Few actors in modern pop culture have a voice, or, you know, 30, that’s as instantly recognizable as Hank Azaria. For more than three decades on The Simpsons, he’s been the guy behind some of Springfield’s most iconic misfits.
From perpetually grouchy bar-keep Moe Szyslak, to the ever-smug Comic Book Guy, to the lovably clueless Chief Wiggum, Azaria’s characters have delivered lines that live rent-free in the cultural zeitgeist. But step off the Fox soundstage and into a dimly lit club, and Azaria isn’t reaching for a script; he’s grabbing the mic, ready to front his band.
Article continues below“I am an obsessive vocal geek,” says Azaria. “This is a new way to express that. I'm a mimic at heart. This is the first singing impression I've really worked hard on in my life, and all the more reason I'm loving it. I've had to sing often in my career, but I never cared enough to try to sound all that good. Usually I'm just singing comedically.”
With a grin, he seamlessly switches into the voice of Wiggum, “When Chief Wiggum sings, nobody really cares how nice it sounds as long as it's funny and it's fairly on key,” he says with a laugh. Shifting gears to Moe, he says, “Same for Moe, you know, nobody cares how nice Moe sounds when he's singing. For Bruce, you want it to sound nice, or at least soulful, so working on that has been really fun,” he tells us.
We’re breaking something of a golden rule for Guitar World here, as Azaria does not play. However, from his rock connections to his custom ‘Moe’ Petillo guitar and what it was like to share the stage with Slash and Joe Bonamassa at the same time, he has plenty of insight to keep guitarists entertained. Worst. Interview. Ever? Not a chance.
We join Azaria in his home office, and having seen a photo of him holding a rather striking custom Petillo guitar, we ask about his own relationship with the six-string.
“I tried to play as a teenager and failed miserably at it,” he says with a laugh. “I discovered that my left hand and right hand can’t do two different things at once, which is a real detriment for any musical instrument!”
He reaches off-camera and grabs a Telecaster-esque guitar. “The only reason I have this beautiful guitar is because I’ve been doing the Springsteen thing.” Transforming into a dead-on impression of Bruce, he continues, “Now, vocally, I can do a lot of things that I can’t do with my hands and feet.”
Holding the guitar to the camera, Azaria proudly shows off the sheer amount of detail that covers the entire length of the instrument.
“We played the Stone Pony, which you know is the Mecca of Springsteen fandom. Springsteen’s actual guitar maker, Dave Petillo, surprised me and gifted me with this unbelievable guitar, which is exactly Bruce’s guitar to his specifications. He just made it purple in honor of Moe’s Tavern.”
Looking at the guitar’s bridge and making his way along the neck, Azaria says, “He did all these incredible mother-of-pearl inlays.” Landing on an impressive inlaid recreation of the Simpsons bartender, he can’t help but slip into character, saying, “There’s Moe right there. Baked right in there.”
Flipping the instrument over reveals a striking psychedelic symbol. “On the back, that design is Steve Van Zandt’s. I'm inspired by Steve Van Zandt [and that’s a] sign he uses a lot,” says Azaria. He also points out a line from the Bruce Springsteen classic, Thunder Road, ‘We got one last chance to make it real, trade in these wings on some wheels.’
Making the Moe guitar
Guitar builder Dave Petillo on the creation of Hank Azaria’s Simpsons-inspired custom build...
“The features are inspired by the Fender Esquire my father, Phil Petillo, sold and customized for Bruce Springsteen, helping shape his signature sound.
“These elements include Bruce’s actual neck-shape specifications, Petillo Triangle Frets, and a piece of the original Palace Amusement Park inlaid into the tone knob. The historic Palace is referenced in the lyrics of Born to Run.
“When I spoke with Stevie Van Zandt about incorporating the paisley pattern I created for his Petillo “Soulfire” guitar, along with his purple Om symbol, he was gracious in allowing Hank to feature an exclusive element inspired by one of his instruments.
“The rear pickguard design evokes a wheel rolling down the highway, referencing the lyric from Thunder Road. At its center is Stevie’s purple Om symbol, with his paisley motif integrated into the hubcap windows.
“The body is finished in a translucent purple nitrocellulose lacquer over a flame maple top. The color choice nods both to the nighttime palette of The Simpsons where Moe’s Tavern often appears in purple tones and to Stevie’s personal aesthetic. The maple’s top edge was carefully masked to create the illusion of natural maple perimeter binding, framing the body shape.
