with his humorous appearance and presence. Though Van Zandt had never acted before, he auditioned for the role of Tony Soprano. HBO felt that the role should go to an experienced actor, however, so Chase wrote a part especially for Van Zandt. Van Zandt eventually agreed to star on the show as Silvio Dante, and his real-life spouse Maureen (née Santoro) was cast as his on-screen wife Gabriella. Tussles in Brussels Van Zandt recorded the narration for The Hives biography on their concert DVD Tussles in Brussels (2004). Hotel Cæsar In 2010, Van Zandt appeared as himself in the Norwegian soap opera Hotel Cæsar, broadcast on Norway's biggest commercial channel TV2 Norway. He also appeared on Scandinavia's largest talkshow Skavlan. Lilyhammer In 2011, he starred in, co-wrote, and was the executive producer for an English and Norwegian language series entitled Lilyhammer, the first original Netflix series that was produced in collaboration with Norwegian broadcaster NRK. The name recalls the city of Lillehammer, which hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics. On the show, Van Zandt portrays a Sopranos-like role of an ex-mafioso who enters the witness protection program and flees to Norway to escape a colleague against whom he testified. The show premiered on NRK television on January 25, 2012 with an audience of 998,000 viewers (one fifth of Norway's population), and ran for three seasons before being cancelled in 2015. The Irishman Van Zandt appears in the Martin Scorsese-produced gangster epic The Irishman as singer Jerry Vale, lip-syncing Vale's Al Di La. Radio host and entrepreneur Radio host Since 2002, Van Zandt has hosted Little Steven's Underground Garage, a weekly syndicated radio show that celebrates garage rock and similar rock subgenres from the 1950s to the present day. As of December 2006, the show is heard on over 200 US radio stations and in some international markets. For example, in Spain it has beamed through Rock & Gol since 2007 and later on Rock FM Radio in Finland; Radio Helsinki started beaming Little Steven's Underground Garage in August 2008. On October 20, 2011, the program recorded its 500th show in front of a sold-out crowd at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York's Times Square. The guests included the band Green Day; Steve Buscemi, star of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire; Vincent Pastore, aka "Big Pussy Bonpensiero" from The Sopranos; actor and director Tim Robbins; and singer Debbie Harry of the