- 4/22/2025
The Preston & Steve Show talked to Keifer about his music, and his style of play. They talked about how he choses projects to work on and discuss a few favorites including "24" and Stand By Me. Then they take a deep dive into the Beatles docuseries, "Let It Be." What do Keifer and John Lennon have in common? It's a funny, unexpected surprise. Check it out and, also, happy birthday Preston!
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00we're excited to have our next guest on and uh outside of acting he has a whole world of music
00:05and is bringing that here to the philadelphia area it was just announced he's going to be
00:10playing ardmore music hall on march 12th it's a great venue tickets will go on sale tomorrow
00:14for the show so please welcome keifer william frederick dempsey george rufus sutherland
00:19this morning thank you very much good morning that's what the wikipedia page calls you keifer
00:25but i had no idea you had so many middle names yeah i think my father was in a lot of debt
00:32and i think he just kept telling people that i'll name my son after you if you forgive the bill
00:38wow well that's a way to approach it uh keifer so a question about the show at ardmore music hall
00:45is this a full band is this you and a guitar acoustic what kind of show is it going to be
00:49it's good it's going to be acoustic um so so part of the show is just going to be me and then i have
00:54two fantastic special guests mark copley who's an extraordinary guitar player uh and rocco de luca
01:00who's going to be playing pedal steel and lap steel oh uh it's a cool sound what i beg your pardon
01:06that's a cool sound the pedal steel yeah it is and he's he's a phenomenal player as well and and uh
01:11but what i really enjoy about the show is it's so intimate and and and we get to kind of tell some
01:17stories about why i think these songs are worth you listening to in the first place and and uh
01:23have a drink and play some songs and and it's just a really nice night to kind of come together
01:27especially after the last two years so really really looking forward to it as a performer as a
01:33uh a guy who i'm sure you know since you're uh musically inclined has probably played with bands and
01:38so on you and a guitar that's that's pretty naked up on stage did it take a little while to get to
01:45that point and feel comfortable doing shows like that i'm i'm still not comfortable i mean i i you
01:51know i i think one of the funny things you know as an actor uh if you get a little nervous and i do i i
01:57use that nervous energy you you put your hands in your pocket if they start to shake a little
02:01doesn't work as well for a guitar player yeah um and you know and and look if it does i've i've always
02:08believed very strongly if it doesn't make you a little nervous you should probably doing something
02:12else okay um and and so yeah for me now it just kind of goes away after the first or second chord
02:19uh but certainly waiting in the wings to go on stage either as an actor or as as a player um
02:26yeah it gets my adrenaline going and um and i i hope it will feel like that till the day i die well the
02:33album is is called bloor street and it's your third and um and it's it's funny i know that when you
02:40have somebody who's known for what you're known for and you know you take the foray into music of
02:44course you're obviously going to be met with the initial okay what's this guy doing and and the
02:48truth of the matter is as i was listening to a lot of the music it's it's very good and it's um and
02:52also reading about your approach to it and your love of it and how visceral it is to you uh you love
02:59your acting world as well and in fact during the the uh the lockdown and pandemic uh most of the
03:05the hardcore stuff you were still busy i think you did two movies in a limited series and um the
03:12question i have for you is prior to the that all happening you wrote a couple songs and then you wrote
03:18the bulk of it during the pandemic would we be able to discern the songs that were written prior do you
03:26think yeah that's a great question i i think you would um you know i i had such a profound kind of
03:34reaction to the lockdown uh i've been moving at a mile a minute for the last 20 years uh i don't
03:41think i've been home for more than three weeks for wow last 10 years and so all of a sudden i'm
03:47actually sitting in my house and it's like oh wow i i actually like my house and oh cool i actually
03:53like my dog and i like my girlfriend wow this is pretty cool and so i i became profoundly grateful
04:02uh you know i i've had i've been fortunate enough to have a career that people can only really dream
04:09of uh i've been allowed to do things that i'm interested in and uh and i know that's not what
04:15everybody gets so i just a lot of the songs whether it was songs like so full of love you know uh if you
04:22had told me four years ago that i was going to write that song and write a song that was so positive
04:27i'd have stabbed you in the heart with a pencil i just wouldn't have believed it would be hard it's
04:31hard to wrap your mind around it yeah and there i am sitting in the shower going so full of love i
04:36can't hold down like who the is this guy um so that was kind of my reaction to the pandemic and i
04:43don't want to minimize how difficult a time this has been for so many people um but i was just i was
04:50i couldn't help but be really grateful for my family and my friends who i wasn't allowed to see
