Steven Van Zandt is self-isolating like the rest of us — and believes there needs to be significant advances in coronavirus testing before concerts can become a part of our lives again. While talking to The Philadelphia Inquirer, he was asked about what had been a prospective 2020 Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band tour, and explained, “(The tour) was something we talked about. It wasn’t a real definite plan, but we considered it. I think instinctively he thought, 'No reason to rush into these things.' So at the last minute, it was 'Wait till next year.' And it turned out to be a very good decision, because we would have been canceling everything.”
Regarding the future, Van Zandt said, “I’m confident that something will happen eventually. We’re going to be at the mercy of this thing. If they get a vaccine together by the first quarter of next year, then I think the summer of '21 starts to open up. But that’s if everything goes right.”
Van Zandt recalled how on December 8th, 1980, he, Bruce Springsteen, and the rest of the E Street Band came offstage in Philly to discover John Lennon had been murdered: “I remember being very shook up. Surprisingly so. You don’t realize how much impact the Beatles had on you. My whole life was changed by them. There’s a closeness you can’t even measure. That second night (on December 9th), I was very upset. I said to (Bruce), 'How can we go on?' And he says, 'This is what we’re here for. This is part of our purpose, to provide some sort of comfort in moments like this.'”
