Kevin and Michael Bacon on the Secret To Touring Together for Almost 30 Years
Just about everyone knows Kevin Bacon is a rock star, at least in the figurative sense. From Animal House to Diner to A Few Good Men and–of course–Footloose, his role as an icon in cinema history is indisputable. And he’s not slowing down. Just this year, the 66-year-old Philadelphia native can be seen in Prime Video’s MaXXXine and alongside Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix. And, he’s in production for “The Bondsman,” a horror series on Prime premiering next year.
But you may be surprised to hear that Bacon’s a literal rock star, too. For 30 years, he and his older brother, Michael Bacon, 74, have been entertaining fans on the road as The Bacon Brothers. In fact, they’ve just released their 12th album, Ballad of the Brothers, and are touring the country through the fall, entertaining crowds with a mix of original songs old and new (along with a dash of “Footloose” for the fans.)
The brothers started the band as a way to stay connected to each other while leading busy lives. “We played little places and it was down to earth and grassroots. People just kind of came out,” Kevin says. In the early days, they were a simple cover band, but as they grew as musicians, they began creating original songs. “Now we're really a songwriting band,” says Bacon, who wrote several tracks on the new album.
The brothers reminisced about their favorite songs, the challenges–and pleasures–of touring, where they find their inspiration, and more before a concert in Tarrytown, N.Y. in July.
You guys have been a working band since 1994, which means this is your 30th anniversary year. How has your collaboration evolved over time?
Kevin Bacon: We really try to to push the limits of what the band can do, musically. When we first started, I had been writing songs for a long time, but I barely played them. In fact, Michael said, “You're going to play in the band.” I was like, “No, I'm not. What am I going to play?” He said “You’re going to play guitar.” I had played a little bit of guitar at the time, but it was a lot of like, “Oh, well, if he says so, I gotta do it.”
Michael Bacon: I think the main reason I really enjoy it is I find music such an enormous thing to take on in a lifetime, and nobody ever gets to the end and has it all. So, as long as I'm learning and growing and Kevin's learning and growing and we're getting better as a band, better as songwriters, better as entertainers, I'm completely happy with that.
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How do those early tours gigs compare to performing now?
Michael: Very different. When we started we put the band together for one gig and then we got another gig and another one. It was just the four of us and we put everything in my station wagon and went to the gig. I got paid in cash and gave it to the guys.
Kevin: I don't remember getting any cash, by the way.
Michael: I kept yours.
What are some of your favorite things to eat while touring?
Kevin: Well, I always joke that my brother and I are very similar in some ways, but we're very different in a lot of ways. For instance, if we go into a restaurant, I can pick the thing that I would be the least likely to order, and that's almost always what he orders.
Michael: So you always know what I'm going to order.
Kevin: Yeah.
Michael: What did I order tonight?
Kevin: I would say the pork wrapped in dough or something like that.
Michael: Yeah. Pork wrapped in dough, deep fried. Yeah, that's what it was. Smarty pants.
Kevin: There is a venue in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont, someplace up there, in the middle of nowhere. It's a little converted church. They put out a spread that is unparalleled. It is big. All of the food is incredible, and there's so much of that when you get there after the show, there's a full bar. They have a baker that's constructing Bacon Brothers guitar picks formed in chocolate.
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How do you keep your energy up during the tour? What do you do to recharge?
Kevin: I'm a napper. I take a nap every single day. It's usually about 10 minutes. I find a couch–can't be on a bed. Then you're taking it too seriously, right? I put on my sunglasses, I listen to an app that has pouring rain. The other day I was doing it and the rain was actually pouring and I went, this is just wrong, because there's actually a pouring rain in real life that I can listen to, and I'm listening to rain on a frigging app.
Michael: Before I get on the road I get really ready. I get my weight down, I'm really in shape. And then I go downhill once the tour starts. I just can't get myself to exercise and I eat too much. As I said, there's food everywhere. So I just hope that I get through the end of the tour without becoming completely ruined. We were more weekend warriors now, and I think it works a lot better for us.
Tell me about the new album and what inspired this one. Do you have a favorite song?
Kevin: I think that the record is so much a Bacon Brothers record because there's so many different kinds of styles in it. We don't really have a sound. Our sound is our lack of sound.
Michael: “The Battle of the Brothers” is this goofy song that I wrote. It's really kind of a dream sequence of these two nerdy guys from Philly who don't have much of anything going for them, and they start to take a road trip, and all of a sudden, through this magical experience, they become rock and roll stars.
