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Steven Van Zandt on new Bruce Springsteen film and education initiative through music · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: All right, today is the day the new Bruce Springsteen biopic,
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  Speaker 1: Delivered Me from Nowhere is officially in theaters, and our
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  Speaker 1: next guest knows a thing or two about the boss.
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  Speaker 1: Stevie van Zand is a longtime member and guitarist in
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  Speaker 1: the East Street Band, and as you well know, his
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  Speaker 1: resume rangers from rock and roll Hall of Famer to
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  Speaker 1: a radio host, even acting roles like his iconic Sylvio
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  Speaker 1: Dante of the Sopranos. Well, now he's on a mission
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  Speaker 1: to bring his passion for music and arts to more
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  Speaker 1: than three million students nationwide. And I'm excited to share
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  Speaker 1: with you that joining us now in Studio fifty five
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  Speaker 1: is Stevie van zan And. We want to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that you felt transfer home here in our green screen studio,
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  Speaker 1: so we've transformed it as viewers can see to Asbury Park,
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey. A warm welcome to you man.
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  Speaker 2: Great to have you here.
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  Speaker 1: You've known Bruce Springsteen since childhood. So I'm just wondering
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts on this movie that's out today and what
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  Speaker 1: you make of it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a wonderful movie, it really is, and quite
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  Speaker 3: different from what's going on these days, you know, and
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  Speaker 3: it's wonderful. All the comic books and video games and
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  Speaker 3: cartoons and special effects that most young people are seeing
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  Speaker 3: in the movies.
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  Speaker 2: That's all wonderful. But this is the other side of it.
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  Speaker 3: This is like old school filmmaking, you know, and it's
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  Speaker 3: a bit slower paced, and once you make the adjustment,
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  Speaker 3: you're going to get a big reward emotionally because it's
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  Speaker 3: just a masterful work of art, this film. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: it's really something special, and I think everybody just needs
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  Speaker 3: to adjust to the pace, you know, slow down a
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  Speaker 3: little bit and enjoy the actual filmmaking, just like we
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  Speaker 3: used to do.
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  Speaker 1: Take some time to slow down. Well, let's talk more
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  Speaker 1: about you, because what's remarkable is that you've touched so
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  Speaker 1: many lives. So many people know who you are, either
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  Speaker 1: through your music or your acting and artistic endeavors. And
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  Speaker 1: you have something called Teach Rock and more than a
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  Speaker 1: million students across the US have benefited from a program that,
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  Speaker 1: as you were sharing with me earlier, tries to connect
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  Speaker 1: pop rock music and icons that young people will know
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  Speaker 1: with important historic lessons.
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  Speaker 2: What is it?
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  Speaker 1: How did you develop this?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's teaching history through music. Basically the original idea.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, when you start looking at education today, you
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  Speaker 3: realize there's way too many dropouts. The dropout rate in
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  Speaker 3: the poor neighborhood is close to fifty percent in some places,
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  Speaker 3: which is just intolerable. And then half of those kids
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  Speaker 3: end up in the justice system.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: So we thought, you know, we need to have a
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  Speaker 3: class that people want to go to. Statistics show if
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  Speaker 3: kids like one single class or one single teacher, they'll
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  Speaker 3: come to school, all right, So if we can improve
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  Speaker 3: the graduation rates, we at least give give them a shot.
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  Speaker 2: You know, And how do you do that?
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  Speaker 1: What would a lesson?
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  Speaker 2: Look?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the idea is to be compelling enough to keep
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  Speaker 3: them there. You know, these days you have to you
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  Speaker 3: have to give them a reason to be in that classroom.
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  Speaker 3: They can get any answer they want in thirty seconds
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  Speaker 3: on their device, right, you know, So we have to
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  Speaker 3: curate it, and we we do that by making it
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  Speaker 3: interesting for them, by by you know, using contemporary artists.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we use Kendrick Lamar for instance, to connect
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  Speaker 3: to Marvin Gay for instance, for the civil rights movement,
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  Speaker 3: you know, things like that, and we use other other.
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  Speaker 1: Other partments, the Beatles as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we use for the.
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  Speaker 3: For the math class, we might use the Beatles. How
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  Speaker 3: many hours did they spend at the Cavern club, for instance,
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  Speaker 3: or you know, science might be the way the Grateful
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  Speaker 3: Dead built their PA system. You know, we make it
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  Speaker 3: interesting for them, you know, because but we but we say,
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  Speaker 3: within the within the science, technology, engineering, and math, you know,
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  Speaker 3: basic curriculum that that school requires, but we integrate art
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  Speaker 3: into that. So that was another one of our goals
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  Speaker 3: was to make sure that the arts stay in the
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  Speaker 3: DNA of the public education system, you know, because they're
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  Speaker 3: being you know, they're being.
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  Speaker 2: Removed left and right, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And this this generation needed a new methodology to deal
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  Speaker 3: with the fact that they can get the answer in
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  Speaker 3: thirty seconds on their device, right, So they need a
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  Speaker 3: reason to be there, and we wanted to do that.
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  Speaker 3: We wanted to make it fun for them. You know,
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  Speaker 3: let's make it fun for the kids to come to
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  Speaker 3: school again.
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  Speaker 1: Why not considering those short attention spans speaking of thirty
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  Speaker 1: seconds in our last few seconds, for a young person
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  Speaker 1: who's watched you either perform or act, wants to be
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  Speaker 1: like you, Why are the arts and artistic expression? Why
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  Speaker 1: is it important?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's its own reward.
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  Speaker 3: First of all, I mean, it gets you in touch
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  Speaker 3: with your spirituality, your inner self, you know, and nothing
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  Speaker 3: can take that away from you, you know, because these
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  Speaker 3: are things I think moving so fast, you know. It's
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  Speaker 3: why we use the arts in the classroom to connect
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  Speaker 3: the dots in life. And it's more interesting for us
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  Speaker 3: to teach kids how to think than what to think.
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  Speaker 1: You know. Thank you so much for what you do.
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  Speaker 1: It's great to see you fit and well. We want
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  Speaker 1: to see you keep rocking for many more years. And
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to share with me where you've got
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  Speaker 1: that jacket, because I want to want my mother as well.
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  Speaker 1: Stevie Vanzad really appreciate you being here. Back, my friend,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll be right back. This is CBS News twenty
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  Speaker 1: four to seven.