Earlier this year, Jeff Daniels appeared opposite Robin Williams in the movie "RV," in which he played an annoyingly helpful man considered "the patron saint of the RV world."
This week, life imitates art.
Well, almost.
Daniels and one of his sons are climbing into a recreational vehicle for a trip through Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois that will feature two kinds of driving -- on the road and the golf course -- and plenty of music. Daniels will bring his one-man acoustic show to the Pabst Theater at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 17.
"I play music," Daniels said in a recent interview. "I've got a guitar show where I kind of walk out, plug in the acoustic guitar and have a lot of fun. There is a lot of comedy and a lot of songs about Hollywood. I get people on stage dancing with me."
Although he has been playing guitar and writing songs for nearly 30 years, Daniels didn't begin performing until recently.
"The last thing the world needs is another actor-singer-songwriter," he said. "I use the show to raise money for my Purple Rose Theater (in Chelsea, Mich.), and I've just enjoyed it so much that I've kind of taken it on the road."
Asked if his show resembled VH1's series, "Storytellers," Daniels noted that in his show, "there is a lot more comedy involved."
"It's Storytellers and yapping and stuff, but it's not pretentious," he said. "I'm really trying to have a great time. There is a song about road rage called 'Have a Good Life, Then Die.'"
"I have a song called 'If William Shatner Can, I Can, Too.' Then there is stuff like 'The Dirty Harry Blues,' which is a song I wrote when I was making a movie with Clint Eastwood. In the movie, I'm the bad guy and I get shot and killed by Clint, which, for an actor, is a great honor."
"I'm just trying to have a good time. If (the audience) is having a good time, I've succeeded. That's really what I'm trying to do."
Daniels, whose screen credits range from "The Purple Rose of Cairo" to "Dumb and Dumber" and the acclaimed "The Squid and the Whale," lists singer-songwriters like Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, John Hiatt, John Prine and Keb' Mo' as influences.
"I like the acoustic players who can walk out and hold an audience," he said. "I've also become a big fan of the Delta blues, and those guys from the 1920s and '30s. I've pulled out all the tablature books and the DVD instructional kind of things and I've started to get into that."
Though he played "a little in New York" while he was starting out, Daniels said acting was always his first love.
"The acting thing was what I really had to chase," said Daniels, who recently wrapped two movies, including one -- "Mama's Boy" -- with "Napoleon Dynamite" star John Heder. "My connections were there. The guitar thing was just something I did for me. I enjoyed it. I did it as a hobby. I rarely, if ever, played for anybody. It was always kind of back-porch, alone-in-the-hotel-room stuff. It was just a friend, a companion, the guitar was. The songs became a diary.
"When the Purple Rose needed to raise money five years ago, we kind of pushed me out on stage with a guitar. That's where I played publicly for the first time and, thank God, I had this whole notebook of almost 400 songs to pull out. I didn't have to write anything."
Daniels put out a CD -- "Live and Unplugged" -- which helped raise money for his theater. One of the songs on it "The Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues," recently underwent a major rewrite because the Tigers own the best record in baseball.
"Initially, I wrote that song at the end of the 2003 season when we lost 119 games," Daniels said. "I was suicidal. I wanted to find a wedge, so you go to the guitar and there is some solace there. I wrote this blistering, 'What the hell is going on?' Tiger fan blues song. Now, it's a celebration.
"No one saw this coming. No one had a clue in all of baseball, and especially in Detroit. We're just urinating all over ourselves, we're so excited."
While Brewers fans may feel a little jealous, Daniels won't have to reach far to find common ground.
"There is a line in there where I just rip on White Sox fans," he said. "We've got a big series with Chicago coming up and there is no love lost."
General admission tickets for Daniels' show cost $20 and are available at the Pabst Theater box office.
This week, life imitates art.
Well, almost.
Daniels and one of his sons are climbing into a recreational vehicle for a trip through Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois that will feature two kinds of driving -- on the road and the golf course -- and plenty of music. Daniels will bring his one-man acoustic show to the Pabst Theater at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 17.
"I play music," Daniels said in a recent interview. "I've got a guitar show where I kind of walk out, plug in the acoustic guitar and have a lot of fun. There is a lot of comedy and a lot of songs about Hollywood. I get people on stage dancing with me."
Although he has been playing guitar and writing songs for nearly 30 years, Daniels didn't begin performing until recently.
"The last thing the world needs is another actor-singer-songwriter," he said. "I use the show to raise money for my Purple Rose Theater (in Chelsea, Mich.), and I've just enjoyed it so much that I've kind of taken it on the road."
Asked if his show resembled VH1's series, "Storytellers," Daniels noted that in his show, "there is a lot more comedy involved."
"It's Storytellers and yapping and stuff, but it's not pretentious," he said. "I'm really trying to have a great time. There is a song about road rage called 'Have a Good Life, Then Die.'"
"I have a song called 'If William Shatner Can, I Can, Too.' Then there is stuff like 'The Dirty Harry Blues,' which is a song I wrote when I was making a movie with Clint Eastwood. In the movie, I'm the bad guy and I get shot and killed by Clint, which, for an actor, is a great honor."
"I'm just trying to have a good time. If (the audience) is having a good time, I've succeeded. That's really what I'm trying to do."
Daniels, whose screen credits range from "The Purple Rose of Cairo" to "Dumb and Dumber" and the acclaimed "The Squid and the Whale," lists singer-songwriters like Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, John Hiatt, John Prine and Keb' Mo' as influences.
"I like the acoustic players who can walk out and hold an audience," he said. "I've also become a big fan of the Delta blues, and those guys from the 1920s and '30s. I've pulled out all the tablature books and the DVD instructional kind of things and I've started to get into that."
Though he played "a little in New York" while he was starting out, Daniels said acting was always his first love.
"The acting thing was what I really had to chase," said Daniels, who recently wrapped two movies, including one -- "Mama's Boy" -- with "Napoleon Dynamite" star John Heder. "My connections were there. The guitar thing was just something I did for me. I enjoyed it. I did it as a hobby. I rarely, if ever, played for anybody. It was always kind of back-porch, alone-in-the-hotel-room stuff. It was just a friend, a companion, the guitar was. The songs became a diary.
"When the Purple Rose needed to raise money five years ago, we kind of pushed me out on stage with a guitar. That's where I played publicly for the first time and, thank God, I had this whole notebook of almost 400 songs to pull out. I didn't have to write anything."
Daniels put out a CD -- "Live and Unplugged" -- which helped raise money for his theater. One of the songs on it "The Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues," recently underwent a major rewrite because the Tigers own the best record in baseball.
"Initially, I wrote that song at the end of the 2003 season when we lost 119 games," Daniels said. "I was suicidal. I wanted to find a wedge, so you go to the guitar and there is some solace there. I wrote this blistering, 'What the hell is going on?' Tiger fan blues song. Now, it's a celebration.
"No one saw this coming. No one had a clue in all of baseball, and especially in Detroit. We're just urinating all over ourselves, we're so excited."
While Brewers fans may feel a little jealous, Daniels won't have to reach far to find common ground.
"There is a line in there where I just rip on White Sox fans," he said. "We've got a big series with Chicago coming up and there is no love lost."
General admission tickets for Daniels' show cost $20 and are available at the Pabst Theater box office.
Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
