From The Simpsons and The Birdcage to Spamalot and Brockmire, Hank Azaria has been using his voice to conjure eccentric characters that could never otherwise exist. Azaria’s newest project is a Bruce Springsteen cover band called Hank Azaria and the EZ Band. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program- using his own natural voice, at least partially- to explain how his latest project came to be.
“I turned 60 last spring,” Azaria told Berman and Riedel. “I had mixed feelings about that, as we tend to. I thought, what would cheer myself up? I’m not really a party guy but I thought, you know, what if I put together a Bruce Springsteen cover band and didn’t tell anyone and did a reverse surprise party where I sang about eleven songs for about an hour and a half. I did a lot of monologues like Bruce tends to do about my connections to the songs and my life, and it went really well. I told everybody no gifts, donate to my foundation if you want to give a gift, and we raised $30k for my charity.”
Of course, word got back to The Boss about the impression from a very reliable source, much to Azaria’s consternation. “My son’s friend’s dad… texted me one day after that show and said, ‘Please text me ASAP your favorite video from that show.’ I texted him the Thunder Road video. And later that night, he calls me and says, ‘So I had Patty Scialfa [Bruce’s wife] in my [dentist’s] chair and I played it for her.’ And I was like, oh my God, if I had known that I really wouldn’t have sent that! I’m having like a retroactive heart attack now, a panic attack. But apparently she loved it and she played it for Bruce and he got from it what it was meant to be, which is a very loving tribute.”
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