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15 Years Ago, Method Acting Turned Real Life for This Hollywood Leading Man Turned Country Music Star
In the early aughts, most people knew Jeff Bridges as the titular bowling-obsessed slacker in 1998’s The Big Lebowski. The man’s got range, however, and his Oscar-winning turn as washed-up country music star Otis “Bad” Blake in 2009’s Crazy Heart garnered widespread acclaim. In an example of life imitating art, news broke on this day (April 19) in 2011 that the True Grit star had inked a deal with EMI’s Blue Note Records to make a country album with Grammy-winning producer Joseph “T-Bone” Burnett.
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Burnett’s work on Crazy Heart also won him an Academy Award, snagging the Best Original Song trophy for “The Weary Kind”, performed by Bridges. However, the two had enjoyed a decades-long friendship by that point after outlaw country legend Kris Kristofferson introduced them during filming of the 1980 movie Heaven’s Gate.
On August 15, 2011, Bridges released the album’s first single, “What a Little Bit of Love Can Do”. A day later, his self-titled album debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 and No. 10 on the Top Country Albums chart.
Spin declared Bridges’ country debut “as comfortable and unpretentious as the Dude’s bathrobe.” The album featured cameos from Ryan Bingham, Rosanne Cash, Benji Huges, and Sam Phillips.
Jeff Bridges’ First Love Was Music
Coming from a show-business family, Jeff Bridges pursued acting at the urging of his father, High Noon actor Lloyd Bridges. However, his mother encouraged him to learn piano, and before ever landing his first big-screen role, Bridges had already written and sold two songs to Grammy and Emmy-winning producer Quincy Jones.
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Jeff Bridges Wrote]
“I dug what an actor did, but it took me a while to feel it, to truly appreciate the craft and the preparation. Plus, I was still playing music a lot, and I guess I had a hard time choosing: was I an actor or a musician, or could I be both?” Bridges told Guitar Aficionado magazine in 2010.
While filming Heaven’s Gate in 1980, he spent free time between trading guitar licks with co-star Kris Kristofferson. Last year, he shared previously released recording on the album Slow Magic 1977-1978.
“Whether it’s making a movie or music, you’re harmonizing,” Bridges told the Guardian in 2025. “You’re saying: let’s combine our strengths here and see what we can come up with and make it beautiful and real.”
Featured image by Frederick M. Brown/Online USA
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