Jeff Bridges to Release a Country Album
Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges will release a country music album on August 16.
The actor played fictional country singer Bad Blake in the 2009 film “Crazy Heart,” which he received the Best Actor Academy Award for.
He worked with country musician Stephen “T-Bone” Bruton to create the original soundtrack for the film, and Bruton also helped to contribute to his upcoming country album titled “Jeff Bridges.”
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The album will be released on Blue Note Records, and Bridges spoke to “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep about the his passion for both music and acting.
“The wonderful thing about acting is that you can use all of your talents and interests in your work,” said Bridges.
According to Bridges, his first true passion was music. He says he wanted to be a musician and seriously entertained the idea before becoming an actor. His father and well known actor Lloyd Bridges encouraged his son to get into show biz as a young man.
“Like most kids, you don’t want to do what your folks want you to do. You’ve got your own thing,” said Bridges.
He was coached by Bruton to help him embody his Academy Award winning role.
“We all looked toward Stephen for authenticity, because the life of Bad Blake… was very much the life Stephen led,” Bridges say of Bruton, who died of cancer before the film’s release. “He moved me up to the next level.”
Bridges will pay tribute to his friend and mentor on the new album which includes two covers of songs by Bruton. The album will also include original material honed by Bridges over the past 30 years.
“I’m pretty critical of myself as far as reaching some sort of perfect bull’s-eye or target that I’m aiming for,” Bridges says. “Sometimes you can get so obsessed with that bull’s-eye that you miss the whole deal, because you’re just so focused on what you think is perfection that you miss what really is perfection- which is just being alive.”
