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Hourly Update

Actor Corbett's new music career 'pretty amazing'

By Cathalena E. Burch
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.03.2006
John Corbett was 7 years old when he got his first guitar, a $30 beater from the Big Wheel variety store in his native Wheeling, W.Va.
"There was a friend of the family, a Cherokee Indian named Bob Bennington, and he had a great, old Gibson Sunburst guitar under his bed in a case with a crushed-velvet, purple lining," Corbett recalled. "He taught me a few chords. I remember every time he would reach under there and pull that thing out, it was like some sort of treasure. He always kept it polished."
The sound Corbett got out of the Gibson was a far cry from the slightly out-of-tune, metallic sound his beater made. But Corbett didn't mind. He practiced the chords Bennington taught him and learned to play the guitar and write little songs.
It was nothing more than a diversion, something he did throughout his life for fun.
"If you talk to the cast of 'Northern Exposure,' they'd be surprised that I can even sing or play the guitar," says the 6-foot-5 Hollywood star of that early 1990s series.
"I didn't want to be judged. I just had some guys I would jam with. We'd drink whiskey and play Eagles songs."
Today, though, let the judging begin: Corbett's eponymous debut album on his own label, Fun Bone Records, hits stores today.
"This isn't a hobby. This isn't something I'm doing between movie roles," 44-year-old Corbett said last month from a hotel room outside Miami, Fla. — another stop on a whirlwind, cross-country 25-city radio bus tour that included a stop a few days earlier in Phoenix.
The record is a mix of contemporary country and driving Southern rock, from the pop country debut single "Good to Go," to the bluesy "Bottle of Whiskey." The album doesn't have that glossy Nashville feel of being overproduced, so the contemporary-flavored "Wichita" maintains a vocal rawness, and the twangy "Cash" has a lush acoustic feel of being played in a living room or on a front porch.
Corbett says the album is more Southern rock than country, but the strains of fiddles and steel guitar are heavy throughout, especially on the ballad "Judge a Man" and the uptempo "Waiting on a Heartache."
Corbett released the album's first single, "Good to Go," in early January, and, by late January, Billboard magazine was reporting that the song was the highest debut by a new artist on an independent label in the history of Billboard's country charts.
"Pretty amazing," Corbett said.
His music career, like his acting career, is something Corbett started on a lark.
Rewind to the mid-1980s. Corbett was living in Southern California on disability after suffering a back injury while working at a steel plant. At his father's urging, he went back to college to learn a new trade, but two weeks in and he knew he wasn't meant for school. He had barely made it through high school six years earlier, he confessed, graduating 92 of 94 in his class.
He was contemplating dropping out when he met a couple of younger students who took him to their improv class. He got up before his new friends and took a turn at the end of the class and was hooked.
He moved to Hollywood, enrolled in acting classes and started auditioning for commercials. He found his niche: Almost every commercial he auditioned for was his. During 1986-1990, he made 50 commercials.
"I went from barely making my rent to having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank," he said. "They saw me on a Jack in the Box commercial and they brought me in for 'Northern Exposure.' "
Corbett says he never really pursued his acting career. He usually does one project a year, mainly because he doesn't get the offers for roles that interest him.
"I just have always played the same guy," he says, and from his tone, he'll have you believe he's perfectly content to play that guy — the nice, soft-around-the-edges, huggable love interest like Aidan Shaw in "Sex and the City," Pastor Dan Parker in "Raising Helen," and Ian Miller in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."
Later this year, Corbett plays the father of a troubled teen in the coming-of-age drama "Dreamland." It will probably be the last time we see him on the big screen for some time.
"I've taken two years off of acting to do this so I didn't have any hurdles or distractions," said Corbett, who, with longtime girlfriend Bo Derek, moved back to Wheeling. "I'm doing what any new artist would have to do to get their records played."
Of course, with the brand name John Corbett, doors are opening to him that wouldn't otherwise, including on the coveted morning radio. And, Corbett admits, folks are drawn to his concerts because of his star power.
"They don't know what to expect. They have some idea that I'm going to sing some esoteric love songs, kind of like a combination of my Chris in the Morning character on 'Northern Exposure' and Aidan," he says. "They just don't have any idea, which is a good place to start. They come with fairly low expectations.
"I'm not bragging, but I know what I'm doing. I've been doing this forever. I can't remember not having a guitar in my hand."
● Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or (520) 573-4642.
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