![]() ![]() Yoakam’s performance in Sling Blade meant he was immediately taken more seriously as an actor, and in some ways, more seriously as a musician as well. I think Billy is doing something unique and lasting as a director and writer.’ I was really proud to be a part of it, and I still am.” In an interview about his role in the film, Dwight Yoakam said, “After being on set a couple of days and shooting a couple of my scenes, I remember calling my manager on the phone and saying, ‘You know what, I think I’m in a real one here, something that will really have an impact. He did play some other roles in other films before, but this was Yoakam’s first time really stepping out, and he nailed it. What’s even more astonishing is that Doyle Hargraves was Dwight Yoakam’s first major role in a film. Billy Bob Thorton has also been known to play some music, but likes to keep those two disciplines separate. And the bearded Mikey Jones was a founding member of The First Edition with Kenny Rogers, and also played drums for Bob Dylan and others before focusing more on character acting later in his career.Īnother cast member, John Ritter, was the son of country star and co-founder of the CMA and Country Music Hall of Fame, Tex Ritter. Bruce Hampton is an Atlanta music legend, and plays the poetically-minded lyricist Morris in the film. In fact most of the actors in the Doyle Hargraves band were actual musicians. Though everyone insisted Chenutt use a stunt double, Chesnutt refused. In the film’s pivotal scene where Doyle Hargraves loses it, he runs the Vic Chesnutt character into a closed door. As fans of the cult classic film can tell you, the character Terrence was played by real life songwriter Vic Chesnutt who was wheelchair bound, and passed away in 2009. ![]() In the film is a really bad back porch band, led by Yoakam. Music wasn’t a significant component to Sling Blade, but it did play a role. But talk to anyone here 25 years later after time has had the opportunity to poke holes in the performance, and people will still proclaim that Dwight Yoakam turned in a tour de force as the abusive boyfriend, and bad bandleader. It was the day that the Billy Bob Thornton-directed film Sling Blade debuted, with Thornton in the lead role as the intellectually disabled Karl Childers, and Dwight Yoakam playing his adversary, the volatile Doyle Hargraves.īilly Bob Thornton ended up being nominated for an Academy Award for the role, and winning for writing the screenplay for the film. He was exactly what 80’s country needed to shake things up-a neotraditionalist that young people could still find cool.īut it was 25 years ago today, on November 27th, 1996, when we first discovered that Dwight Yoakam was truly a multi purpose entertainer. We already knew that Dwight Yoakam was the King of Country Cool when he came out of Kentucky and landed in Southern California, shaking his hips like Elvis, and revitalizing the Bakersfield Sound like Buck. ![]()
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