Within his career spanning nearly 50 years on screen, earning him two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy, Kevin Costner‘s creative life has also been split between starring on-screen and songwriting and performing. “When I can’t exactly find the words, I go, ‘Listen to this,” the actor and musician told American Songwriter about how songwriting helps him communicate. “This is what I mean.’”
Classical trained on piano and singing in the church choir during his youth, Costner’s ears were already fine-tuned to what music worked in films when he suggested Whitney Houston cover the Dolly Parton classic “I Will Always Love You” for the 1992 film The Bodyguard.
“I really knew that was the song I wanted her to sing,” recalled Costner, who was also a co-producer on the film. “People were like, ‘Wait a second, Whitney Houston singing a song from Dolly Parton? I don’t think so.’ I said ‘I do think so and here’s the bad news, she’s going to do it a capella for the first half of the song.’”
By 1997, Costner and Amy Grant were duetting on a cover of the Lovin’ Spoonfuls’ “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” for the soundtrack to his apocalyptic action film The Postman, which he also directed. As a vocalist, Costner and his daughter Lily also appeared on Trace Adkins‘ 2013 Christmas album The King’s Gift, singing “Silent Night.”
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After founding the band Modern West in 2007, Costner released five albums with them, from their 2008 debut, Untold Truths, Turn It On (2010), From Where I Stand (2011), and Famous for Killing Each Other, inspired by his role in the 2012 miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.
In 2020, Costner and Modern West released Tales from Yellowstone, sparked by his hit Paramount+ series Yellowstone. The 16 songs were written partially from the perspective of Costner’s character in the series, John Dutton.
Songwriting, as Costner said, has always been his best communication, so here’s a look at just three songs he’s written and performed for Yellowstone and another starring role on the small screen.
[RELATED: Kevin Costner On Screenwriting and Songwriting The Music Of ‘Yellowstone’]
“I Know These Hills,” Kevin Costner and Modern West, featuring Sara Beck (Hatfields & McCoys, 2012)
Written by Kevin Costner, Park Chisolm, Teddy Morgan
The 2012 three-part History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys was based on the Hatfield–McCoy feud over land rights from 1863 through 1891. In it, Costner played William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield, the patriarch of the West Virginia family opposite late actor Bill Paxton’s Randolph “Randall” McCoy, the head of their rival Kentucky family. Costner’s fourth album with Modern West was influenced by the series, Famous for Killing Each Other: Music from and Inspired by Hatfields & McCoys, including the sobering “I Know These Hills,” which was also featured on the soundtrack.
Written by Costner and bandmates Park Chisolm and Teddy Morgan, and featuring Nashville singer and songwriter Sara Beck on vocals, the lyrics are told from the perspective of Hatfield and the land he owns.
I know these hills
I know these hills
Ash into ash
Dust into dust
Father to son
Steal into rust
Time comes a calling
And we all rise up
I know these hills
I know these hills
I know the touch of the sacred ground
Where they’ll lay my body down
I know these hills
Costner sings and plays lead guitar on the 19 tracks of Famous for Killing Each Other, and his daughter Lily also co-wrote and recorded the track “Oh Molley-Mae.” Lily Costner would also co-write the song “Heaven’s Gate,” which appeared on season two of Costner’s series Yellowstone.
“Famous for Killing Each Other” (2012)
Written by Kevin Costner and John J. Coinman
Also on Famous for Killing Each Other, Costner co-wrote the title track with Modern West’s John J. Coinman, who previously served as the musical supervisor for Costner’s 1990 directorial debut Dances With Wolves and collaborated with the Doors‘ John Densmore. Though “Famous for Killing Each Other” wasn’t featured in the series it vividly chronicles the back-and-forth decades-long battle between the Virginia and Kentucky families.
Around here everybody know
When you walk into the room
Best be careful where you sit
It is the side you choose
That’s the way it is around here
Around here everybody sees
Sees it if you smile too long
Don’t nobody move too quick
Nobody look beyond his brother around here
Hatfield and McCoy can’t say one without the other
Hatfield and McCoy famous for killing each other
Lately everybody has a reason for revenge
Those who now are enemies
Once they used to be good friends
That’s the way it is
Just the way it is
“The band and I thought it would be a challenge to set aside our pop sound temporarily,” said Costner of the album and track. “We also suspected having the title ‘Famous for Killing Each Other’ might be a turnoff” in another context.”
“Feeling Like the Last Time,” (Yellowstone, 2020)
Written by Kevin Costner, Jack Williams, John Coinman, Teddy Morgan
For five seasons, Costner starred as John Dutton patriarch of the largest ranch in the U.S. on the Paramount+ series Yellowstone since its inception in 2018. It wasn’t long before Costner and Modern West released an album of songs inspired by Yellowstone in 2020. “It’s really a concept record,” said Costner of the album. “Sometimes there are songs that aren’t really necessarily about John Dutton. I have my own muse when I’m away from home, or when I’m making a movie, and there are songs that kind of blend in and also complement what’s happening.”
On the album, Costner performed all 16 tracks with Modern West and penned the more personal “Feeling Like the Last Time,” a more personal song based on the final time he visited with his father and the two said their goodbyes at an airport after a hunting trip together. “I’d done that with him since I was a little boy and he told me when we say goodbye at the airport that this will be the last time,” shared Costner. “And as he was telling me that, there was some security person yelling at us to get our car off the curb when we were trying to say goodbye to each other.”
He continued, “I was looking at this man that had raised me, and all I could see when I looked at that security guy was the whistle in his mouth. And he was talking, but I couldn’t hear his voice. I could just see my dad. He said, ‘We’ll never do this again.’ So I just picked my eyes on him. And eventually, he had to go and I had to get on the airplane. And he was right. So I started writing about that on the plane.”
Walking through the orchard
As the red leaves fall
There’s a chill in the air
The blackbirds call
I can see the night coming
The sun is losing its heat
It’s breaking my heart
You slip away from me
Feeling like the last time I see you again
Feeling like the last time, this could be the end
Having you close
Getting the most of every moment with you
Feeling like the last time, I see you again
Photo: Thomas Iannaccone/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
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