Exclusive: Actor Dennis Quaid on his new album "Out Of The Box" & Texas sports
Arguably one of the most definitive American actors of all time, Dennis Quaid has been working steadily for over 40 years. In turn, the Texas native has been recognized by the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, New York Film Critics Circle, the Chicago Film Critics Association and plenty of other movie industry influencers with "best actor" nominations and/or awards over the years.
Beyond his success within television and film, Dennis Quaid also has a following within the musical world. As the leader of Dennis Quaid & The Sharks, Quaid has a new album coming out on November 30th via Omnivore Recordings titled Out Of The Box. While Out Of The Box is first full-length release from Quaid and the Sharks -- whose members have worked with the likes of Harry Dean Stanton, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Supertramp, Jose Feliciano, and America -- the group has regularly toured over the past 18 years.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Dennis Quaid -- a man who has not only appeared in a lot of sports-related movies, but was also once called "the top golfer among the 'Hollywood set' by Golf Digest magazine -- about Out Of The Box and his history with sports. Below are a few minutes from that chat, which will be part of a future edition of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast, as co-produced with PureGrainAudio.com.
In the meantime, more on all things Dennis Quaid & The Sharks can be found online at www.dennisquaidandthesharks.com.
Your new album is Out Of The Box. How long did you spend making it?
Dennis Quaid: I'd say it was over 6 or 7-month period that we were doing basic tracks. It was May of 2017 through December.
Did you know outright it was going to be a mix of originals and covers?
Dennis Quaid: Yes, I did. A few of them I wrote during the making of the album, but most of them were written before and we did 25 tracks and came up what we think was the best 13 for the album.
Do you remember which song you wrote first?
Dennis Quaid: I think the first was probably the first song. Actually, it was "Good Man, Bad Boy." It was written in 1988. I wrote that because... Booker T. Lowery was an old black blues piano player was doing some of the music for Great Balls Of Fire and actually lived with me for about 3 months. I kind of studied him. He was one of the best players I've ever been around, in spite of the fact that he was missing a finger on his left hand.
I believe you've done more roles in sports movies than anyone else. Is that by design? Or were you originally an athlete?
Dennis Quaid: I was not an athlete. I was too small to be too small for the football team. Of course you try out, it's a rite of passage in Texas, and that's how I wound up in the drama world, actually. (laughs)
But yeah, I've done a lot of sports movies. I think there's a couple of other guys who've probably done more sports movies than me. (laughs) But I've done quite a few, playing coach in football and baseball...
I believe football quarterback and bike-racing as well...
Dennis Quaid: Yeah, that's right, in Breaking Away, although I wasn't the guy doing that. I'm a cyclist now. I was a runner back then.
I've also read that you are a Houston Astros fan. Is that just a product of growing up in Texas?
Dennis Quaid: Absolutely. I was an Astros fan when they were the [Houston] Colt 45s, before they turned into the Astros, the Astrodome and all that stuff. So you know it was a lot of pain for a lot of years, but finally, they got a great team.
The best team with the lowest payroll, is it?
Dennis Quaid: I would guess so, that sounds like Houston. (laughs) The same way it was with the [Houston] Oilers. (laughs)
The Warren Moon era, sure.
Dennis Quaid: Yeah, I was a big Oilers fan, until that game with Buffalo. (laughs)