“On the headstock, within the Petillo & Buell oval logo, is an etched rendering of Danny Clinch’s 1949 Pontiac “Silverstreak,” complete with his signature red lightning bolt on the door, set against a Paua abalone background."
Head to Petillo Guitars for more information
As we continue to inspect the guitar, more and more details become apparent. “Look, it says ‘Down In Jungle Land’ right here,” says Azaria, pointing at the pickguard. There is even a duo of holograms of Bruce in concert that move as you angle the guitar.
“Those are Bruce playing to the crowd,” he says. Over at the tone controls, Azaria points out a curious little figure. “This little weird guy, that’s an icon that appears on the beach in Asbury Park a lot. He’s a little logo.”
It has a beautiful, authentic Bruce sound because it is, in fact, Bruce’s guitar
Now, as well as the Moe inlay, the actor’s Simpsons connection is also represented in more ways.
“The three-eyed fish is from The Simpsons,” says Azaria, flipping the guitar round to show off even more intricate inlay work. As well as Blinky, there’s even a burning pint glass to represent the Flaming Moe, from the fan favorite episode in season three of the show.
“I wish I could play it,” declares Azaria. “Our guitarist, Alden Harris-McCoy, plays this on stage quite a lot. And it has a beautiful, authentic Bruce sound because it is, in fact, Bruce’s guitar.”
When asked if he knew Petillo was making him the instrument, Azaria says he had no idea it was coming.
“[It was a] complete surprise to me. Dave Petillo, who builds these guitars for Bruce and many other people, takes tremendous pride in custom-making them and putting a ton of thought into the designs.”
Now, when quizzed if he thinks he’ll ever learn to play now that he has a guitar of this caliber, he’s quick to shut down the idea. “God no,” he says with a laugh. ”I’ve tried a lot as a teenager and failed. I’m fortunate I can sing; you know that’s where we leave it.”
Azaria’s journey into the world of Springsteen tributes began, like so many great stories, with a milestone birthday and a sense of mischief. Turning 60 and not wanting a grand, traditional celebration, he hatched a plan to do something a little different.
“I got this insane idea, and I honestly don’t know where it came from”, says Azaria. “I’m going to throw this huge party and create reunions, like a college reunion, a high school reunion, and a Broadway reunion, so that all my friends have each other and I don't have to really host.
I told them that I had this incredible Springsteen tribute band coming. But I did not tell them that I had put it together...
“Most of them are huge Springsteen fans. So I told them that I had this incredible Springsteen tribute band coming that I found,” he says with a grin. “But I did not tell them that I had put together a band that I was working on for months to front!”
When the moment arrived, Azaria introduced the band, only to remain on stage, belting out Springsteen classics as his friends looked on in shock and delight.
“I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it. I gave myself genuine joy on my 60th birthday, seeing all the people I’d loved all through my life and knowing what this music meant to them,” reflects Azaria.
What started as a lark for his birthday blossomed into an ongoing project. “Now I’ve fallen down a complete rabbit hole of being very obsessed with developing as a singer and sounding more and more like Bruce,” he admits. “It’s become a third-act career.”
Mimicry, of course, has long been Azaria’s calling card, but singing as Bruce presented a new challenge, as he realized that to do justice to Springsteen required a level of vocal commitment beyond anything he’d done as a comedic voice actor.
“The mimicry part came easily to me because I can sort of mimic anything. The singing mimicry part was harder,” he reflects. “I realized a few months into it, ‘Oh, I just need to develop as a singer,’ because you can’t sound like Bruce unless you're really singing.”
If you take young Al Pacino on one end and Bruce Springsteen on the other, in the middle there, that's Moe the bartender
In true Azaria fashion, the edges of his influences blur and overlap. When asked if there are any Simpsons voices that are closely linked to that Bruce impression, he explains that most of the voices he is famous for performing are linked in some way.
“Like a lot of the impressions I worked up as a young man, they were out of hero worship,” he says. “I love Bruce, so I would listen to his talks in concert, and I tried to imitate him.
“Another hero of mine growing up was Al Pacino,” he continues as he slips into the unmistakable voice of a young Pacino, “his voice was kind of high, you know, from Dog Day Afternoon or Godfather,” he then quickly transitions from Pacino, to Springsteen.
“If you take young Al Pacino on one end and Bruce Springsteen on the other, in the middle there, that's Moe the bartender. He's a mash-up of those two voices.”
