Kevin Costner Talks Music: The Background

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:24:00 +0000

In today's Beacon Journal and on Ohio.com, I have a few words from Kevin Costner about his musical work, which will be on display in two local shows with his band Modern West later this month. You can read the story here.

And here's what you should know about the chat came about. Costner is in the cast of "Draft Day," the new movie in which he plays the general manager of the Cleveland Browns. The cast also includes Denis Leary, as the Browns coach, and is directed by Ivan Reitman ("Dave," "Stripes"). Last week, some reporters including me were admitted to the set to see how it looked, watch a bit of the movie being made and interview Reitman, Leary and Costner. The condition was that the material from the visit, including the interviews, be held until close to the movie's opening.

The opening may be next year, but this was a chance to gather a lot of information about a movie that will interest local readers in a way that "Captain America" does not ; come on, it's about the Browns! So I agreed, and had an enlightening time -- and had better make a legible copy of all my notes an d transcribe all my interviews soon, since my scribble gets harder to read the longer memory fades.

Still, going into the interview, I mentioned to a publicist that Costner had the music gigs coming up and, if I had a chance to ask about them, I would want to use that material sooner. Since that did not directly involve the movie, I was told it was OK. For the interviews, we were usually told when we were down to a last question, and I figured to use it to ask about the music. Then, when Clint O'Connor of the Plain Dealer and I sat down to talk to Costner, "last question" rolled around -- and Clint promptly asked about Costner's music. Costner answered, and I followed up, and Costner talked some more, and then the interview was done.

The comments were fairly brief but, woven in with other background about Costner and Modern West, it made a decent column -- and a look at another side of Costner, The music's pretty interesting, too, more so in the solemn songs than in the faster ones. You can find clips on the band's website, and on YouTube.

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Kevin Costner Talks Music: The Background