Charles Esten On His Tour, Death of His 'Outer Banks' Character & Friendship With Kelsea Ballerini | ACM Awards 2024 - video Dailymotion

Billboard

Charles Esten caught up with Billboard's Lyndsey Havens at the ACM Awards 2024.

Transcript

00:00 We're here with Charles Esten. How's it going tonight?

00:02 It's so great. So many people around here that I love so much.

00:05 And when you're back in Nashville, we all don't get to see each other.

00:08 Everybody's out on the road doing their thing.

00:09 So it's a bit of a reunion and also just the splendor of it all.

00:14 You were definitely just out on the road. You have not been home in a minute.

00:17 Tell us a little bit about the tour that you've been on.

00:20 Well, we got to go to the UK and then Germany and then the Netherlands.

00:23 And then we ended up two places I've never been, which is Copenhagen and Oslo.

00:27 And honestly, it was so special. It's kind of hard to put it into words.

00:32 When you think about all of it, the fact that you sit in a room with some friends of yours writing these songs,

00:38 and they mean something to you and you're not sure if they're going to mean something to somebody else.

00:42 Then you spend all the time recording them, putting on an album.

00:45 And then you line up this tour and you're not sure who's going to show or if they'll show or how it will be.

00:51 And then you get there and this connection that they have with the songs that you wrote

00:56 and that you have with them. And there's a moment there that is what makes music so magical to me.

01:03 It's very different from acting. I'm not there when they enjoy that.

01:06 I'm there in that moment and there's a connection where there's not.

01:10 And there was, so it was amazing.

01:12 I guess there's more of that human reward that you get from your music

01:17 more so than when you film something and then it's maybe a little isolating.

01:20 Well, we definitely get the reward in terms of people coming up and saying

01:24 what Deacon Claiborne meant to them from the show Nashville.

01:27 Because I played a guy that went through so much, there's people that walk up

01:31 and they will just expose parts of them, their selves, the difficulties they've been through

01:35 or their families been through. So you can get that, but it's not in the moment.

01:39 It's not right as they see it. And that's what music is.

01:43 So I'm very grateful for that and grateful that they found this album and it moved them at all.

01:48 When you're writing an album, obviously you're not playing a character, it's all you.

01:51 Is that trickier to tap into or did it feel even more comfortable?

01:55 Well, it's my first love, songwriting, if I'm honest.

01:59 It's the thing I did long before anything else.

02:01 I was always singing and writing songs and playing.

02:03 When you are doing, I think the through line, and I got to think about this a lot

02:07 when I played a character who did music. I got to do acting in the music with Nashville.

02:11 They're both about the truth.

02:13 So when I'm playing Deacon, I'm trying to be as honest and truthful as I can in that moment

02:17 of those how I would respond.

02:20 When Raina says something, when I'm there with Connie, you better be truthful

02:24 because Connie Britton is as good as it gets.

02:26 Well, the same is there with your writing.

02:28 If we say something, it sounds phony and I don't mean that and that's not me.

02:33 Now, you can play a character when you're writing a song.

02:37 I mean, you can create this person that you're not really and an attitude that you might have.

02:42 That happens too.

02:45 When you write the gambler, I don't think he actually met a gambler on a train,

02:49 but he played a character and that's why it's so amazing.

02:55 All right, and then I have to ask you.

02:57 We were talking when you walked up about how you died on Outer Banks.

03:01 Let's be clear, a war died.

03:04 Right, of course. Is that a show that you'll still be tuning into though?

03:07 Oh, are you kidding me? Absolutely.

03:09 I will be like anybody else. I just want to see what happens next.

03:13 I love them all so dearly.

03:15 We were there from the ground floor.

03:17 I remember the first table read where I sat around the table with these young actors

03:21 that were not that known at all.

03:23 I remember looking at their Instagram and they had like 200 followers or 500 followers

03:27 or something like that.

03:29 I said, "Well, that's going to change."

03:31 They've taken the world by storm.

03:33 They're all doing these incredible projects, even apart from it,

03:36 but I know their heart is to stay with Outer Banks and make it something beautiful.

03:41 I can't wait to see what they've done.

03:43 It's fun because now Chase is sort of in the country community too.

03:45 Maybe you and Kelsey will work together.

03:47 He is. He absolutely is.

03:49 I've known Kelsey longer than I've known Chase.

03:51 I've known Kelsey since back in '12 I got to meet her.

03:53 We've always been friendly and buds and seen each other at events like this.

03:58 I've always loved her so much.

04:00 Then I meet this guy Chase and then after a couple of years I find out they're dating.

04:04 I said, "Well, we better go out."

04:06 The four of us, my wife and I, we went out and had a heck of a time.

04:10 Every time they're around each other it just really blesses me

04:13 because I love them both so much on their own to see just how nice it is,

04:17 how wonderful, how there they are for each other. It's lovely.

04:20 Crazy how small the world gets, right?

04:22 It really is. I think that all the time.

04:24 It's almost like, "How did that even happen of all the people in the world?"

04:27 But then you go, "No, it makes a great amount of sense."

04:29 I love it because I get to see my buddy Chase even more.

04:32 Well, I will let you get in there. Have so much fun tonight.

04:34 Thank you for talking to us.

04:35 Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

04:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Charles Esten On His Tour, Death of His 'Outer Banks' Character & Friendship With Kelsea Ballerini | ACM Awards 2024

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