The 1958 song that made Woody Harrelson fall in love with music: “I just went crazy”
Woody Harrelson has always had a bit of a reputation as a laid-back guy who likes to have a good time and not worry too much; as Zach Galifianakis famously asked Matthew McConaughey: “When you and Woody Harrelson are acting in a scene together, are you sad that somewhere there’s a sack not being hackied?”
That stoner image and reputation probably comes from Harrelson’s long-time cannabis advocacy and the fact that he is a great friend of the veteran country singer Willie Nelson, who also likes the odd doobie or two. The fact that he used a decades-old photo of himself holding a freshly rolled joint to promote his own dispensary probably added to it as well.
But acting-wise, he is actually a pretty serious proposition. An Emmy-award winner for Cheers back in the 1980s, a three-time Academy Award nominee and sporting a gross box office total north of $3.2billion, putting him right up there when it comes to the top-earning talent in Hollywood.
He also earned widespread acclaim for his performance opposite McConaughey in one of the darkest, grittiest TV shows in modern times, HBO’s True Detective, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. So what does he do to kick back other than puff away on a funky cigarette? Well, the answer to that is music.
Way back in the day, just as his career in Cheers was at its high point, Harrelson, who sings, plays piano, and the banjo (which he learned specifically for Zombieland), formed a band to tour with called Manly Moondog and the Three Cool Cats, who also wrote their own songs. Harrelson sang and performed on the soundtrack for the brilliant 2006 comedy A Prairie Home Companion too, and has collaborated with The Killers, Ziggy Marley and Darius Rucker.
He was bitten by the music bug a long time ago, and it was thanks to ‘the King’ himself, as he told The LA Times: “The first time I performed music in public was in the high school library in Lebanon, Ohio. A bunch of guys said, ‘Hey, do the Elvis thing’. So, I hopped up on a table and did my rendition of ‘All Shook Up’”.
Something of a Presley staple, complete with leg-shaking and assembled screams, it apparently worked a treat for Harrelson, who added, “Everyone in the library seemed to be so into it that I just went crazy. I knew right then that this was something I’d want to do more of”.
Harrelson will have plenty of opportunity to indulge his love of music in one of his upcoming projects, a movie adaptation of the musical stage show Girl From the North Country, which features songs written by Bob Dylan. In it, Harrelson plays the owner of a struggling guesthouse in 1930s Minnesota as he and his family try to make a living while hosting different characters who come to stay.
Harrelson will also team up with McConaughey again for Brothers, an Apple TV comedy in which the pair play fictionalised versions of themselves while living together with their families on a ranch in Texas, after Harrelson’s daughter’s wedding falls apart. While at the ranch, they uncover a secret that means they might be fraternal brothers. It’s due to land on Apple TV in September.
