Interview: Dennis Quaid Talks Solo Tour, Film Career and Upcoming Ronald Reagan & Kurt Warner Bio Pics

Audiences will experience the musicality and passion for playing live that have earned famed Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid rave reviews. A riveting performer, Dennis captivates the audiences with engaging stories about his illustrious film career and stories behind the highly personal songs that will populate his forthcoming inspirational album set for release in 2022 via Gaither/Primary Wave.

During Quaid's lengthy shows, he covers some of his favorite songs from Jerry Lee Lewis as a tip of the hat to the "the Killer" who Quaid portrayed in the box office smash Great Balls of Fire!, displaying equal ease on the piano with rock 'n' roll classics as well as country standards with his acoustic guitar. Musically his shows encompass country and rock driven by his distinct vocals and anchored by his gift for telling compelling stories in his songwriting.

Though he loves writing, recording and making movies, the stage holds a special place in Quaid's heart, and for the last four decades, he's toured extensively earning the acclaimed actor a reputation as a respected touring artist.

To help promote Quaid's upcoming tour, BroadwayWorld's Kevin Pollack sat down with Quaid to discuss his career, some fun trivia and his upcoming biopics.

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BWW: Let's talk about this new tour. What will you be performing and what's it all about?

Quaid: I guess you can call this tour "My Lucky Life" actually. It's going to be me, a guitar and a piano. Just me on stage. It'll be the first time I was on stage along with music, since I was 19 years old actually. Usually, I'd have a band. I've had the Sharks for the last 20 years. I had a band in the 80's called The Eclectics that I shared with Bonnie Raitt, and this is going to be me and my lucky life, through time and through music, it'll be songs I grew up with and songs that I've written through the years. I think everybody will hear something that they know, and the main thing is that everybody is going to have a great time.

BWW: You just recently released a new single called "Heartbeat". Why don't you talk a little about that?

Quaid: "Heartbeat" is a love song I wrote for my beautiful wife. It's a love song without saying the word "love," and it describes the feeling of loving someone or being so close to someone that they purvey your dreams and your conscious and unconscious moments.

BWW: Going back to Bonnie Raitt, how did the appearance in her video "Thing Called Love" come about, as her music was a common theme in your film, Something to Talk About?

Quaid: Like I said, I knew Bonnie back then, and we shared her touring band.I had my band The Eclectics, you know? So, she just asked me to do that, and I think it was right after I had finished Great Balls of Fire. I still had that dyed blonde hair, and it was a lot of fun! Then, what a coincidence there's a movie called Something to Talk About, and there's the title song and Julia Roberts and I are dancing to it. So, Bonnie and I have a lot of connections.

BWW: Being a musician, what kind of advice would you give young musicians trying to pick up a guitar or a piano and trying to make it in the industry nowadays?

Quaid: I would say, just believe in yourself, that's all. Express yourself and be who you are. I mean, I was 19 years old the last time I was onstage by myself. But I was also taking an acting class with Mr. Pickett at University of Houston, and I'm trying to decide, "Am I a musician, or am I an actor? I don't know". I was really inspired by Mr. Pickett's class and I went to audition at this coffeehouse, and I auditioned for this lady who smoked a cigarette throughout the song, and at the end she said, "What you got is good for living rooms, but you'll never make it," and I believed her. Then I went out to my 1971 Duster Chrysler and cried in the back and said to myself, "Well, it's acting". If I had believed in myself and my music, I wouldn't have taken that to heart. Don't let anybody define you. That's what I would say.

BWW: Having done music and films, does performing live theatre interest you or peak your interest?

Quaid: Well, that's what this show is. Theatre with music. Being an actor has really helped me as a stage performer with music. It's presentational. There's no fourth wall. The audience is right there. I can look them in the eyes and I can connect with them. I love doing that.

BWW: The industry has changed a lot since you began. What sort of roles would you see yourself in if you were starting out as a young actor now, and what advice would you give that younger version of yourself?

Quaid: The advice I would give, I would say, "Just calm down. Take it easy. This is a marathon, not a sprint." The other thing is, I really don't know, if I was a young actor starting out today, the industry has changed so much that in some ways, it's hard to recognize what it is. Is it a movie? Is it streaming? In some ways, it's really a golden age for streaming these days. There's a lot more jobs and things, but the age of the movie star is past us now. It's always changing. There was the age of the director in the 70's, then it became the age of the movie star, the age of the producer, then the age of the agencies. Now, it's the streaming services that really kind of running the show.

BWW: Last we talked, you were going into production on the biopic, Reagan. Are you still filming that or is that finished?

Quaid: The original principal photography took two months, and then over the following months, we did quite a bit. It is finished, and it'll be out next year. There's a lot of post that they have to do with it because it's such a huge story. It'll be out next year, I suspect, in the Fall.

BWW: So, what was it like playing Ronald Reagan and diving into his mindset compared to playing Bill Clinton previously?

Quaid: It was probably the biggest acting challenge of my life, actually. I grew up with Reagan, and he was my favorite president anyways, and he had such an impact on all of our lives. Even if you weren't alive back then, he defeated communism, he brought our nation back from when people were saying America's best days were behind us, he made us believe in ourselves again. Then, privately, he was an enigma in a way, even to those who were close to him. He was really a tough person to get to know. That was the big challenge.

BWW: What do you have next on the horizon?

Quaid: There's a movie coming out on Christmas Day called American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story. While playing for the St. Louis Rams in the year 2000, he was actually stocking grocery shelves as his job at the beginning of the season. In one of the preseason games, Trent Green was injured and Kurt was his backup. I play his coach Dick Vermeil, who said, "We're going with Kurt Warner." Then they wound up winning the Super Bowl. I don't think there's a story in sports that can match that.

Make sure to catch Dennis Quaid at City Winery Chicago on Wednesday, November 10th at 7pm. Tickets are $35-$65 and are available here: https://citywinery.com/chicago/Online/mapSelect.asp?doWork::WSmap::loadMap=Load&createBO::WSmap=1&BOparam::WSmap::loadMap::performance_ids=F0AAB79B-2CFA-4BA5-95CB-636883CA75F7

For more information on Dennis' tour, visit his website here: www.dennisquaidishere.com

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