04:54like everybody else and and uh it it afforded me time to take stock in my own life and how lucky i
05:01have been well i wanted to ask about uh the title track uh bloor street because i don't know at what
05:07point that that song was written but you know it seems to be a uh um uh a nostalgic look back at
05:12at a hometown i get this kind of um uh you know uh bruce springsteen my hometown lyrically
05:17um um main street from uh from bob seeger something bob seeger one of my favorite songs
05:23and i've always loved that type of song it could be talking about an existence of a place that i have
05:28no connection with growing up but i still you connect get an emotional connection to it is this
05:34indeed about uh you know toronto your hometown it is bloor street is the main thoroughfare through
05:39toronto going east and west and we were shooting a television show there called designated survivor
05:45and i hadn't been home we were there for three years and i hadn't been home for that long a period
05:50of time since i was maybe 16 years old and i came upon this kind of main intersection in toronto
05:57and bloor street and young street and i realized all of my firsts had happened there my first job at
06:03the food court in the hudson bay center uh my first meaningful kiss with a girl in front of the
06:08bloor street subway wow uh i think the first fight i ever got in and lost was on that corner um you
06:17know so i just got very nostalgic and and uh and just started writing really about how grateful i was
06:24that i could grow up in that town which afforded us a kind of freedom uh that i certainly know that my
06:31kids and my grandkids did not experience we were on the subway at 11 years old i mean who would do that
06:37now right right you're saying so much that's true because that is i i actually am it's been a while
06:43since i've been back to the town i was raised in it's been uh 20 plus years and and i'm i'm i think
06:50i'm at that point where i want to go back because it does mean something and you know those you pick
06:55those hallmark benchmark moments in your life and that does mean something and and you need to
06:59reconnect i agree with what preston was saying about songs that do that so much of what you you uh you
07:04write about with this um has a resonance to your to your experience two-stepping in time is is is
07:10kind of a just a real love song and i assume it's written for your girlfriend correct it is yeah it
07:17is and uh a friend of mine uh who i was recording with kind of uh and i was writing a lot of songs i
07:25was being kind of prolific at this moment and he said you should really write a waltz and i started
07:29on the guitar literally sitting around the kitchen island uh and i was going through a kind of thing
07:34as a writer where i i wanted to write about what was in front of me and i and and i think the very
07:41first line of the song uh is cigarettes in the ashtrays all in a line empty glasses of whiskey show
07:48the passage of time and and those were the items that were in fact right in front of me uh i have
07:53since quit smoking uh the one thing that i can thank the pandemic for um but uh but yeah so it's
08:02and and then so the guy was sitting to my right and my girlfriend was sitting a little farther down
08:07the kitchen island i figured i should start writing towards her instead of him if i wanted to have a
08:12good evening did you and uh did you just i i'm sorry i i just did you write that song quickly i was
08:19reading yes like 20 minutes i think right every once in a while songs kind of write themselves
08:24and and uh this one was was certainly that uh it was and it was finished because we were actually
08:32having a nice evening and my friend had kind of put this task in front of me and i wanted to go back
08:38to having our nice evening so this song got written very quickly uh but it is it's it's a love song
08:44again not something that i spend a lot of time kind of doing i don't write a lot of love songs
08:49um so when when something like that happens um you know that's a great kind of song to put in your
08:56pocket and take with you it was interesting to read that you um consider the the touring and you
09:01haven't had a chance to do a lot of touring over obviously the past the past couple years but i think
09:05you run contrary to a lot of people who create music and say that that the process of touring is sort
09:11of a detriment to creating songs and you on the other hand find it very um helpful and it informs
09:18your your songwriting would that be correct to say that oh my gosh yeah uh in the three years that we
09:23were doing designated survivor we played over 500 shows um you know uh i remember on the second record
09:30writing songs that were specifically designed to enhance our set list um the live thing is something
09:37that i just uh caught me by surprise i wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as i have uh and
09:45and i think that there's an amazing moment or possibility at least when you explain why you wrote
09:51a song and uh i wrote a song called saskatchewan about the passing of my mother and there were times
09:56when i would play that song and i could see someone put their arm around a friend in the audience and i
10:01could realize at that moment that that person's going through something similar wow when we can come
10:06together and realize that we've got these things in common and that we're going through this thing
