Middletown Street Renamed For Steven Van Zandt, Who Grew Up There

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Next Friday, April 26 rocker Steven "Little Steven" Van Zandt will be in Middletown, as the Township plans to ceremonially rename a stretch of Wilson Avenue "Van Zandt Way."

Van Zandt grew up in Middletown. He and his younger brother, Billy Van Zandt, also a creative, grew up in a house at 263 Wilson Avenue. Van Zandt reached international fame playing with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and he is also a SAG-award winning actor for his memorable role of Silvio on "The Sopranos."

Van Zandt and his brother will both be at the naming ceremony, which will be held at 11 a.m. April 26 on Wilson Avenue at the corner of Cherry Tree Farm Road. Both Van Zandt brothers graduated from Middletown High School. As a teenager, Little Steven performed at the now-closed Hullabaloo club and that's where he first met Springsteen in 1965, NJ.com reported.

Former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who also grew up in Middletown, will also be at next Friday's ceremony.

A street will not be named after Williams.

Williams spent his teenage years in nowhere else but Middletown, NJ: He went to high school at the Catholic Mater Dei Prep High School (now closed and may become a charter school), where Williams was editor of the Mater Dei high school newspaper (Williams was raised in a Catholic household). While in high school, Williams was a volunteer firefighter with the Middletown Fire Department. His first job was reportedly as a busboy at the local Perkins in Hazlet.

After graduating from Mater Dei, Williams attended Brookdale Community College, and then transferred to Catholic University and then George Washington University, both in D.C., but he never completed his college degree.

This is a ceremonial renaming; official street namings are reserved for fallen soldiers and dedicated public servants.

Van Zandt is now selling herbal supplements and natural health products on his website, LittleSteven.com. It's worth watching this ad for his teas and supplements:

Billy Van Zandt is a playwright and screenwriter, according to BeachRadio.

Related: St. Mary's Plans To Bring Urban Charter School To Mater Dei Campus (April 11)