Military Music - Military Times

Actor Kevin Costner rocks unconventional career

Rock ‘n’ roll can bring the world together.

Just ask Kevin Costner, who’s having a blast rocking with folks when his band Modern West comes to town.

“I’ve found myself in a lot of communities as a result of the movies, sometimes for extended periods of time, but one of the things is I’ve always thought is I was kind of a ghost in those communities,” said Costner, whose hit films include “Dances With Wolves,” “Bull Durham” and “JFK.” “I kept thinking I’d like to leave a bigger imprint of who I am.”

Costner wanted to just “kind of play [his music] and have an authentic evening,” he said. “This is who I am. It’s not about black leather pants and this is my musical moment. This is about having an evening. It boils down to I’m an entertainer and I’m a story teller, whether it’s in a movie or the music, and that’s how I feel.”

Modern West was formed about four years ago. The music gig is not new for Costner. He and John Coinman and Blair Forward of Modern West — Coinman was the music supervisor of “Dances with Wolves” — were in a band called Roving Boy that had a hit in Japan with the single “Simple Truth” in the ’80s.

As for Modern West, the band released its debut album, “Untold Truths,” in late November. The country-rock sound hints at the Eagles and Byrds, but with a bit more muscle. And it doesn’t totally jibe with Costner’s musical upbringing.

“I grew up in the inner city in a place called Compton, Calif., so my first musical influence was Motown,” Costner said. “I was in love with Diana Ross so it should be no secret that I put Whitney Houston in ‘The Bodyguard.’ But my parents are from Oklahoma and they had to come to California during the Dust Bowl, and even though my musical influences are those musical groups from the ’60s, when I write, the songs will have a rural feeling. I keep wishing I was someone else but our songs come out the way they come out.”

Upcoming for Costner on the screen is “The New Daughter,” a horror-thriller, due this year, and the downsizing drama “The Company Men,” with Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones, expected next year.

Costner doesn’t make the easy choice when it comes to his movie roles.

“For me, doing ‘Bodyguard 3’ and ‘4’ is not as important as trying to do a movie that’s maybe not as successful but at least you try to do a different offering. To that extent I probably haven’t managed my career that well,” Costner said. “I probably could have made ‘Bull Durham 3’ and I could have ‘Tin Cup 2’ and ‘3’ and ‘Dances with Wolves the Early Years’ and the ‘After Years,’ and so I probably haven’t played it that smart ... at least from an economic standpoint. But I like making Westerns, I like making political thrillers.

“I like to kind of go to where I want to go and my desire to repeat myself isn’t that strong.”