When actor and musician Jeremy Renner was 12 he started making instruments out of cardboard, then charged his sister and her friends a dollar to listen to him perform. “My family was my first love, and then music,” said Renner, who also taught himself to play guitar, drums, and piano. “Acting came into my brain around 20. Music has always been my first love as far as something other than my family.”
Earlier in his career, Renner played around Hollywood in the rock band Sons of Ben, which included members of Tonic, who had the hit “If You Could Only See” in 1996. “[We] wound up doing a bunch of acoustic gigs around town,” said Renner of the band in 2015. “It had an Eagles kind of sound but edgier.”
Soon after, Renner started performing songs for several soundtracks, including George Thorogood & the Destroyers’ 1985 hit “I Drink Alone” for the 2005 thriller North Country, in which he starred as Robert “Bobby” Sharp. He also sang the Don McLean classic “American Pie” in Love Comes to the Executioner, and “Good Ole Rebel” for the 2007 Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
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Along with his soundtrack work, Renner also appeared in music videos with Brother Sal (“Scenes on Sunset”) and P!nk (“Trouble”), and was featured on Dutch DJ Sam Feldt’s 2018 single “Heaven (Don’t Have a Name).” By 2019, Renner also used three of his original songs for a Jeep ad campaign, which he also starred in, and released his debut single “Main Attraction.”
A year later, Renner also released his debut EP, The Medicine, followed by a second, Live For Now, in 2020. Renner scheduled the release of his new song “Wait” for 2024, marking one year since his snowplow accident at his home in Reno, Nevada in 2023, which left him with 30 broken bones.
[RELATED: Jeremy Renner Creates Collection of Music, “Love and Titanium,” About Snow Plow Incident]
Complementing a successful acting career, in The Hurt Locker, which earned him two Oscar nominations, and as Hawkeye in several Marvel films, and dozens more roles, music has remained a deeper love for Renner.
“I’ve always found music to be one of the few things that unite people in a pure way,” wrote Renner on Instagram around the release of The Medicine. “Common ground can be hard to find in today’s world, but music has remained a constant for me. To feel deeply, to dance fervently, and live together is more present now than ever.”
Also a songwriter, Renner has written and co-written all of his original songs and is steadily building his songbook. Here’s a look at just five songs Renner wrote since 2019.
1. “Nomad” (2019)
Written by Jeremy Renner, Eric Solomon Zareski, and Lee Anna James
“Nomad” was featured in the 2019 animated film Arctic Dogs, which starred Renner voicing the main character of Swifty the Arctic fox. Swifty works in a mailroom but dreams of being the top dog courier. The film also features voices by John Cleese, Anjelica Huston, Heidi Klum, Alec Baldwin, and more.
Miles and miles and miles
Travel the world and back so many times
With nothing on my back but a guitar and a smile
Chasing a dream only fools like me would follow
I was born a soldier
Waging a war against all that said, “I told ya”
With my feet on the ground and my heart on my shoulder
And I don’t mind if I gotta start all over
2. “Main Attraction” (2019)
Written by Jeremy Renner and Eric Solomon Zareski
Featured on Renner’s debut EP, The Medicine, “Main Attraction” was Renner’s first single. In the video, Renner is seen wandering through the desert and attending a sideshow party hosted by Taika Waititi. Along with “Nomad” and the song “Signs,” “Main Attraction” was used in the 2019 “Summer of Jeep” ad campaigns.
Every time I take a ride
I feel alive with nowhere to go
I’m a king of the road
You’re the queen of my throne
Riding high day and night
Satisfied wherever we roam
You’re the star of the show
You shimmer like gold
Now baby let’s ride
We got nothing but time
You get all the reactions
You’re the main attraction
It’s no surprise
God, I like your style
You’re the perfect distraction
You’re the main attraction
3. “Best Part of Me” (2020)
Written by Jeremy Renner and Eric Solomon Zareski
Also released on The Medicine, “Best Part of Me” is a tribute to Renner’s young daughter, Ava Berlin, who is also featured in the music video. Renner also dedicates his 2023 song “Wait” to Ava and calls her his number one again, and the best part of me, which are also lines from his 2020 song.
And even a million miles away
When all my hairs have turn to grey
You’ll always be my number one
Ride that line into the sun
No matter where in time and space
I’ll carry you inside of me
You will always be the best part of me
Your head’s now on my shoulder
I could kiss your pretty face
I won’t let you down
As I have let you down
Goodbyes are behind us
And all my past mistakes
I get to hold you now
Never letting you go now
4. “Live For Now” (2020)
Written by Jeremy Renner, Brandon Sammons, Lee Anna McCollum, Jussife, and Lee Miles Buchanan
Renner’s second EP, Live For Now, in 2020 orbits around more pop songs. The title track is an optimistic song centered around finding the strength to push through hardships. The seven-track EP also features Renner’s songs “Love is War,” “She’s a Fire,” “Just My Type,” “Sippy Cup,” ‘The One,” and “Stereo Love.”
I should’ve turned you straight down the line
‘Cause it don’t get no easier next time
‘Cause you get what you get and you don’t what you don’t
You fit where you fit and you won’t where you won’t
Let the wreckage die where you left it
Au revoir, so long
Say goodbye, move on
I’ll lead the way for us
You gotta live for now
We gotta live for now
We gotta live for now
I’ll lead the way for us
We gotta live for now
5. “Wait” (2024)
Written by Jeremy Renner
“To my daughter,” says Renner at the beginning of his 2024 single. “You are my everything, my only thing, my number one. You are the best part of me. You’ve become tremendously inspired at such a young age. Your grace, your thoughtfulness, and your constitution make me so very proud.”
Released on New Year’s Day 2024, nearly a year after his snowplow accident, Renner dedicated the tender ballad to his 10-year-old daughter, whom he credits with helping him in his recovery.
I know that I’m complicated
I don’t have a lot to say in
The daylight
Maybe I’m uncomfortable
A little unpredictable
Sometimes
For whatever it’s worth
I know that it hurts
You are the ocean and I am the earth
I hide in my head
And leave things unsaid
I am the needle and you are the thread
Will you wait
Wait
Wait
For me now
If you’ll wait
Wait
Stay
And you’ll figure me out
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images for MIU MIU
