#2468 - Luke Grimes

Luke Grimes, best known for playing Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone, came onto the podcast with a story that surprised even him: he didn't start singing in front of an audience until he was 39. His first show was in Billings, Montana, for 1,200 people, and he blacked out from nerves. The fourth show he ever played was Stagecoach. He got into music after a manager cold-called him on set, and after two years of conversations and his father's death, he decided to just do it. "I'm another actor who made a goofy album," he figured. "So what." The conversation then ranged across acting, stand-up comedy, the UFC, hunting, and the strange pull of Montana.

The Velvet Prison of Hollywood and the Escape to Montana

Grimes spent 16 years in Los Angeles, and he described it as a place where everyone is trying to become the same person, but nobody knows who that person is. He saw it as a system that breeds desperation: people leave their families and give up everything to chase a dream, which makes them moldable. Joe Rogan agreed, calling it a "velvet prison" — once you get on TV and start making money, you temper your material and lose your edge. "The funniest things are the things that can go terribly wrong," Rogan said. Grimes noted that even he has to police himself now that he's the number one on the call sheet for a hit show.