10:10together uh that's a great night i mean uh that's that's a good evening um and so it's it's something
10:17that's made a deep impression on me uh and hopefully for the people that we get to play for
10:23keifer i want to ask you about your voice work over the years because you've done some narration
10:26you've done animated movies i love you and monsters versus aliens that the warmonger character was
10:32terrific you've done you know the simpsons and and uh and narrated a few over the a few other things
10:36over the years um does that lend itself to your ability to sing perform on stage do you get training
10:41from doing narration or voice voice work uh that you can then bring to your music career or are they
10:46entirely separate they they are pretty pretty separate uh you know the voiceover work started
10:52actually for me in a very funny way my dad was doing commercials back in the early 90s for volvo
10:58uh and i think one evening he whispered in my ear what they were paying him
11:04literally i think the next day i called up volvo and told him i did a really good donald
11:11i'd do it for half the money um undercutting your dad which i don't think he really appreciated
11:20i thought it was a lot funnier than he did um but it's it's it's it's its own it's its own thing i
11:27mean when i think of someone like mel blank who did all of those cartoon voices and which you know
11:33monsters versus aliens uh that's i mean i hope i don't get sued for this but i completely ripped
11:39off yosemite sam bring on a fearless freak i hate rabbits yeah and and but it's it's an awful lot of
11:49fun and and it and it takes you back to being a kid and and just loving cartoons and listening to
11:54cartoons and uh so it is a lot of fun to do but they're very very separate kind of entities
11:59you um have lived a very very interesting and full life uh and obviously voiceover actor actor musician
12:06but you're kind of a cowboy too you've uh competed in rodeos and have won roping championships what's
12:12that and do you still do that um i do not uh i think 24 kind of put an end to that i've been doing
12:19it for a decade and i i had two partners that i would rodeo with one guy named john english uh just
12:26an amazing all-round cowboy and a guy named mike wolf who has since passed um really just really
12:33loved it i mean it was kind of like being in a band you and about three other cowboys kind of load your
12:37horses up onto a trailer and and go from town to town you know doing rodeo after rodeo uh we had more
12:44fun than we probably should have um and and it was a great great experience and it was so nice to do
12:50something kind of different uh you know i did that for about a decade and i did films at that time um
12:58but it was a great kind of refresher because when i went and started 24 that was going to be a whole
13:04very intense decade of just doing that show so so the rodeo actually kind of helped cleanse my palate
13:12if you will for for a lot of work and uh i enjoyed it immensely and i got to see parts of america that
13:18i don't think i would normally have seen right right i wanted to to go back to the to the songwriting
13:24and and and having songs kind of just present themselves to you and uh you know uh you know with
13:29two-stepping in time and having it be so quick and present itself and you write it uh did you get a
13:34chance to see the peter jackson beatles documentary the i sure did i mean for you that had to be as it was
13:39for us to see the creation of songs that have become so iconic what a mind blower yeah it's i
13:46mean to have ringo star kind of doing an interview saying you know i could just listen to paul play
13:52piano for an hour and in the background paul's working out the opening chords for let it be
14:00are you are you kidding me um you know one of the greatest songs ever written coming to life right
14:07but what it's insane but what's really really funny is kind of as iconic as they are there's
14:14always going to be something really personal that you watch in a movie like that especially one that's
14:19documented six hours my phone rang off the hook somewhere in the third episode when they all
14:25started drinking j&b scotch now j&b scotch is certainly now not considered to be very highbrow
14:33on any level and you'd have to find a pretty dirty bar to find a bottle of it anyway um i've been that
14:41that was always kind of my drink of choice for a number of years and uh and literally the fact that
14:47they had all drank it together kind of sitting on the floor working out you know the long and winding
14:52road uh somehow gave gave the beverage validity my friends finally after 20 years of drinking
15:00this will have forgiven me it's good enough yeah i thought yeah if john lennon could drink it
15:07and apparently i make the same kind of disgusted face that john lennon makes when he takes that first
15:14pull that's great that's we're laughed about that if you're just tuning in it's keeper sutherland that
15:19we're speaking to his album is called bloor street and he's going to be performing at ardmore music
15:23hall coming up on march 12th tickets that go on sale i believe tomorrow by the way um and and i
15:28didn't even realize this is a bizarre coincidence uh keifer i i right before you came on i go to casey
15:34i go oh my god i'm wearing my castle rock main shirt and uh and you were ace meryl in stand by me
