Article: Rock mobster; Steve Van Zandt balances rockin' with Bruce Springsteen, acting on TV's "Sopranos" and promoting his new solo CD.(VARIETY)

His black velour shirt was open practically to his belly button. His bare feet stuck out of colorful baggy pants decorated with images of elephants. A dark scarf was wrapped around his head. Steve Van Zandt, sitting amid a cloud of cigarette smoke in his room at the Hyatt Whitney Hotel in Minneapolis, looked more gypsy than mobster.

Of course, he only plays a mobster on TV. When Van Zandt walks into his dressing room in New Jersey, ditches the scarf and dons a toupee, he transforms himself into Silvio Dante, a henchman on HBO's acclaimed "The Sopranos," which starts its second season at 8 tonight.

"I've got to look in the mirror and see the guy," said ...

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