HANK AZARIA I’ve been imitating Bruce since I was a teenager. I had a difficult relationship with my father as well, and it actually really comforted me a lot to hear Bruce’s music about that, and the stories he’d tell about it.
I was turning 60 and feeling kind of bummed about it. It felt sad to ignore, but I also didn’t want to just throw a party. I was like, I know; I’ll invite everyone, a reunion — high school, college, camp, Broadway — and tell them I had a Springsteen tribute band coming. But didn’t tell them I’d been working to front it.
I just really did it as a very personal thing, to cheer myself up.
MICHAEL SHANNON Did it work?
AZARIA Absolutely. It was one of the happiest nights of my life. Which is why I didn’t want to stop.
SHANNON It’s never been my ambition to be a touring musician. [The R.E.M. bassist] Mike Mills actually played bass on an album that Jason made. So doing the first “Murmur” show, Mike Mills came to see it.
AZARIA Oh, wow. Did that freak you out?
SHANNON He was very sweet. Jason asked him, “Do you want to participate?” And he said, “No, I’m sure you guys have been working really hard, and I just want to enjoy it; I’ll see you afterward.” Then about six songs into it, he was up onstage. He just kept coming up, all night long, and singing. And I’m sure that has something to do with why we’re still doing it. When word got out, people started inquiring.
AZARIA That’s amazing. I met Max Weinberg [the E Street Band drummer] at “Conan O’Brien” [where he was the bandleader] years before. So I invited him to that party, and he came and did two or three songs. He told me the secret of musicians is they’re all dying to be asked to jump in.