Next, Azaria slips into the voice of Kirk Van Houten, Milhouse’s awkward dad, to demonstrate that even this unassuming character is linked in some way to Bruce.
“You know, in some ways, my Bruce sounds sort of like Milhouse's father from The Simpsons, kind of,” he says with Kirk's signature downbeat tone. “Although Milhouse's father is much more nerdy and insecure, and less soulful, funky, and cool.”
Azaria’s circle runs deep in musical comedy, but he hasn’t sought advice from his Simpsons co-star Harry Shearer, bassist in Spinal Tap, at least, not yet. He laughs at the prospect of bringing Shearer’s alter ego, Derek Smalls, up for a guest spot with the band.
They took our recording of Prove It All Night, Slash and Joe Bonamassa, and they arranged it exactly to it. It’s crazy
“That’s a very good idea, actually,” he muses, imagining future gigs in the UK where Shearer might join them on stage if they could get the stars to align.
“You know, Harry's really playing bass. I am not ever playing a guitar. I’m developing my own frontman moves,” he says, laughing. “But if Harry’s there, that is a very good idea, actually, to have Harry sitting on bass with us in a couple of songs.”
Now, sharing the stage with legends is already a reality for Azaria. At a recent Soho Sessions charity night in New York, he found himself singing alongside none other than two guitar icons, Joe Bonamassa and Slash, at the same time.
“It was like an out-of-body experience,” he marvels, remembering the thrill of watching the guitar titans trade lead lines on Prove It All Night. “To look over and see Slash and Joe Bonamassa taking turns on the guitar solos, I kept grabbing my head, going, ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’”
Even more surreal was learning they’d arranged their parts according to the EZ Street Band’s specific live version.
“I think they knew the song, but did have to learn it,” says Azaria. “If you look at Prove It All Night, you'll find, I'm not exaggerating, 11 different live versions of that song over the years.
“Often, we’re mish-mashing them, but for this one were going off a very specific recording from like the late ’70s. They took our recording of that, Slash and Joe Bonamassa, and they arranged it exactly to it. It was really fun. It’s crazy,” he says, smiling ear to ear.
Of course, for a lifelong Simpsons star and Bruce devotee, inviting Springsteen himself onto the animated streets of Springfield remains the ultimate dream. Azaria admits to geeking out when meeting The Boss and hopes one day he’ll say yes to an appearance – although he has turned down offers in the past, revealing his role went to Sting in the episode Radio Bart in season three.
“I met Bruce twice, and I geeked out so hard twice that I barely got any words out. So I might not be the best advocate for this – but yeah, I hope someday he joins us.”
For now, he treasures a video message from Springsteen – perhaps recorded under duress.
I met Bruce twice, and I geeked out so hard twice that I barely got any words out
“I have a buddy who's a dentist in New York and he’s a big fan of Bruce,” explains Azaria. “One day, I get a text from him, and it’s a video of him in his office. The camera pans over, and Bruce is in his dentist chair. He says, ‘Hey Hank, Bruce Springsteen. I got a pretty bad toothache, but while I'm sitting here, I've been fabulously entertained by your version of Prove It All Night, which I got to say, you do a pretty good job of it.’
“So I was on an aeroplane when I got that, and I started crying. I was so happy. And the guy sitting next to me thought I was absolutely out of my mind!”
Azaria sees his tribute show as “almost a one-man show about how I feel about this music and how it affected me, plus us trying to recreate his songs as best we can.” It’s a loving homage, and the fact that Springsteen himself is flattered by it means everything.
Does he ever see a day when Bruce will share the stage with him? “That would be a dream come true for him to somehow join us. Maybe when we’re playing The Stone Pony again, one day, maybe Bruce will get word, or we’ll figure it out, and he’ll come up and do a song or two with us. That’s my hope.”
Ending our interview, we wanted to see which of the many, many characters he has given a voice to he would invite into the band. Azaria pauses and thinks, “That’s a good question – yeah, that is a good question,” he says with a grin. Cycling through voices in rapid-fire, he says in character, “It wouldn’t be Professor Frink, I don’t think he enjoys that sort of music. It wouldn’t be the police chief Wiggum”, he says in Wiggum’s trademark nasal tone.
Without missing a beat, he’s into the gravely, surly tone of Szyslak, “Oh, it would be Moe. You know, Moe had Aerosmith in his bar. I feel Moe understands the rock ‘n’ roll thing. It would definitely be Moe.”
If you're looking to catch Azaria and the band live, head over to ezstreetnyc.com for all their upcoming tour dates.
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