2019 marks the 20th anniversary of HBO‘s lauded gangster drama, The Sopranos, widely considered to be one of the greatest TV shows of all time. The show’s cast has been busy leading the 20-year nostalgia festivities, from staging panel discussions in theaters worldwide to presenting a “Best Pop” award to New Jersey natives the Jonas Brothers at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards in Newark, NJ earlier this month.

As Vincent Pastore, the actor famous for playing Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on the show, joked during the cast’s award presentation, “Yo yo yo, I got a problem. I don’t recall anybody askin’ me if they could do an awards show here, you know?” He continued, flexing his natural mafioso intimidation tactics, “MTV, I mean, what do you think you’re doing? Handing out awards without my permission? How ’bout I win somethin’, too?”

But when Live For Live Music caught up with Pastore a few days after his VMAs gig, it wasn’t to talk about the anniversary of The Sopranos—or missed protection payments. It was to chat about his rock n’ roll band. Yes, you read that right. Vincent Pastore has a band—Big Pussy’s Gangster Squad—and they’re playing at Port Chester, NY’s Garcia’s this Thursday, September 5th.

Thankfully, we wore a wire for our conversation with Big Pussy (hey, he had it comin’), so you can read what he had to say below:

Live For Live Music: As someone who only knows your acting work, I was a sort of shocked to hear that you had a band at all.

Vincent Pastore: Oh yea, we been runnin’ around a couple years.

L4LM: But what really got my attention was the name. It might just be the best band name ever. Big Pussy’s Gangster Squad!

VP: I was calling it Vinny Pastore’s Gangster Squad, but you know, I… hey, come on, Sopranos, cash in on it. I’m a Soprano. Now I’m callin’ it Big Pussy’s Gangster Squad ’cause it’s the 20th anniversary of The Sopranos, so why not? … But I like the name. You like the name?

L4LM: Oh, I love the name. It’s perfect. Can you tell me a little bit about how the band got started?

VP: Well, back in the eighties I had a club called The Crazy Horse in New Rochelle, and I had live music every night. Years later, I’m doing a Broadway show, Bullets Over Broadway, Woody Allen play [about a playwright whose first Broadway play is financed by a gangster]. I’m down in the pit, I’m talkin’ to Nicky Codero who’s playin’ Cheech—I was playin’ his boss in the play. And I said, “I think I want to put a band together again.” I said, “I think I’m gonna get in touch with all my guys from The Crazy Horse and play again.”

And he says, “What’re you gonna call it?” I says, “I don’t know, what’d you think?” And he looked around because everybody was dressed like gangsters. He said, “Call it Gangster Squad.” Plus, there’s a movie out with Sean Penn called The Gangster Squad.

L4LM: So what’s a Big Pussy’s Gangster Squad show like?

VP: Lot of people come ’cause they wanna meet me. And then they’re kinda surprised that I got the best musicians backin’ me up. I got Al Orlo [guitar], Eddie Denise [bass], Frank Pisani [keys], the Baron [Baron Raymonde] on sax. Charlie Powers [drums]. So it’s not about me, it’s about the musicians. They all sing, with the exception of Al. So it’s a show, you know?

So we open up with “Green Onions” and then I come out and I do my thing. And then I start talking about the guys in the band and how we all got together back in the eighties and we’re still together, and who’s playing with Dion and who’s playing on Broadway, who plays with Jackson Browne. Each one of those guys knock out a song, man. They sing and I stand there and I shake a tambourine or do background vocals. But I wind up singing about six songs throughout the whole show.

L4LM: What kind of stuff do you play?

VP: We do the stuff I grew up on. You know, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s. We don’t go into the ’90s. I think that’s when the music died. I didn’t know one person except for Queen Latifah and Lenny Kravitz at the MTV awards the other night. And the Jonas Brothers. I didn’t know nobody.

Who else was a person I knew? Taylor Swift. Andrea Grandy? [Editor’s note: a pretty solid attempt at Ariana Grande]. But I don’t know those other guys. They got all these kids! I mean, but I’m 73 years old, whatta ya want? I’m an old bastard. So we don’t go up and play that kinda music. We play Rolling Stones. We play a lot of Van Morrison, Bob Marley. You know, that kinda stuff.

L4LM: Is that the kind of music you’d have at The Crazy Horse back in the day?

VP: Yeah, yeah. It’s almost like to me, when I’m up there workin’ with the guys, my mind steps back. I go back in time. ‘Cause I’m lookin’ at these guys and all we did was just get older, but we’re still together. So here I am, 73 years old. Am I still livin’ in the ’80s? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe once a week, twice a week…whenever we play, yeah!

L4LM: How did this show at Garcia’s on September 5th come together?

VP: I met Peter [Shapiro], who owns the Brooklyn Bowl, at The Capitol [Theatre] when The Rascals came in. I think The Rascals were one of the first acts in the new Capitol when Peter took over. I met him through [Sopranos co-star and E Street Band guitarist] Little Steven [Van Zandt]. Then, when I was with Peter at the Brooklyn Bowl with Little Steven, I said “you know, I got a band.” He said, “Well, why don’t you play the Garcia’s?” He put that in my head. So I went up there and I booked the show, but had to cancel ’cause I got a movie. So now I’m back and we’re on time and we’re there, everything’s good. I don’t have a movie. Thursday night, 8 o’clock. We’re gonna have fun. Two sets of good rock n’ roll.

Grab your tickets here to rock with Big Pussy’s Gangster Squad at Port Chester, NY’s Garcia’s on Thursday, September 5th.

Vincent PAstore, Big Pussy, Big Pussy's Gangster Squad, The Sopranos