photo: Leah Bouchier-Hayes

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It’s been nearly two years since Hank Azaria debuted his Bruce Springsteen tribute group. The project originated as a means for him to surprise the guests who attended his 60th birthday party in April 2024. As Azaria told Relix that fall, “This all came out of trying to cheer myself up when I was turning 60.” He succeeded to such a degree, that a few months later, Hank Azaria and The EZ Street Band performed their first public show at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge.

By this point it’s become evident that the undertaking is no passing whim. The actor (Brockmire, Ray Donovan, The Simpsons) has been vitalized by the endeavor and aims to reciprocate the energy he experiences at each show. He explains, “We call it a Springsteen celebration. It’s from a fan’s perspective. When we go see Bruce—whether we’re at MSG, MetLife or wherever—we’re all there singing along. That’s what I want to provide for people. The idea is they can take any lyric of any song at any given time. I want to play this music for Springsteen fans and give them an alternate, more intimate version.”

Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band will extend the collective conviviality well into 2026. Next up is a show at New York City’s Sony Hall on January 11, followed by a series of gigs that span the continent, with additional dates yet to be announced.

The group’s admirers include The Boss himself, who recently shared his encouragement after witnessing a live version of “Prove It All Night” from the confines of a dentist’s chair. Springsteen’s affirmative reaction brought Azaria to tears, as he recalls, “I quietly cried to myself for about three days after that.”

Looking ahead, Azaria also acknowledges, “I did not expect this to become part of my third act in life. I continue to love it and I love trying to grow it. I’m fascinated by it, too. I can tell why rock and rollers stay young. If nothing else, the breathing that it requires keeps you in the game.”

You first performed with the EZ Street Band during your 60^th birthday celebration. At what point did you have the initial sense that it might last longer than a one-off or a limited run?

By the time we were getting ready to do it for my birthday as a lark, I was thinking, “Hey, maybe we’ll keep doing it.” Then when we got our first paid gig at LPR a few months later, I was like, “Well, we’ll see how this goes.”

So with each step along the way, it was kind of like, “Let’s keep playing with this until it either stops working or I don’t like it anymore for whatever reason.” But it’s felt like a fun thing to keep pursuing.  I’m not shocked I kept doing it because I know that whenever I get this obsessive about anything creatively, I tend not to stop.

Most of the band came into this with a limited knowledge of Bruce’s repertoire. Now that they’ve been digging in for a while, how has that affected the arrangements or your approach?

I didn’t realize until a few months into playing gigs with them that they hadn’t heard most of these songs. [Laughs.] It really blew my mind because like a lot of Springsteen fans or a lot of people of a certain age, I assume that everybody not only knows these songs but that these songs are part of their souls. I can’t even imagine what it’s like not to have that experience with Bruce’s music.

I’ve enjoyed watching a bunch of kids who are young enough to be my children, discover this music and make it their own both as professional musicians and what it now means to them. They now get it—that Bruce Sound, that E Street Band sound—and of course it’s affected their playing. The emotion and the thought behind the music has become part of them and it’s been fun to see that happen.

Some of their feelings about the specific songs have been colored by the instrument they play. Our pianist tends to love the Roy Bittan songs. He can’t wait for us to do “Racing in the Street.” One of our guitarists, to my surprise, has really responded to the early era—Greetings and The Wild, the Innocent really speak to him.

For a lot of them, I think the experience of playing this for Bruce fans is what hooked them in. They’ll say to me, “These people are going bananas for this music.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s what this music is to Bruce fans.” I think they love that they can connect with an audience like that through the music they’re playing.

Do you have a sense of how many people in the audience are Springsteen fans? By this point in your career you certainly have enthusiasts in your own right.

I’d say that two thirds of any audience is made up of hardcore Bruce fans. Then the rest are Simpsons fans and I guess some of them like me.

In my mind, this is very much for Bruce fans, although I’ll try to be entertaining to everyone.

A lot of the stories that I tell started from this reverse surprise party thing that I did at my birthday. Most of my friends—probably two thirds of them—are big Bruce fans, but I knew there’d be a lot of folks there who may not know these songs. I wanted to give them a context for the songs, so that’s why I started telling some of the stories, and that’s continued into the show that we do.

Relative to those stories, now that you that you’ve been at this for a bit, have you revised them, swapped some out or introduced new ones?

We started out with about 15 songs, and now we’ve got like 25. So with each song comes potentially another story and sometimes I’ll rework a story.

We played Brooklyn Bowl about a year ago, where there’s actual bowling happening while you’re playing, and that distracted me a bit. I’d be in the middle of trying to do a song and I’d look out and say [in Springsteen voice] “Man, that’s a tough spare. How are you gonna pick that up?”

I also found that the whole night I was thinking about my father. It unlocked this memory of how I never saw my dad too much growing up because he was like a workaholic in that Mad Men era. He was a garmento, but same difference. One of the only memories I have of him as a kid was that he taught me how to bowl.

As I was thinking about that, it unlocked another memory of whenever I played Bruce music, he would yell out, “Turn down that Bruce Spring-street.” Then one time he actually came into my room while I was playing “Thunder Road” and he listened to the whole song with me. He was a Sinatra-era guy and that was not his music, but he kind of got mesmerized by the song. So that unlocked a whole story about my dad that I now tell before “Thunder Road.”

So I update them and change them. Sometimes it’s based on where we are. For our show in Atlantic City, we worked in the electric version of “Atlantic City.” Now especially in context of the movie [Deliver Me from Nowhere], it’s fun to talk about how a lot of those songs were meant for what would be Born in the U.S.A. and couldn’t get electrified, but that this one did after a while.

In conjunction with that film, a lot of the electric Nebraska material has been released. Do you anticipate adding some of those versions to your shows?

I don’t think so. You know how this is, you make a list of the songs you want to do and there are literally a hundred that you can’t even pick. All these songs are just gems to me and like any Bruce fan, I know them inside and out. We all know every word to every song he’s written.

But I always loved the recording of “Atlantic City” he did on that MTV Plugged thing from the early 90s when he wasn’t with the E Street Band. I mean, I love the acoustic stripped-down version on Nebraska, but I loved that electric version. So it was always at the top of my list to get to that, even before the movie was coming out.

Thinking of the Deliver Me from Nowhere narrative, when you’re performing these songs, to what extent do you attempt to evoke Bruce’s mindset when he was writing certain compositions?

 It’s a really interesting question, but primarily I’m a mimic. That’s the way I started out as an actor and a comedian. Even when I would do serious acting in class as a young man, I was imitating De Niro or Gene Hackman or Peter Sellers—whoever my idol was.

Then I kind of learned to act through my own approach. I had a wonderful acting teacher who taught me how to put myself in roles, even if I was sounding like someone else, which I found very difficult because I had this belief that if it was me, it couldn’t be interesting. But one of my processes is I’ll start with a voice, see where it leads me and then I’ll try to fill it in—like one of my heroes, Peter Sellers, although I don’t think I do it with half the genius that he did.

But [in Agador Spartacus voice] if I’m talking like Agador Spartacus from The Birdcage, that comes with a whole mindset, persona, emotionality and thought process. And [in Moe voice] if I talk like Moe, it’s a different one. So [in Springsteen voice] Bruce is no different. There’s a mindset and a rhythm and a feeling I get when I talk like this.

I probably memorize all those talks just as much as the songs. To me, singing like Bruce is an elaborate breath-supported, strenuous vocal impression. With more and more practice, I get more and more comfortable with it, and that becomes a way into a mindset and an emotion.

So I get into the songs, but they’re me in there, which is Bruce’s genius. His songs make us all feel like he’s singing about us to us. So I’m just delivering my feeling that I got from the song from Bruce, which is what all his fans do.

When creating art, the goal often is for it to take on its own identity over time. As this project continues to develop, have you found that performing the best Bruce show has led you to tone down some aspects of how you’ve been representing Bruce?

It becomes really interesting when you get into mimicry and performance. A good friend of mine is Elijah Johnson, who for the last couple of years has done MJ on Broadway. His mimicry of Michael Jackson is so unbelievable that it becomes its own thrill. There are levels of impressionism and when an impression is really spot-on, it’s its own form of genius and fun.

As a mimic, I’m aspiring to that, but with singing, you need to make it your own. It’s hard to express. In some ways, the more I practice and the better singer I become, the more it can get a little away from Bruce’s version, but it sounds better and I’m more emotionally connected. Other times, after going through all that practice, it sounds more and more like Bruce. It sort of depends.

But having heard countless bootlegs and grown up with them, my ear is cued to the idioms of Bruce—the little sounds he makes and the way he phrases. So I just trust that something Bruce-like is coming out and then I try to sing it as best I can.

The material that you present with the EZ Street Band spans his career, including “Human Touch” which he recorded without the E Street Band and has rarely performed with the group. What led you to that one?

First of all, I love Human Touch and Lucky Town but Alden [Harris-McCoy] actually picked it. He sings that one with Hannah [Juliano] when I take a little break. Sometimes I stay on stage and sometimes it’s so strenuous doing an evening like this, that I want a little break in the middle of the concert. Plus, I want to give Hannah and Alden a song because they’re awesome. Alden told me that the Human Touch album and song really spoke to him, so I said, “Go for it.”

