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Little Steven was born to run himself ragged. He couldn't function any other way.
"I always have been a person who likes to do more than one thing," said Steven Van Zandt, also known as Little Steven, during a telephone interview with the Sun. "I discovered that early on.
"If I was doing only one thing, I tended to overdo it. In order to give everything 100%, I had to do five things at once. Otherwise, I would give things 150%, which is too much."
That's a mathematical puzzler, but Little Steven keeps it straight in his bandana-clad head.
He initially gained fame as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. In fact, the interview with the Sun was set up for the purpose of discussing the 30th-anniversary box set release of the 1975 Springsteen album Born To Run, which comes with two DVDs of never-before-seen concert and documentary footage.
But one topic never is enough for Little Steven.
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As he spoke, he was driving to the set of The Sopranos, the legendary HBO television show in which he plays Sil, Tony's right-hand man. And Van Zandt became most animated when he was talking about his radio show, Little Steven's Underground Garage, which now reaches more than a million listeners weekly (in Toronto it can be heard on Q107, Sundays at 10 p.m.).
"Since the whole world has gone to this corporate, quarterly bottom-line thinking, we have made it very difficult for new artists to break," said Van Zandt, whose show features a combination of new musicians who have trouble getting played and old artists who rarely get played, but should.
"I'm offended by the fact we have a generation or two of kids who never have heard real rock 'n' roll. That's why we exist. And then with groups like the High Dials and the Novaks, both of whom are from Canada, and the other 110 bands I've introduced over the past three years, we give kids a chance to hear good stuff, new and old. In the end, if they want to be into hip-hop, then fine.
"The entire world seems to be based on the 'F' word, which is familiarity. Don't just play the same 300 records from the past 50 years, over and over again. I find that utterly repulsive. And actually, long-term, it's bad business."
Little Steven is up to his eyeballs in all kinds of business. He runs two stations on Sirius Satellite Radio. And he has spearheaded efforts to try to save CBGB's, a legendary punk nightclub in New York.
"That has not been going well, unfortunately," Van Zandt said. "We have the mayor on our side, we have the governor on our side, and for some bizarre reason, we're still losing. It's one guy taking on the entire city, and he's winning."
Speaking of fighting long odds, Van Zandt recalled that Springsteen and the E Street Band were doing just that when they recorded Born To Run three decades ago.
"Literally, if it didn't succeed, Bruce certainly was going to be dropped from the record company," Little Steven said.
"On the other hand, we were doing quite well locally. It wouldn't have been the end of the world to go back to the Stone Pony, where, frankly, with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, we were making more money than we were with the E Street Band at the time.
"Basically everybody was going into debt. We were hoping (Born To Run) would do okay, just so everybody could get their money back and at least we could continue. There was no real thought of it turning out to be a classic record or a classic moment in rock 'n' roll history. Looking back now, it was."
But Born To Run is not Little Steven's favourite Springsteen record.
"I'd have to say my favourite probably still is The River (1980), which was the first one I co-produced," Van Zandt said. "And my favourite material, generally, was on Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978).
"But Born To Run is quite an interesting record, and through the years I've come to like it more and more. There are different things happening on each of those three records, but certainly those are the three that set the bar."
The 55-year-old Van Zandt insisted the re-release of Born To Run should not be taken as an indication that Springsteen and the E Street Band are finished making new music.
"Aw, we're just getting started," Van Zandt said.
"I can't imagine us not making another record."
It sounds as if the multi-talented Little Steven plans to keep multi-tasking.
As long as Sil doesn't get whacked, that is.
Stern censorship in Canada
Little Steven doesn't understand what the big deal is about Howard Stern in Canada.
"Wow, I'm surprised to hear that," said Little Steven, otherwise known as Steve Van Zandt, when told the Canadian version of Sirius Satellite Radio is not planning to carry shock-jock Howard Stern for fear of reprisal from the CRTC.
"I thought we (the United States) were the only country that had to live with these Victorian values," added Little Steven, who runs two stations on Sirius Satellite Radio. "We usually look to Canada for inspiration. You guys are much hipper than we are."
Only sometimes, apparently.
Van Zandt simply could not comprehend why a specific service to which you must subscribe -- we aren't talking about public airwaves here -- would be subject to censorship, or self-censorship.
"Why would they want to do that on something that's paid for?" he asked.
And as Van Zandt pointed out, Sirius has the technology to block out certain stations if you're worried about the sensitive ears of your kiddies (yeah, right).
"Actually, having Howard Stern going to satellite radio is the one thing that hasn't been controversial down here," Van Zandt said.
"All the people in broadcast radio were relieved when it was announced he was going to satellite. It was like, 'Finally, we don't have to worry about him.' "