15:41who lived in castle rock my favorite movie of all time and i wanted to ask you about that character
15:47and other characters in your acting career because that one was earlier earlier on in your career
15:51and he was so nasty and so mean um that that as you've gone through and and formed other characters
15:58if you've ever gone i think i'll throw a little ace in there or or do you do that do you mix and
16:04match and borrow pieces from characters and maybe put them to construct others together no they kind of
16:09each character is inspired and informed by the script uh that you have in front of you and the
16:16experiences that you've had as a human being up until that point um the thing i mean the thing
16:22that i've always been amazed about with films like stand by me that i've been so lucky to be a part of
16:27was the seemingly unaware i was that it was great you know uh i just when i look back i think man you
16:36have been lucky because you know when i first read that script i you know it was just a job i didn't
16:42think something it was going to turn into this amazing thing that rob reiner and the other kids
16:47turned it into so i've been very fortunate to be along for the ride on some of these things and i
16:53also remember it's the first and only time the that i went on an audition where i was hired in the room
17:01and that was rob reiner and that was like the most incredible feeling to go in for a meeting and then by
17:08the time you're going back to your car in the parking lot you've actually got the job yeah um
17:12no callbacks no we'll get in touch none of that no it was i was just i i think it kind of i think
17:19it almost made me cry when i was a kid i mean it was just because it was such an important thing to
17:23get the first couple jobs down here in the states and and uh and i'll always be grateful for rob for
17:29doing that and that movie has uh has hit me in you know different ways over the years because i first
17:35watched it as a child and you know there were things about the movie that i didn't get or
17:40understand because i was a kid at the time and you know you're seeing these four kids that you know
17:44going on this amazing journey and then all of a sudden at the end like they're not friends anymore
17:49like they they went to middle school and then you know as an adult and i actually have a friend of
17:53mine i was just talking to him about it on sunday he i went to kindergarten with this guy and we're
17:57still friends to this day but we were lamenting over the fact that like there were people
18:00on our last day of eighth grade that was the last day last time i ever saw them and you know so these
18:06are aspects of these child's lives that stephen king was well aware of as as an adult and so i just
18:12it's my favorite movie and has always been will always be my favorite movie of all time well it's
18:17certainly one of my favorite to have made because i was so young again but all of a sudden you know
18:23i'm in eugene oregon i've got my own hotel room i'm being paid uh i'm 17 years old uh this has
18:31nothing to do with my parents uh for all of those reasons you know again talking about the firsts
18:37that you do in your life um you know it was just it was an incredibly incredibly exciting time
18:43as you as you move from through your career and i mean it's an amazing career you know on the screen
18:49because you've played you've played william burroughs and jack power uh you know which which are as you
18:57know author of the naked lunch and and one of the great action guys of all time um you know and i know
19:04you have a very good work ethic and the mindset early on was to just get the role get the role get
19:09the role but as you were able to have some impact and weight and make the selections what informed what
19:16you chose throughout your career just whatever moves you uh it's it's it's not more complicated
19:22than there's someone picking up up a book and and for whatever reason this book moves them and makes
19:28them uh inspires them more than than the other book uh so so generally if if if i'm reading a script
19:35and i can't put it down it's going to be something i'm interested in doing um you know and having said
19:42that i've made close to 100 films so i've i've made mistakes um there there are a couple films i'm
19:48sure that that i read that i didn't understand that when i see the movie i'm like how did you not get
19:54that is that is that a liability you and you mentioned you know you didn't realize what you
19:59had with stand by me i i would think it'd be hard for an actor who's doing the job to be in it
20:06surrounded by all of this stuff that's going on and to be very aware completely aware of how
20:12something is turning out is is that yes i mean that's a very fair statement i mean uh
20:18you know and i and there's some people that are clearly must be better at it like i think tom hanks
20:22must have some inner gene that's like this is going to be a huge hit because he keeps making
20:28um you know um i wasn't i wasn't given that gene and and and you know having said that
20:36you know so many things need to go right for a film or a play to work or for a song or an album
20:44to work uh and and for instance 24 was a perfect example uh you know it was my first foray into
20:53television uh and and for those out there that don't know you make a pilot you make the first
20:59episode and then if it gets picked up uh you then go make the first season but if it doesn't you still
