is concerned for the state of the world, admitting that he thinks the planet is "in the danger zone". “I’m concerned for the first time, actually,” the E Street Band legend, and former star tells in a new interview. “This insanity in the Middle East has put things in the danger zone for the first time.
It was inconceivable that [Donald] Trump could possibly win again until recently and, now, unfortunately, it’s a possibility. We’re living in an insane asylum, frankly. I keep asking: where are the tough good guys? I don’t see too many of them.
” The guitarist was speaking to The Guardian ahead of the release of Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, an HBO documentary (streaming now in the US on Max) in which peers including , Paul McCartney, 's Eddie Vedder, U2 frontman Bono, Peter Gabriel and speak about his life, music and activism. In the interview, the 73-year-old musician also speaks about an incident in South Africa which inspired him to write the 1985 anti-apartheid anthem , recorded by all-star ensemble Artists United Against Apartheid, a collective which included Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Bono, Lou Reed, Run-DMC, Herbie Hancock, Joey Ramone and more. “I was in a cab and a Black guy stepped off the kerb and the cab driver swerved to try and hit him,” Van Zandt recalls.
“He [the driver] says, ‘Fucking ’, which of course was the Afrikaans word for [N-word]. I couldn’t quite believe what I’d just seen – whoa! let me out.