The struggle to craft a “catchy” hit is no different for Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West, than it is any other. Back in 2010, IEBA presented a Music City-centric performance by the ‘Yellowstone’ star and his band and touched on exactly this, asking Costner how their hit, “Angels Came Down,” had come full circle once he performed it at the Grande Ole Opry.
The previous night, Costner held a performance at the home of country music. While interviewing the multi-talented Costner in the Hilton Hotel of downtown Nashville, Suzanne Alexander of local GAC fame wanted to know what it was like to “perform those words back on that stage must be emotional on so many levels.”
“It’s important. Everybody’s trying to write a hit,” the future ‘Yellowstone’ lead told Alexander of crafting music. “Everybody’s trying to write a “catchy” tune and the thing I’m most proud of with this band is that the music has driven us.”
For all their success, however, Costner still didn’t know at the time if Modern West was, or will ever be, a “record band.”
“Maybe will be, but my whole desire was to play live,” he continued. With the statement, Costner reveals his intention behind Modern West – which was always to be in front of an audience and connect through live music.
“And wherever I was making movies at in the world, I was playing music again,” he adds. “So our desire was to play live and I guess we are just singing to the choir here, because that’s what we do.”
‘Yellowstone’s Kevin Costner Weaves Music with Film Career
This intertwining of his A-List film career with playing live music has been no accident, either. For Costner, the connections he forms with concert audiences is one of the only – and most gratifying – ways he gets to connect with people who love his movies, too.
“How I have this connection with people the last 20 years is a mystery to me, but a lot of people have gotten their first kiss at a movie they saw that maybe I was in, so it’s been great for me to connect with audiences all over the world,” he continues in the 2010 piece for IESB.
The ‘Yellowstone’ star says he loves playing for people “that have actually seen” his movies. But first and foremost, however, he is grateful that this “curiosity goes away after about the first minute of the song and then we get to what an event wants to be all about, us playing music, original music, for them.”
Playing at historic venues like the Grand Ole Opry is also a highly personal experience for the icon, too. In the same interview, Costner revealed that the Opry was the only venue to give him “butterflies” before performing.
If you’ve yet to hear Kevin Costner & Modern West’s hit “The Angels Came Down,” give the country track a spin below:
