Best known for his iconic voice work on The Simpsons and a string of memorable film and TV roles, Hank Azaria is now channeling a different kind of spotlight away from the screen. The Emmy-winning actor has been on the road with his Bruce Springsteen tribute band, Hank Azaria & The EZ Street Band, celebrating the poetry of The Boss with reverential shows of incredible music, storytelling, audience interaction and hero worship. What began as a passion project among friends has grown into a seasoned tour with new dates regularly being added, drawing fans of both Springsteen and Azaria to venues across the country. Franklin Lifestyle had the pleasure of asking Azaria all about it.
So tell me about the tour. You’ve been performing and touring for about a year now. What’s the experience been like for you?
It’s literally been some of the most fun I’ve ever had. I didn’t know it was a dream of mine until I started doing it. And I love this music. I’ve loved really learning to improve as a singer which I never took seriously before. I love raising money for charity, which I’ve been doing for 30 years. It’s really one of my favorite things I’ve ever done in my life.
Had you planned this for a while or was it something that you just decided when you turned 60?
I just wanted to cheer myself up around turning 60. I really did! And so I decided to throw this reverse surprise party where I told all my friends - most of them are Springsteen fans - that I had a Springsteen cover band coming. I didn’t tell them that I’d been working for months to be the front man on it. I surprised them with it and it went so well that we decided not to stop doing it. That night we raised around $30K for our foundation. It just went so well, we said, ‘Why don’t we keep doing this?’ And now I’m really kinda obsessed with it.
I’ve read that you’ve met Bruce twice now and both times it didn’t really go so well.
I just fanboyed so hard on that poor man. My friend calls it "Bruce juice." It's just that reaction that people have when they see Bruce Springsteen and I certainly am guilty of it. But Bruce was really gracious to me. I was just a babbling idiot.
What did Bruce mean to you that made you want to pursue this?
Well, I actually got to tell him this, which I tried to express in a calm manner, but it came out crazy, was that his music meant a lot to me. Especially when I was a teenager. I had pretty dark, lonely, difficult times as a teenager, and his music really got me through it. Not just his music, but his talks, as we called them, the monologuing he would do in concert, and it really encouraged me to be a creative person, to pursue my dreams when really no one else in my life would or could. And apart from just loving his music and that bringing me so much joy over my life, he really was the kind of teenage hero that actually had impact. His message seems to be, "You can do what you want to do in your life if you just really put all your heart and soul into it," and it really affected me.
Do you have a favorite song that you like to do live?
It's really hard for me to pick. I think "Jungleland." It's my favorite song. That was my favorite song growing up, and I think it's my favorite song to do live, but it's really hard to pick. I really also love doing "Thunder Road," "Born to Run," "Prove It All Night" and "Streets of Fire." We do about 20, 25 songs, and I love all of them.
Tell me a little bit more about the Four Through Nine foundation you started?
I started it with my wife about five years ago. We were giving so much to different causes, primarily education, social justice, and health and wellness and recovery. We're both sober people, so it just made it easier to form a foundation and give from there, and that teed us up. When I turned 60, I had forgotten to say no gifts, so we re-emailed everyone and said, "No gifts, but if you like, you can donate to our foundation," and we raised $30,000 that night! Forming the foundation made it a lot easier to give, because it's just money that's set aside and it's all set up, and I'm really glad I did that.
What does your wife think of all this? Does she travel with you when you do your Bruce tour?
Occasionally. It's funny. At first she was really worried for me, because when I was first learning the impression, there was a lot of trial and error. Let's put it that way. I really had to work at this, really, honestly harder than... I spent my whole adult life doing vocal impressions on one level or another, but this was by far the hardest I've ever worked. I think a lot of it was just to distract myself from turning 60, I really do, but I really fell into a rabbit hole with it. And that got annoying because I was screaming Bruce in the house for months, and it didn't sound very good at first either. I was really learning to do it, so it was really annoying and she was really worried I'd never believe in myself, and trying to break to me, "Maybe you shouldn't do this kind of thing." And I blew my voice out too. I was practicing so hard, and Bruce has such a heavy rasp. It was a journey, and then my wife in her 20s had spent a lot of time around the music business and didn't really love it, so she was having PTSD flashes. She couldn't believe her husband was entering the music business somehow, because she had never really loved it, but then all's well that ends well. She sees how much joy it brings me and how much fun we're having and how much money we're raising, and so she's really on board now.
Are you more comfortable in your 60s now? It seemed like you had a hard time first turning 60, now you're 61. Are you feeling more comfortable in your 60s, or you still hate it?
Yeah, I'd rather be 44, I'm not going to lie, but you have no choice, right? To quote Bruce, he said, "You get used to anything. Sooner or later it just becomes your life." And that's from his song "Straight Time," which is an amazing son. I just turned 61 a couple of weeks ago, and didn't love that either. I found it a little easier than 60, but no. I never used to be that person, to fret about a birthday. You know what I think it was? This is going to sound like a joke and it's half a joke, but you turn 40 and everybody says, "Ah, 40 is the new 30," and you turn 50 and everybody goes, "Oh, 50 is the new 40," and I really noticed that when you turn 60, nobody says 60 is the new anything.
What's next for you? Do you want to continue acting or are you going to ride this wave as long as you can? What's the plan?
I have a show coming out with Mandy Patinkin and Janet McTeer and Clark Gregg and Zachary Quinto. That'll be out soon. I did that I played Thomas Edison in that. It's called The Artist. I don't even know what streaming platform it's on. I'm also working on a one-man show. I'm actually writing it as we speak and I hope to put up off-Broadway this year.
Is it a comedy? Comedy one-man show?
It is. It's a life story, a living memoir, sort of, and I do a lot of the origin story, a lot of the voices and characters, including Bruce. And I'm the luckiest man in show business in that The Simpsons never ends. We just got contracted for four more years, which will bring us to year 40.
4thru9.org
Upcoming Tour Dates
7/10/25 The Franklin Theatre - Franklin, TN
7/12/25 The Eagle Theatre - Sugar Hill, GA
7/19/25 Greenwich Odeum- East Greenwich, RI
8/23/25 Music Box at the Borgata - Atlantic City, NJ
10/24/25 Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts - Rockville, MD
Visit EZStreetNYC.com for updated tour information and ticket links.