vitality, making sure that the show was a hurricane of excitement. I was so thankful that Thommy managed to capture that with the film — that gearing up for it, shaking the cobwebs off, as Bruce says, and slowly having that transformation back into one of the great performing bands in the world. That’s our reputation, and we had to make sure we maintain that at all times.”

After being away from the road for so long, Springsteen wanted to go big — adding more horn players, more background vocalists and a percussionist to the core E Street line-up. As he did with Zimny, Springsteen took a somewhat hands-off approach to getting the band up to speed.

“The E Street Band basically produce themselves,” Van Zandt explains. “We tend to fall into our parts rather naturally. Bruce is going to have a comment here or there, but Bruce has to think about other things. He’s thinking about the big picture. He knows he can trust me to refine the details of the basic musicality of the band, which is quite obvious in a lot of ways. Mostly, he wants to communicate with the audience directly, and the band is there to help him do that.”

Van Zandt says it’s the first time the entire process has been captured on camera.

“After working with the band, and Bruce and Jon [Landau] in this space, I understood a little bit more what’s never been shared in film,” says Zimny. “And that’s the complexity and the magic of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band — both in-studio when they’re prepping for a tour, and live.”

In the film, we learn about their dynamic by listening to what they say — and what they don’t say. On stage, the cues may be as simple as a hand gesture, or a wiggle of the hips.

“They have a silent language, and if you’re really watching it unfold, it’s a beautiful thing because they’ve been playing together for so long,” observes the director. “There’s this magical thing that happens that I wanted Road Diary to capture, which is the power of E Street. I hope it comes across.”

On May 14, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band head to Manchester, England for a series of European dates. Zimny will be with them, documenting the tour.

“I’m thrilled that the band’s going to be doing more shows down the road. And I’m always grateful to just be a guest,” says the filmmaker. “God, it’s been 24 years. And each time, I never know what to expect.”

Later this year, the hotly-anticipated Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White in the lead role, will hit theaters. On the music front, on June 27, the singer-songwriter will open up his vault to release Tracks II: The Lost Albums, featuring 83 songs over seven unreleased LPs. Additionally, August 25 marks the 50th anniversary of Springsteen’s seminal Born to Run album, which catapulted him to fame in 1975.