Luke Grimes has played several characters on the screen, but he’s here to be completely himself in his songs. The Yellowstone star just released his authentic and vulnerable sophomore album, Red Bird, and stopped by our Nashville studios to talk with Katie Neal about the making of the project, how he balances being an actor and an artist, and why it was important for him to offer up a snapshot of his own life in his work.
LISTEN NOW: Luke Grimes with Katie Neal
"I think the goal was just to sort of take a snapshot of who I was at that time,” Grimes shares. “This record's very autobiographical. We were trying to be as honest as possible about my experience at that time, at that age, [as a] new father."
Grimes says the collaborative songwriting process in Nashville is a deeply personal and supportive experience, contrasting to other arenas he’s been a part of. "I don't think I can think of a better way to spend a day than getting together with, you know, two other artists and usually very brilliant ones and kind of sitting down immediately, you meet and then you get very honest with each other, and you start talking about what's really going on. It's sort of like a therapy session.”
"It's just a really beautiful thing, and I think very, very different from the town that I had come from, where it's a little bit more competitive,” he adds. “I feel like here it's like if you win we all win.”
Luke manages a packed schedule that includes recently wrapping Yellowstone, starting the show Marshals, and having a baby, noting that music is flexible since he can do it "when I want." He also shared that he only watched the first two episodes of Marshals to grasp the tone, following an acting teacher's advice to avoid being too self-critical. "I had a really good acting teacher that used to say this thing, ‘Leave yourself alone.’ I thought that was really good, and I think the only way that I know how to do that is to just not watch it because if I watch it, inevitably I'm gonna try to change that stuff,” he says. “The process is easier and better for me if I don't watch it."
"I don't think I would have gotten a record deal or been able to do the things that I've been able to do if I wasn't a part of ‘Yellowstone.’ And so I just thank my lucky stars every day."
For more from Luke Grimes, check out the full conversation with Katie Neal above. Red Bird is now available everywhere.
The actor and artist’s sophomore album is now available everywhere
