It's over 2,000 miles from Los Angeles, but Dennis Quaid now calls Nashville home. "So many people are moving out of California because they just don't make it easy to live there. It's getting harder and harder to build something there, says the Emmy Award nominated actor. "I've been coming to Nashville, especially over the last five years and kindling a love affair with the city. I just really like it here. I'm originally from Houston, TX and it just reminds me of where I grew up and the people I grew up knowing. In fact, I have several cousins here. My grandfather came to Texas from Tennessee in 1903 in a covered wagon. So we're moving back now I guess."
Quaid hasn't wasted a minute getting in to the music scene. He's been writing songs since he got a guitar at age 12 and says it was "Something that just came easy to me. Music has always been a big part of my life. I've always been a songwriter. Written songs for movies. I think being a songwriter is the greatest job in the world."
In fact, Quaid continues, "I wrote a song about 30 years ago called "On My Way to Heaven." I wrote it for my mother at a time when I had just gotten over the 80's and I wanted to let my mother know I was ok. I put it on my first record. Tanya Tucker called me and said she wanted to record it. She was my first leading lady (in a TV movie of the week, Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar & Grill) and I hadn't seen her in 40 years. She loved the song and wanted to record it. Kris Kristofferson and Brandi Carlisle are on it. That was the beginnings of the gospel record."
The as-yet-to-be-titled gospel project includes standards like "Amazing Grace" and "I’ll Fly Away," among others, as well as self-penned originals, including the previously mentioned "On My Way to Heaven," which was originally recorded for his 2018 blockbuster film, I Can Only Imagine. Adds Quaid, that song originally didn't have a bridge to it. So I wrote the bridge in 15 minutes. So I like to say, 'It took me 30 years and 15 minutes to write the song.'" The project will be released this summer/early fall via Gaither Music Group/Primary Wave Music.
And while he's been performing either through acting or song for most of his 40-plus-year career, he maintains he still gets nervous. "I hope I still get 'stage fright' - that's just energy. Fear is what it's called really. It's energy you can access and kind of control. I mean have you ever been afraid and yawned? No! Adrenaline is going through your body."
It must be adrenaline that keeps The Right Stuff actor going. "That was my favorite movie that I ever did where I played an astronaut. I guess it always will be because it was like a boyhood fantasy come true. Growing up in Houston was like space city. I ended up getting my pilot's license too."
And while he's got a country album in the works as well, Quaid has not given up on acting. He stars in Netflix's uplifting new movie, Blue Miracle, a true story about orphans who are about to lose their orphanage. He also stars in REAGAN, the first full-length feature film on the 40th U.S. President. Set for a 2022 release, REAGAN also stars Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, Mena Suvari as Reagan's first wife, Jane Wyman, Lesley-Anne Down as Margaret Thatcher, Kevin Dillon as Jack Warner and Jon Voight as the KGB agent who tracked Reagan for 40 years. Shot in Oklahoma and California, the independent film follows Reagan's journey from his childhood in Dixon, IL to Hollywood and on to The White House.
While he's settled in to his new home in Hillwood, getting his golf game on at the Hillwood Country Club, he admitted he and his wife looked at land in Franklin. Quaid tells us, "It's a beautiful city. It's perfect. It's a feeling out there. Reminds you of days gone by. You feel like you're living history."