21:05get paid right uh and what you know i i thought the likelihood of 24 getting picked up was pretty
21:12minimal so so i thought you know i'll go do the pilot it won't get picked up i'll still get paid no
21:18one will know and you know it was the luckiest gift i've ever had as an actor and did it for a
21:24decade so wow so i don't know if any of your kids want to get into film probably the best bet is to
21:31not send me the script and ask me what i think uh two real quick things keifer my mom drinks jmb so
21:39you're not alone you my mom and the beatles and uh you do play a great dick because in a few good men
21:45you were really not likable at all and and you pulled it off successfully i think you're a really
21:49likable person i'm loving this conversation with you but that movie was it fun to be kind of a
21:53villain in that movie well it's you know it's it's those characters and especially by design like
22:00ace merrill and lieutenant kendrick and a few good men they're just designed to be that there there's
22:06no real depth to them there's kind of a black and white character that's that this is who you're
22:10against yeah um and and so the fact that they are so pointed as characters makes them very fun because
22:18you just all your energy goes into that there's no complex layering he's just as you said on
22:23your radio station he's a dick you know so lead into it yeah that makes total sense that's fun
22:30yeah yeah it's got to be all right well listen keifer we know you got to run this has been so
22:34much fun to talk to you we really appreciate it and excited about the fact that you're coming into
22:37philadelphia uh keifer's show is going to be at the ardmore music hall it's on march 12 tickets go on
22:44sale tomorrow at 10 a.m at ardmoremusic.com the album is called blur street some great music it's got
22:50a country vibe to it if that's your thing then you're definitely on board yeah it's it's very
22:54very solid yeah so thanks so much man thank you guys so much and steve i believe it's your happy
22:59happy birthday so no it's preston but thank you yeah but i get one and i'm so sorry but happy happy
23:07birthday oh thank you i appreciate it keifer good luck with everything thank you so much we appreciate
23:13keifer southerly wow and there's so much more that we could have covered even we could have gone
23:20another hour yeah uh just talking to him about uh about all his uh his movies he's it shows it's
23:25still an interesting thing though because you have a guy who's you know i was of the vast movie career
23:29but but uh he is passionate about the music and he really is sinking a lot into it and if if you
23:33do give it a listen i mean uh you did mention a little a little bit of springsteen-esque i there's
23:38even a bit i think of warren zivon and there's uh and it's it's personal and and he does a good job
23:43relaying that to the music i meant to and wanted to ask him about he played performed at uh the
23:48company's um uh christmas party uh we weren't at that but it was uh you know like for like national
23:53sales and no you didn't want to bring yeah were you in here when we were talking well no no so i
23:57wanted to ask about malca so matt capper was the uh organizer he was the uh master of ceremonies and
24:03he wore a bright red i saw you in stand by me that was sick was that was that dead body real
24:12played ace you played ace that was sick oh my god are there really a few good men or just one good
24:21man what's sick were the boys really lost wait he was wearing a red outfit a red blazer like like
24:29almost like a santa claus but but it's you know fitted perfectly to or imperfectly to his body i had
24:35a tailor-made so i can show my v
24:38uh casey i was glad you got to bring up stand by me because i think now we've we've uh you've been
24:49able to ask rob reiner will wheaton um will wheat will wheaton jerry o'connell yep uh now kiefer
24:55probably cory feldman at some point because we've had him on we had him in studio uh back in
25:01but you could have asked reed of river phoenix if he was still alive oh by the way covered everybody
25:06on i think it's hulu hulu has a series it's a vice series and they touch on the there's a whole um
25:12episode on river phoenix uh the viper room heard about yeah i heard it's really good it's really
25:19really good i'll tell you the thing about stand by me and then there are other movies like that that
25:22you watch it and and um you you dread almost the end uh stand by me because and it's a wonderful
25:29thing and it's the way life works but the sadness of what yeah of what you had in the stand lot
25:35things like that it's the way things are yeah it's what's important to you as a kid at that time
25:39i mean there's it means everything they're sitting around the fire and he goes we talked about things
25:43that are important to kids at that time you know what's your favorite uh cover to flavor pez you
25:47and stuff like that and and it's um uh it's just a simpler time that's great to reminisce about and
25:53and and that's done so lovingly lovingly well uh in that movie so it's cool i'm glad he had noticed i
26:00said yeah i'm wearing my castle rock shirt he's like yeah i noticed very cool man that helps him
26:04great guy great guest i'd love to get him on again
26:06great guy great guest
26:27you
26:27you
26:27you
26:27you
26:27you
26:28you
26:29you
26:30you
26:30you
26:32you
26:32you
26:32you
Recommended
50:14
|
Up next
1:00:15
4:31
14:19
15:10
12:48
10:04
7:50