Marshals star Luke Grimes did what country boys do when dealing with tragedy and sorrow: He wrote a song about it.
Redbird is Grimes’ second studio album, following a self-titled 2024 debut. He’s right when he says it’s a more focused, confident album than his first. He’s also right when he says it’s full of grief.
In February 2022, Grimes father died. “There’s no end to that story. There’s going to be no end to me missing my father,” he tells Taste of Country’s Adison Haager during a very candid 30-minute-long conversation.
A song called “A Little More Time” adds a poignant period to 10-song project that’s best described as bittersweet, emphasis on the “sweet.” That’s the thing about Grimes, forever known as Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone and now Marshals (CBS). Like is character, he bulldogs through emotional torment but always finds a reason to smile.
A happy life in Montana will do that. An 18-month-old who always tries to make you laugh will too.
Related: Luke Grimes Told Us the Sweetest Story About His Son, Rigel
An album-focused Q&A is below but the full conversation can be found in this bonus episode of the Dutton Rules Podcast.
Taste of Country: Who are your country influences?
Luke Grimes: I think my way into country was through my father, who, whenever we would go on hunting trips or trips just the boys, he would play all his favorite old outlaw country stuff. He grew up on Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Kristofferson, all that stuff. So we listened to a lot of that, but we weren’t really allowed to listen to it when mom was around.
My dad was a pastor, and so secular music was sort of a no-go unless it was oldies or Elvis. Those are allowed for some reason. My mom loves Elvis. But it was like only on these certain hunting trips that we were allowed to be the boys and like break out the outlaw music. And so that was my way in.
And Ryan Adams was a big influence when I started writing music probably 20 years ago. I lived in New York and started writing songs with a band. And I think that guy was super prolific at the time and sort of in a way like brought cool alternative / country / Americana back for a while.
I love that memories of hunting with your dad also come with a side of the outlaw country music that you weren’t allowed to listen to at home.
He got to turn the pastor off for a second.
Range Music / MCA
Tell me why this album is called Redbird.
So it’s kind of a twofold thing. Obviously, the state bird of Ohio is a cardinal, and I’m from Ohio, and there’s a lot of songs about home and where I come from on the record. And then also, not to take this conversation down a notch, but there’s a lot of loss on it too. I talk about my father a lot. I lost him a few years ago. And there was a song that never made it on the album, and one of the lyrics was, “Whenever I see a red bird, I think of you.” And there’s like a sort of an old wives’ tale that when you see a red bird, you know, it’s someone coming to visit you. And so both of those things together, that just felt like an all-encompassing title to me.
I was curious if “A Little More Time” was about your father, and it is. The part where you talk about praying with your son chokes me up. Can you tell me a little bit more about that lyric?
Writing that song, I always knew that … there’s no end to that story. There’s going to be no end to me missing my father. But one thing that did happen that sort of felt like some kind of closure was having my son and seeing the parts of him that remind me of my dad. I think anyone who has a kid knows that you see a lot of different people in them. You see yourself, you see your partner, and then you can see grandparents. And there’s a lot of my father in my son. They have a lot of similar mannerisms and things. And I just thought, you know, the whole song is about, you know, begging for just a little bit more time with somebody when you know you can’t. And for the first time it felt like I could just a little bit somehow.
That lyric where you say, “Turns out you were right that it all goes by so quickly.” Do you feel like you said everything you needed to say to your dad before he passed?
Yeah, I think that we were lucky in the way that there’s not a lot of regret there. We were as close as two people could be who lived across the country from each other.
I moved away when I was 18. He died when I was like 39. So a lot of the time we were apart, but we were close and there was a lot of love and we told each other we loved each other all the time. And so I’m very, very fortunate for that because I know people who have had a very different situation. And when you can’t remedy something because it’s gone, it’d be tough. So I’m, you know, thank my lucky stars that my dad and I were good.
How do you deal with imposter syndrome?
Where I live helps. Yeah, Montana helps quite a bit. There’s nobody up there. There’s nowhere to look except like at the mountains, I guess. But there’s just a lot of time to reflect and be quiet and read and get my head on straight.
And you’re right, there’s a tendency when you’re like going full blast in either of these businesses, like it’s easy to just kind of start caring about the wrong things and have your ego flare up a little bit. And so going home, being with my family, I know that that’s always going to make me right.
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