Are there other songs you’ve approached similarly?

That’s the only one they take. Although I’ve turned “Backstreets” into a duet with Hannah, which I think works really well because Bruce is singing about Terry in that song, and it kind of becomes this call and response between Terry and the Bruce character. We also divide up “Badlands,” which is fun—it’s sort of round robin, the way that the three of us alternate verses on that. “Rosalita” we also divide up a little bit, as well as “Promised Land” and sometimes “Born to Run.” They’re such good singers that it’s fun to break it up. Also, to be honest, it can be such a marathon singing out there. People have to carry the load a little bit.

As I go along, my key keeps coming up. I’m only a half step below Bruce on most of the songs, and I started out like two steps below, which helps me sound more like Bruce. That comes from practice and as my key is rising, so is my vocal stamina, which is something else I’ve become obsessed about while doing this.

When it comes to individual song arrangements do you focus on the studio version, the way the band initially performed the songs, a common point in their evolution or something altogether different?

I typically start with live recordings that I love. So usually we’ll zero in on one or two live performances and we’ll base the arrangements and the vocals on those. Some of them are from 1975 and some of them are from five years ago.

We go off the album version too. We’re about to do “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and we love the musical intro he plays in concert, but then we’re probably going to stick to the album version of the song. We’re not going to play the extended version that Bruce and the E Street Band play live. So we’ll mix and match things like that.

About a month or two ago, I said to my son, who’s 16 and plays music, “Listen to how these songs have changed. The key has come up.” Then I played him our latest version of “Dancing in the Dark.” He listened to it and said, “Now play your version.” I said, “That was my version.” He actually didn’t know that it wasn’t Bruce.

To me, as a mimic, that’s what I’m shooting at. There’s a lot of other things about the show that I want to be entertaining and to work, but I’m obsessed with that level of proficiency with the sound.

Has your approach to setlists changed now that your voice has developed?

It has. When I first tried to sing “Backstreets” two years ago, it just wasn’t possible. I couldn’t get low enough for the lows or high enough for the highs, so we put a pin in that. Then with practice and as my key has come up, I just get more comfortable singing higher and louder and harder and softer.

I’m learning the craft of singing. I literally got tricked into it because to me, I’m not singing, I’m imitating Bruce. There’s a difference. I’m passionate about imitating Bruce but singing sounds like a chore to me. [Laughs.] But now I really love it to the point where I’m actually thinking, “You know what? I want to start singing in my own voice now too.” Not necessarily as part of this show, but as something.

I’ve had to sing my whole career and I’ve even sang on Broadway. [Azaria’s performance in Spamalot resulted in a Tony nomination for Featured Actor in a Musical.] I was always there to sing in a comedic way and carry the tune and deliver the comedy of the song. That was the most important thing. You see, [in Wiggum voice] when you sing as Chief Wiggum nobody really cares how good you’ve sung as long as it’s funny. Same for Moe, same for everybody.

Now I’m trying to imitate somebody really well, while also supporting my voice. When you try to sing like Bruce, you better sort something out or you’re going to blow yourself out really hard because lot of the time he’s soul singing through a rasp.

The nature of Bruce’s rasp is variable and often entwined with the moment in time. Has it been a challenge to determine how much rasp is appropriate for a given song?

Usually the least rasp you’ll hear is off the albums. That’s kind of his pristine studio voice. Then in concert, I always think at the beginning of the tour, we probably get a lot more of Bruce’s pure voice and towards the end of the tour we get a lot more of the rasp. I think he can really control it now, though.

I started out kind of purely rasping because to me that was the impression and I was less secure about my singing. So [in Springsteen voice] I figured if I’m at least rasping, I’m in the Bruce idiom.

Trying to really get more of his clear sound is a little more challenging, but ultimately it’s a mix of the two. I’m constantly saying, “Do I need more rasp here or less?” Then I’ll apply that to different songs in different places.

Now I try to sing the song as purely as I can and trust that the rasp will be there when it needs to be. I want to make sure that I am musically on key with as little rasp as possible because that makes the nicest sound, and then the sort of rasp gets added either for accent or because it sounds good or because it sounds more like Bruce. I started out rasping through “Candy’s Room” and it wasn’t tuneful enough. Then I started singing it out more, which took some practice—especially with the live version that he sings—to really hit those notes and get high up there.

Then it was also fun to add the rasp in some places where Bruce doesn’t do it as much. I think it sounds better there and more like what I’ve heard Bruce do in other songs. So it’s really effective and more fun for that particular song.

