Steven Van Zandt will speak March 11 at Stambaugh Auditorium as part of the Youngstown State University Lecture Series.

Van Zandt may be best known as consigliere to a couple of famous bosses — right-hand man to Bruce Springsteen as a member and now music director of the E Street Band and playing Silvio Dante on the HBO series “The Sopranos.”

He’s produced records for Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Meat Loaf, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Lone Justice and many others. He has his own record label (Wicked Cool Records) and Sirius XM station, and his “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” radio show is syndicated to more than 80 stations worldwide.

His topic for the Centofanti Symposium lecture is “A Lifetime of Activism: Collaborating for a Cause,” and Van Zandt has organized and performed for political causes for four decades.

He created the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation to support music education and help inspire children to stay in school. His Teach Rock program created a curriculum that’s available to teachers to use music as a way to teach a variety of subjects. He started Artists United Against Apartheid, which worked to free political prisoner Nelson Mandela and topple South Africa’s segregationist political system.

Admission is free for the 7 p.m. program at Stambaugh, 1000 Fifth Ave., but tickets are required and will be available starting Jan. 27 online at www.stambaughauditorium.com and at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office, 260 W. Federal St., Youngstown.