From ‘Simpsons’ to Springsteen

It all started out as a “reverse surprise party” for his friends. 

When Hank Azaria — the six-time Emmy Award–winning actor probably best known for voicing several characters on The Simpsons — turned 60, he told his friends he was getting a Bruce Springsteen tribute band for the party. But the surprise was on them when Azaria appeared onstage to perform as The Boss, backed by a professional band and singing his heart out for an hour and a half. 

“I totally fell into this rabbit hole of obsessing over a vocal impression, which is sort of what I do for my career, off and on,” said Azaria in a phone interview. “And I’ve never had more fun, because I love this music so much and have such nostalgia for it. I kind of had to learn to sing along the way for real in order to not blow my voice out. Then one thing led to another, and we just started gigging. And I just love it.” 

What started out as a birthday show in April 2024 led up to the band (with Tim Basom, Evan Harris, Alden Harris-McCoy, Hannah Juliano, Dustin Kaufman, Jeff Koch, Adam Kromelow, and Christian Nourijanian) making their public debut in August 2024. The sold-out event marked the official launch of The EZ Street Band as a touring act and began the group’s journey to bring audiences an authentic Springsteen experience. Since then, they’ve taken the show on the road, with all net proceeds going toward the Four Through Nine Foundation (4thru9.org), founded by Azaria and his wife Katie and committed to social justice, education, and addiction recovery. 

Azaria and The EZ Street Band will be in our neck of the woods at the Chumash Casino Resort’s Samala Showroom on Friday, January 30.

A longtime Springsteen fan, Azaria — whose films include Quiz Show, Heat, The Birdcage, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Godzilla, and Pretty Woman — said, “I’ve been imitating the way Bruce talks since I was a teenager. I tried to sing like him, too. I discovered that I have a deeper voice than Bruce naturally. So, whenever I tried to sing along to the recordings, I couldn’t reach his high notes … but there’s a thing in music that I didn’t know called, you can lower the key a little. So, we did that. But now, actually, part of the fun and the challenge of it is, over the last two years, my key has been creeping up, and now I sing some songs in Bruce’s key, and some only a half-step below, which is because I’m practicing, and also, the closer you get to Bruce’s key, the more it sounds authentically like Bruce.

“So, it’s almost like a video game. I’m almost unlocking levels. And I really enjoy that.”

With an acting career that’s quite busy with The Simpsons on its 37th season, as well as multiple films, another TV show (The Artist), a book, and a one-man show in the hopper, Azaria said, “This band is my favorite thing to do. It keeps me fairly busy. We’re kind of at a point where we’re having to turn down gigs. I would do more, but I have a 16-year-old son and he’s about to start applying for college, and I kind of need to be around the home front. Otherwise, I’d grab my wife and hit the road.”

As a longtime Springsteen fan, Azaria said he is always working to improve and wanting to do him justice. “Most people of a certain age growing up on the East Coast, Bruce is just part of your life, whether you like it or not. … I’m from that classic rock era. I love so many of those bands. Bruce was always at the top of my list, like he was for a lot of people.

“Somehow, with Bruce, you feel like he’s singing about you to you, very personally, which is a gift. Not all great artists have that. … Some actors have that too, where not only are they amazing, but you feel like you’re their best friend somehow in their performance. Bruce has that quality; his songs play a movie in your head. He’s such a brilliant storyteller that I think, more than a lot of other artists, you get transported into his songs in a way that some other artists, even those you love, don’t quite do.”

Was he worried about Springsteen’s reaction to the tribute band? 

“I worried a lot about that. I worried at first, he’d feel it was a parody in some way,” said Azaria. “I wanted a project that is almost beyond the loving homage. It’s really a performance based on loving; It’s like an expression of what he actually really meant to me my whole life.”

Through a mutual friend connection (“a crazy story through a dentist buddy of ours”), Azaria said, “I actually got this really incredibly sweet video from Bruce, basically blessing us and saying he thought we were doing a really good job and that we should keep going.” 

Azaria got that message when he was on a plane. “I started to cry. The guy sitting next to me thought I was nuts. I showed him. I was like, ‘Look, it’s Bruce. It’s Bruce.’ And I cried for about three days after I got that.”

See Hank Azaria and The EZ Street Band at the Chumash Casino (3400 E. Hwy. 246) on Friday, January 30, at 8 p.m. See chumashcasino.com.