Putting you on the spot, is there a specific tune that you’re particularly keen on performing these days?

The song that I love doing most lately is “Ghosts.” It’s the only later Bruce we do, so far. That whole album, Letter to You, is about the dear departed and mortal thoughts, which as we all get older become more and more part of your life.

I feel such an emotional connection to that song and the people I miss. From the first moment I heard it, I loved the song for that reason. I saw them at MetLife and in Albany the last few years, and that MetLife show in particular had a lot of Letter to You. There were a lot of those mortal thoughts to the point where it seemed like Bruce was in a very somber mood that night, but it’s actually how he’s taken a lot of his music, at least for the last 10 years.

I was really struck by the emotion from it. He played “Backstreets” that night at MetLife, and he did the whole version where he just reminisces in the middle of the song about people who are no longer with us.

“Last Man Standing” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” also just kind of killed me, probably because I’m an old man too.

So I love “Ghosts.” I also love the beltiness of that song. It’s just really fun.

When I read Bruce’s memoir I was struck by some aspects of his struggle, akin to what you just described.

I didn’t know all that about him either, but I wasn’t totally shocked.

When you think about it, even his upbeat songs often have a different sentiment.

You can’t get more poppy and cute than “Hungry Heart,” right? But it’s about a miserable situation. “Dancing in the Dark” sounds like a dance tune, but it’s very depressing what the guy’s going through.

Suze Rutolo characterizes the phases of an artist’s career as imitation, assimilation and innovation. Have you approached this project a similar way, and if so, how far along are you?

The only innovating I would say I do is in how I tell my own stories and work that in with the songs. That’s my own. It’s in the idiom of Bruce or what I consider to be the idiom of Bruce, and the rhythm and poetry of Bruce.

We’ll do little arrangement differences here and there. We do a thing in “Dancing in the Dark” where we strip it down for a few bars and I think that works really well. Like I said, we turn “Backstreets” into a duet and do stuff like that. 

It’s also a different experience because one thing that Bruce rarely does anymore is take over a small venue and play live. I’m conscious of that aspect of what we’re doing. But mostly I’m just trying to create a show that I would enjoy going to as a Bruce fan.

You’re playing Sony Hall later this month, followed by theaters and even a casino. Is there a particular setting that you feel is best suited for the EZ Street Band?

The Stone Pony is the mecca and I really felt it in there. Not just because it’s the lore, but the show was packed and I could feel the Bruce-fanness in everybody’s bones and soul. It was crazy. In the end, that’s my favorite kind of setting to do this. About a thousand people in a place where there’s a pit so that some people can stand and then folks can sit on the sides or in the back. I was worried at first that the storytelling part wouldn’t go down as well in the club because people might not pay attention, but it goes great. People are really attentive to the spoken word part.

So that’s the sweet spot for me—about a thousand Bruce fans in a venue like that. Of course, I’m looking forward to Sony Hall [which has a similar configuration, with both standing and seated options.]

As you’ve been out and about with the group, to what extent has the audience response surprised you relative to a specific song or the show as a whole?

As Bruce fans, we all know the times the audience is going to take it. Like the first verse of “Hungry Heart,” in “Thunder Road”: “Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night” or singing the chorus of “Jungleland.” Everybody’s also in on the whoahs during “Born and Run.”

They’ve never let me down. I’ve never not had full voices come out of the audience in those moments, really without any prompting.

Bruce, himself, sanctioned your version of “Prove It All Night,” as per the video from your dentist friend. Did you have any inkling that this was a possibility?

I had no clue. This happened a few months ago. I was on a plane about to take off and just before they tell you to turn off the phone I saw that my friend Jason, the dentist, was calling. I couldn’t answer it and I didn’t know why he was calling me.

This video came through later, and at first all I could see was Jason. I was like, “Why is he sending me a video from his dentist office? This is weird.”

Then he panned over and there was Bruce, who said to me, “Hank, it’s Bruce Springsteen, sitting here with a terrible toothache. While I have a terrible toothache, I was fabulously entertained by your version of ‘Prove It All Night.’ I must say you do a pretty good job of it.” Not only that but he said, “That band is really incredible.”

I literally started crying as I was watching this. The guy next to me on the plane probably thought I was insane, so I showed it to him. Then I quietly cried to myself for about three days after that.

Bruce seemed genuinely lit up by what we were doing. At first I was petrified he would feel like I was parodying him in some way, that I was doing an SNL sketch or something. So I was really glad he got what we’re trying to do, that it’s meant as homage and a loving tribute.

At the very end of the video, he goes, “Don’t stop!” So now I’ll say that to the band mid-show: “Keep going! Don’t stop! The Boss told us we can’t stop!”