While The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White is set to play Bruce Springsteen in an upcoming film about the making of his 1982 album, Nebraska, it’s the comic actor and voice-mimic maestro Hank Azaria who’s fronting a Springsteen tribute band right now.
Azaria first broke out his Boss impression at his 60th-birthday party at City Winery in New York back in April. It went so well he decided to turn this one-off gig into a mini-tour, fronting his “EZ Street Band.” Speaking to Air Mail after a sold-out performance in August at the Stephen Talkhouse, an intimate club on the eastern tip of Long Island, Azaria was still stunned at his surprisingly sudden career transition. “I had no idea this would be such a thing,” says Azaria, who is best known for being an ever present cast member on The Simpsons, voicing multiple characters including Chief Wiggum, Moe the bartender, and Dr. Nick Riviera. After his first official concert, Azaria proudly proclaimed to a thrilled audience, “This is one of the greatest nights of my life.”
It was when Azaria needed a project to help him overcome his fear of turning 60 that he decided to do the one thing that brings him “unbelievable amounts of joy.” The actor had imitated Springsteen’s voice for years, but he spent months training with a vocal coach so that he could sound exactly like his boyhood idol. “Part of what I’m hyped about is I’m doing a genuine homage and not a parody,” he says. “The appeal, I think, is the authenticity [of my performance] and the stories I tell about myself and Bruce.”
Azaria has seen Springsteen in concert around 25 times, but he never forgets his first—in 1980 at Madison Square Garden on Springsteen’s River Tour. He was, he says, instantly hooked on the “Bruce Juice” and credits Springsteen’s songs and career with encouraging him in his acting career when no one else was. His favorite song: “Thunder Road.”
More shows are planned across the country, and he hopes to eventually rock out in 2,000-seat theaters two to three times a month. And just as Springsteen donates to local charities at every stop on his tour, all of the proceeds from Azaria’s shows benefit his 4 Through 9 Foundation, which provides education, recovery, and social-justice services. Just don’t expect him to strap on a guitar and make it talk. “That’s a flat no. I’m useless [with the guitar].”
When asked whether he would ever join Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, and Jimmy Fallon in imitating the Boss for laughs, perhaps in a parody movie like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Azaria demurs: “Now that’s something I might consider down the road. But I’m really happy with what I’m doing now.”
Azaria and the EZ Street Band will play the Brooklyn Bowl, in New York, on November 8 and the renowned Springsteen haunt, the Stone Pony, in Asbury Park, on November 15
Steve Matoren is a Los Angeles–based writer
