With the western world taking over the media, as Taylor Sheridan dominates television and country music leads the charts, there’s been a growing crossover between actors and singers stepping into each other’s worlds.
It all started with artists like Lainey Wilson, Tim McGraw, and Ryan Bingham branching out into acting on Yellowstone, with the show also continuously highlighting mainly red dirt artists on the series soundtrack. Then the show’s fan favorite, “Kayce Dutton” aka Luke Grimes, continued his dabble in music with his latest debut album release on April 3, Redbird.
And of course, Grimes’ writing relationship with Riley Green spiraled into his current cameo role on “Marshals.” Heck, even Ella Langley mentioned that her next goal is to hop into acting within the next year.
Now the latest double dipper is none other than lead Landman star, Billy Bob Thornton. With his character “Tommy Norris” soon to return to its third season, the 70-year-old actor revealed he’s also had quite a hand in writing some of the show’s featured tracks.
Thornton sat down with KSBY News this past week, in which he told interviewer Richard Gearhart that he’s branched into the country music writing realm.“I’ve been writing a lot of country songs for some reason, all of a sudden. I grew up in rock and roll. I don’t know how to write a country song.”
Thanks to a push from his longtime friend of 35 years, Mark Collie, the two decided to write a song for Landman, and it ended up being recorded by none other than Flatland Cavalry. From there, the Texas band’s “Midland After Midnight” just snowballed into a whole new side hustle for Thornton, with him adding, “Next thing you know, all country guys want to write songs with me.”
Sure enough, now he’s got “18 to 20 songs” under his belt, and 14 of them have already been recorded or are currently in the process of being produced by some of country music’s greatest artists. He was also sure to establish that his voice isn’t rooted in what most people are putting out on the radio these days, noting that, “modern country music doesn’t thrill me. I call it Def Leppard with a steel guitar.”
Influenced by some of the classic greats like Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, Thornton also mainly felt inspired by the background of his Texas set, most likely penning the tracks while filming the show in Fort Worth. This bleeds through in the five songs he has credits on, which have already made it on the past two seasons, including Parker McCollum’s “She’ll Dance For Whiskey,” Ronnie Dunn’s “Blood for Black Gold,” Billy Gibbon’s “Livin’ It Up Down In Texas,” and Dwight Yokam’s “That’s What Lonely People Do.”
While it’s doubtful that the Arkansas native has any plans for a full-fledged project of his own, considering it sounds like he’s a pretty sought-after writing buddy, there are surely many more written collaborations to be released. With Landman’s production set to begin this May, fans will have to be on the lookout as soon as the next season drops for what other Thornton tracks the show will feature.
Full Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rveuHHfRFWI