Luke Grimes to Make Career Pivot, Step Away from Acting as ‘Yellowstone’ Nears End

With the hit TV series Yellowstone coming to an end, one of its stars, Luke Grimes, is looking to concentrate on his music career.

Grimes, who played Kayce Dutton on the Paramount Network series, appears ready to make music his full-time career after merely dabbling for so long. “He’s not taking on other acting offers right now,” said a source close to Grimes, per a report from Life&Style. “Luke’s really looking to hit the road sometime soon.”

His debut EP, Pain Pills or Pews, was released in October and reflects upon Grimes’ time in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, and the only choices he felt he had there: become a pastor or a junkie.

“I felt like those were sort of the options where I grew up,” he recently told Taste of Country. His father was a pastor, but Grimes chose music instead of following in his father’s footsteps. “Music came first,” he said. “Growing up in church I played drums in the worship band. I was always in bands, even when I was in New York or L.A.”

[RELATED: Lainey Wilson, Luke Grimes, & Ryan Bingham Slated to Return for Final Episodes of ‘Yellowstone’—Who is Departing?]

“It’s Been a Lifelong Dream”

Grimes is making a return to Stagecoach Festival this April in Indio, California, joining Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Morgan Wallen, Willie Nelson, Charles Wesley Godwin, and Wyatt Flores, among many others. According to the source, “It’s been a lifelong dream.”

None of this would be happening if Grimes hadn’t left his hometown, though. On the track “Oh, Ohio,” Grimes sings about the love/hate relationship he has with his home state, and recently spoke about how hard it is sometimes to leave home. “I left Ohio,” he told Taste of Country when asked if he had “mixed feelings” about his hometown. “Clearly, I thought maybe there was more out there. I think [“Oh, Ohio”]—I always kind of equate it to a breakup song with your home where it’s not necessarily happy. Not everything about leaving home is happy. It’s really hard.”

He also spoke about being on set with Ryan Bingham and Lainey Wilson, and how they inspired him. While he said he didn’t get to spend as much time with Wilson as he would have liked, he stated, “Ryan is just a great guy. I love being around him. He’s just got the best energy, the best spirit, and if I’ve learned anything from him musically, it’s just by watching him do what he does.”

Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Stagecoach