We play a place in Texas called Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas and one of Willie Nelson's favorite places. And when he used to go there, he had to walk through the audience as it was the only way to get to the stage, because it's a historical landmark building they weren’t allowed to touch anything. So he walked through the crowd and they went crazy. So Willie said, “Do something.” And they set some steps up outside a window next to the stage, and they put a rope for him to grab on and swing through. And that's called the “Willie door”. And being as we are two guys from Philadelphia, I mean, the whole idea of Texas culture in a Texas dance hall, I just found it fascinating. I wrote that sort of fantasy about these brothers getting down to Texas, and all of a sudden they swing through the Willie door and they're magical.
And they're on stage with the greatest rock-and-roll stars ever. The whole shack takes off into the night and they start jamming with all the famous Texas musicians, and then it comes down, and then they're back to normal, and you never hear them again till I wake up.
What's your favorite part of touring?
Kevin: There was something kind of romantic about it when we first got on a tour bus. I even wrote a song called “Bus” because I was, like, in love with the bus so much. I don't think it holds any kind of appeal anymore. I've lived so much of my life on the road since I was a kid, going to different places and airports and hotel rooms and new places where I'm gonna have to live for months.
Michael: I really do like going to places and imagining what it'd be like to live there, like New Braunfels, Texas, that I wrote the song about. It's just such a different experience and places that I would never go otherwise. I'm a homebody. But if you're in a band, you can't fake a live show. I think that it's kind of what you have to do if you want to have the band be somewhat successful.
How do you spend your time on the bus?
Kevin: I mean, I still love the bus. We've had great times on the bus. There's a lot of us old smelly guys to be crammed into one place. We play backgammon, we just kind of shoot the shit. There’s a lot of talk of filling up the refrigerator, stopping at Buc-ee's or something like that and seeing who can come back with some goofy thing.
Michael: We probably get into the bus at maybe 10 p.m. after we've done the show. Most people are kind of tired. I think everybody sort of opens their computers. But I like to look out the window. I love seeing America.
How do you stay connected with family while touring? Do spouses ever tag along?
Kevin: I don't think my wife [actress Kyra Sedgwick] has really been on the road with us. I don't know if she's ever spent a night on the bus–she would not like it. Maybe she did once, but it was fleeting. She'll come out if she's in the neighborhood. She travels so much herself too.
Michael: My wife likes to travel with us if there are places she wants to go to on the tour. If there’s not, she doesn't come along. My wife and I work together, and we're basically partners in all my endeavors. And also our son, Neil has a full-time job, but does the logistics for the band, which means how we get from here to there, which hotel we’re going to stay at.
Was there ever any sibling rivalry between the two?
Kevin: The age difference made that a little bit different, you know what I mean? He was doing stuff, I was looking up to him. He was my older brother. There's a lot of bands that have brothers that, you know, it hasn't worked out. In fact, we've been working on this thing for social media where we're doing these little covers of brother bands. And when you really dig in, many don’t work out.
Michael: I don't understand how if you're with a sibling and you have this amazing career and you're selling millions of records, why would you want to squander that by infighting. But it happens a lot and it hasn't happened to us, so far.
Kevin: Maybe that's because we haven't sold millions of records. Maybe the secret to keeping brother bands sticking together is to not sell records.
Michael: O.K., well, let's keep going just the way we are.
Do you have a moment from a past performance that stands out?
Michael: I think the memories for me are when, when you just one night, you just kill a song, and it's elusive. And if you could do it every night, it'd be great. And it's thrilling because you can't do it every night.
Kevin: I was in LA. We were playing the Troubadour, which is kind of a legendary club. For some reason it seems like LA is never like a great place for us to play. It's always some kind of disaster that's going to happen there. I was on stage and I guess, you know, I was rocking out a little bit too much. I didn't realize it, but I must have clipped my forehead on the mic. When we finished the song, the woman in the front was like, “Excuse me?” And I'm thinking to myself, this is so irritating. I'm trying to just introduce the song. This lady just was not stopping so finally I was like “What?” She goes, “You're bleeding.” It was very rock and roll, yet it wasn't so bad that it needed stitches or anything. I think I just kind of kept dabbing it and then one more song and one song.
How do you stay creatively inspired on the road? Do you find time to write?
Michael: There's a place that we go up to in the Adirondacks where there's no electricity and we're right on the lake. In fact, you can't even take your car, you have to take a boat. We both are very, very busy. And every day seems to be so full of stuff to do. And songwriting really does require little places where you actually are doing nothing and you're trying to respond to a mood or whatever that might create a song.
And if you get ten of those, maybe one might give you some kind of an idea. Kevin is very prolific at songwriting compared to me. But I mean, if I write one good song a year, I'm fine with that.
Kevin: If we knew where the inspiration would come from, then we would go there every day. But when you don't really know where it comes from, you just have to hope that it happens. And every time I finish a song, I always think it's the last song that I'm going to write.
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