PHILADELPHIA — Hank Azaria’s 60th birthday was approaching, and the TV and film actor — best known for voicing over 100 characters in 36 seasons of "The Simpsons" — needed a little more joy in his life.

So naturally, the six-time Emmy winner decided he needed to learn to sing like Bruce Springsteen.

The idea of walking around the house all day singing Springsteen made perfect sense to him. He had been a lifelong fan, first seeing the Boss on “The River” tour in 1980, and seemed to have a natural talent as a mimic since he was a boy growing up in Queens.

But for all of his dexterity in creating voices for "Simpsons" characters, like Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Superintendent Chalmers, and Professor Fink, Azaria had limited experience as a musical mimic.

That’s despite performing in the Monty Python musical "Spamalot" on Broadway. “I still say that I am the person with the least musical ability in the history of the theater to be nominated for a Tony Award for a musical,” he said.

He worked up a credible singing Springsteen impression with the initial aim of surprising 500 guests at his 60th birthday at New York’s City Winery in April 2024.

Entertaining them with a set of Bruce covers proved to be more difficult then he imagined.

“I knew I was unlocking it,” said Azaria. “I knew I was gonna get there. But at first it was not good.”

So not good, in fact, that “my son came up to my wife and said, ‘Mom, it’s cringe. It’s cringe! He can’t keep doing this.’ She said, ‘I know. But you’re father’s playing something out. He’s turning 60.’”

“And then one day I came up to her and started singing ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town.’ And she started crying. I said, ‘Honey, what’s wrong?’ And she said, ‘You actually sound kind of good.’ I asked her if she was surprised, and she said, ‘Yeah, you sounded terrible. and I’m so relieved I don’t have to tell you that you have to stop doing this.’”

Last September, he chatted over lunch at Parc on Rittenhouse Square when he was in Philadelphia to promote a show that was scheduled for Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia and also to visit his wife Katie’s parents, who live on the Main Line.

Azaria is a Mets and Jets fan, “and she’s from here, so the family roots for Philly sports teams,” Azaria said, “So we’re a mixed marriage.”

That Brooklyn Bowl show was canceled because it conflicted with the shooting schedule for the upcoming series "The Artist" starring Mandy Patinkin and Janet McTeer, that will release on the new streaming service, the Network, later this year. Azaria plays Thomas Edison.

Azaria will be back for the 37th season of "The Simpsons," where — in the first in a new four-year deal with Fox — he will again voice a wide range of characters, including Moe the Bartender, whose voice he says is a cross between Springsteen and young Al Pacino.

Among the other characters he has voiced is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, who he began portraying in 1990 when he was 25. The Kwik-E-Mart owner character was one of "The Simpsons’" most popular characters and the target of criticism for being a racist caricature of Indians and South Asians, and the focus of comedian and filmmaker Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary, "The Problem with Apu."

“I hadn’t given it much thought. So I had to educate myself, I started doing social justice and racial awareness seminars, and reading and talking to folks,” Azaria said.

“”I talked to a lot of South Asian kids about the character,” he said. “And the final coin dropping for me was reading that when hate crimes were committed against South Asian convenience store owners or cabbies ... Apu would be used as a slur.”

Apu last appeared in the show in 2017. In 2020, Azaria announced he would no longer be voicing the character.

Speaking to The Inquirer last week, Azaria said he’s been busy with the EZ Street Band, playing gigs up and down the East Coast, including at the Stone Pony in Springsteen’s home base of Asbury Park, New Jersey.

The shows include songs from throughout Springsteen’s career, with a heavy dose of "Born to Run," which celebrated its 50th anniversary on Monday. Azaria also includes in-character storytelling intros, with some from his own life, like a “She’s the One” story about how he met his wife.

All shows benefit Azaria’s Four Through Nine Foundation, which is named for steps four through nine in the Alcoholics Anonymous Handbook. The foundation funds social justice, education, and recovery causes.

Springsteen — who Azaria has met twice backstage, once at "Spamalot," and once at "Springsteen on Broadway" — became aware of the EZ Street Band in an unexpected way.

As Azaria explained on the morning talk show "Live with Kelly and Mark," one day he got a text from an oral surgeon friend asking him to send a video of him performing with the EZ Street Band ASAP. He sent over a clip of “Thunder Road.”

Later, his friend told him that Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, had been in his dentist’s chair. She went home and showed it to her husband, who liked it, he has been told.

“I approach this as a mimic,” Azaria said. “In my mind, I’m imitating Bruce, which is something I love doing. It’s like a sacred thing to even try to do.

“I had to learn to sing to really get this impression. I had to come up three keys — my voice is naturally deeper than Bruce’s. And I feel like in the last three to six months, I cracked it to level where it’s a pretty good version.

“The kind of joy and high that one gets from performing with a live rock band? If I knew that was in store — and this is a sober person talking who hasn’t had a drink in 19 years — I would have done that a long time ago.”

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