Photo: AFP
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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