Luke Grimes has been a successful actor for 20 years with roles in “American Sniper,” the “Fifty Shades of Gray” series and Paramount’s wildly popular “Yellowstone” saga, in which he plays Kayce Dutton, son of the show’s patriarch John Dutton played by Kevin Costner.
But despite all his success on screen, Grimes is nervous — really nervous.
That’s because on Friday, Grimes will release his first full-length album, an eponymous work of 13 tracks, 10 of which he cowrote. The project has been in the works for more than two years and includes some cuts that are profoundly personal where he takes on the loss of his father and meeting his wife — “God and a Girl” — and how he feels about where he grew up — “Oh Ohio.”
“I talked to Matt Graham, who’s now my manager, for two years about this before I ever decided to move forward because I was that nervous,” Grimes said. “But to get really honest, my dad passed away a couple years ago and it was around that time that I was like, ‘Why am I so worried about what people are gonna think? This is my one life. I’m not getting any other. And I’ve got this amazing opportunity. So who cares? Just go do it and see what happens.’”
Even after he decided to take the plunge, he still wrestled with whether his move into music would be a success. “What was on my mind at the time was: what if you do this goofy country music thing and it falls on its face? Now you can’t even be an actor, because you’re that guy. I had all these fears that I was gonna lose my whole career, go back to Ohio and work at Walmart or something. But then I just put one foot in front of the other, tried as hard as I could to be as honest as I could, even about the nerves. And here we are — we’ll see if anybody likes it or if it really is goofy.”
The album’s tone is hard to pigeonhole and touches on several different genres. It’s kind of country, kind of folk, kind of Americana. And it’s more stripped down than most of the music coming out of Nashville these days.
“That was really intentional,” Grimes said. “Dave Cobb produced it and nothing he does is overproduced. It always sounds like people playing instruments — what a concept, right?”
Cobb was careful to follow that path with Grimes as well. “He said, ‘If you come out of the gates from Hollywood, just having gotten this record deal, and you come up with this big sounding album, it’s clear that you came to town with all of these resources, and you used them to make this big salable product. I don’t think people are going to connect to that as much as if you made an album that’s really personal. One that sounds like you and talks about you, and lets people get to know you,’” Grimes said. “And at the end of the day, I think that was the right call. I think people will be more apt to give me a shot hearing something like that, rather than just going straight for the lowest common denominator — what’s going to sell the most records.”
Grimes grew up the son of a Pentecostal pastor in Dayton, Ohio, and was a drummer in his youth, playing “praise and worship, Southern gospel music” in church every week. “Those were some pretty crazy church services,” he said with a smile. Beyond that, his father was a fan of outlaw country, and when he was able to “sneak my own music into the house,” it was Nirvana or the Dave Matthews Band “because their drummer was amazing,” he said, although he always loved country music, which shines through in his songwriting.
“When I write music, it’s early country or Americana — real life with real instruments.”
Grimes’ favorite part of making music is the songwriting, and he collaborated with some big names in Nashville on the album including Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon and Liz Rose.
“I like the writing process,” he said. “First of all, it’s just an amazing way to spend a day. You get to meet some talented people, you sit around, start talking about what’s going on and what you’re thinking and feeling, and it’s a really honest conversation. There’s something therapeutic about it and you leave the room feeling like you just had a therapy session.”
Until he signed his record deal, Grimes said he would try to write songs alone, but they never got completed. “I had a ton of half ideas, half songs, snippets, melodies — things that were just never finished; I always had a hard time taking a song over the finish line by myself. But through this process, I’ve learned some tools of the trade that have been invaluable. So if performing went out the window and I didn’t get to make another album, writing songs is something I’d like to do just on its own.”
Because of his acting commitments, Grimes won’t be able to tour to promote the album for a while. “I went on a little headline tour at the end of last year, but now I have some acting to do,” he said. “I have a band now and they’re itching to get out on the road, so we’ll make it happen, but probably closer to the end of the year.”
First up, Grimes will work on a film he’s not ready to reveal details on yet, but he said it’s a “dream project. There are a couple of bucket list people I’ll get to work with, so I’m really excited about that. And then we’re supposed to start filming the last season of ‘Yellowstone’ around May. I’ll be doing that for about four months and it airs in November. And then we’ll see if there’s a ‘Yellowstone Two.’”
Speculation continues to swirl that “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan is negotiating for another spinoff of the show starring Matthew McConaughey and is talking to Grimes and his current costars Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser about remaining with the franchise. But no deals have been struck yet.
In addition to his acting, Grimes will also continue to be the face of Stetson fragrance, a three-year deal he signed in fall 2022.
With so many irons in the fire, how will Grimes juggle it all? During the actors’ strike last year, he was able to devote himself to music full time, but now it’s different.
“This year is just going to be an experiment to see what happens when I try to do both,” he said. “The goal would be to get to the point where I can spend equal amounts of time and energy on both. I’ve been acting for 20 years, so the amount of intensity it takes to get jobs, hopefully is a little less and I can be a little more choosy about when and what I work on. And then when I’m not doing that, I can really focus on the music and come to Nashville and write and record. So we’ll see.”
But one thing is for certain, Grimes is committed to his music. “It’s been a long time coming, but it’s one of the more fulfilling things I’ve ever done. I’ve really enjoyed the process of making it and I hope I get to do it many, many times again.”
