Luke Grimes says a forgotten television pilot shot in Nashville about 15 years ago gave him his first real chance to record a song he had written. The role was for Outlaw Country, a series that was never picked up, but the experience left a mark on the actor now known for playing Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone and appearing in CBS’s Marshals.
In a new Rolling Stone Nashville Now interview, Grimes said John Linson hired him for the project and built the character around a singer-songwriter with a criminal streak. “He had this idea for a singer-songwriter, a Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley-type guy, who the way he made money was criminal activity. He was in a gang,” Grimes said. “That’s why it was called Outlaw Country.”
The pilot became more than a one-off acting job because Grimes was allowed to contribute original music. He said, “They let me write and record the songs for it,” and added, “but that was the first time I wrote a song that I cut or was for anything.” He came up with two songs for the project, Wild Grass and Reckless Road, and described the moment with a shrug that sounded more stunned than casual: “It was kind of amazing.”
That early break matters now because it connects the two halves of Grimes’ career just as they are crossing again. In April, he released Red Bird, a 10-song collection in which he co-wrote every track with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb. The album followed his 2024 debut and continued the slow build of a country-music side that has moved from sideline to real part of his public identity. One of those songs, Haunted, was also featured in Marshals.
Grimes had already been blending those worlds earlier this spring with a cameo in Ella Langley’s video for Choosin’ Texas, another sign that the music is no longer an occasional detour from acting. He said he had been in bands throughout acting school in Los Angeles before the pilot came along, but Outlaw Country was the first time a professional set gave him room to sing and write in front of the camera. “Which sounds very outlaw country,” he said. “It’s not bad for a first foray.”
The timing gives that story extra weight. Marshals aired its season one finale on Sunday, May 24, and the show has kept Grimes in the public eye even as his recording career gathers speed. Outlaw Country may have vanished before it ever became a series, but for Grimes it did something more durable: it showed him that the music he wanted to make could fit inside the acting career that made him famous.
