Bruce Springsteen surprised friend and bandmate Steven Van Zandt as he was inducted to the New Jersey Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony Sunday at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater, NJ Advance Media reported.
"The Boss" spoke on behalf of Van Zandt and even played a song with him during the ceremony where 17 new members were inducted. Along with playing with the E Street Band, Van Zandt was a standout as Silvio Dante in the HBO hit series "The Sopranos," the website said.
"One look at Steve and I knew we both drank the same Kool-Aid," Springsteen, a 2008 New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee, said of their longtime friendship and music collaboration, per NJ Advance Media. "Steve is one of the greatest living white soul performers we have."
Springsteen went on to make fun of his friend's clothing, saying that he was authentic New Jersey, the New York Post wrote.
"(Van Zandt is) the only man I know besides Hugh Hefner who has figured out how to spend his whole life in his pajamas," Springsteen joked, the Post said. "Though born in Boston, Massachusetts, there is no purer distillation of the Jersey ethos than Little Stevie Van Zandt."
Springsteen and Van Zandt performed "I Don't Want to Go Home," a song Van Zandt sang on the first Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes album, released in 1976, according to the website.
"We were lucky to grow up when we did," Van Zandt, who credited a culture of teenage leisure with allowing him to be creative in a band and meet Springsteen in the first place, noted NJ Advance Media.
"We did the impossible: We made New Jersey hip," Van Zandt added, also pointing to his time with "The Sopranos," the New York Post said. "I had the experience of witnessing New Jersey become fashionable twice in one lifetime. Thank you, New Jersey; you have been very, very good to me."
Before Springsteen's appearance, there was a buzz about Oscar-winner Meryl Streep not showing up for the induction because of a scheduling conflict with her shooting the HBO series "Big Little Lies," noted NJ Advance Media.
Other New Jersey Hall of Fame inductees, according to the Hall's website. included author Harlan Coben, author and journalist Anna Quindlen, real estate executive Jon Hanson, publishing executive Steve Forbes, businessman Joe Buckelew, celebrity chef Buddy Valastro, the band The Four Seasons, singer Gloria Gaynor, and singer-songwriter Debbie Harry, astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly, nurse Clara Maass, politician Millicent Fenwick. Major League Baseball player Al Leiter, runner Mary Decker and, Olympic soccer player Carli Lloyd.
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