I won a Bafta with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born – here’s why I haven’t acted since hit movie
HE co-wrote the award-winning A Star Is Born soundtrack with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper and made his big screen debut in the hit Hollywood flick.
Five years on from its global success, country music star Lukas Nelson, 34, admits the experience made him realise he’s much happier as a musician than an actor.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun from his home in Maui, Hawaii, he says: “I thought it was really well done. I think there was a lot of power behind both of them [Gaga & Cooper] and they used their power in perfect combination to have that movie be successful.
“I learned a lot. I was glad to be part of it and wrote a lot of great songs, and I did realise that I’m happy I’m a musician, you know, there’s a lot of waiting around in this industry.”
That’s not to say he didn’t enjoy being part of such an iconic film; the 2018 version was the fourth remake in the film’s storied history.
He continued: “I learned about Hollywood, the things I want and the things I didn’t want in that world – in terms of Hollywood the industry. It was a strange and beautiful world I had not been a part of, and I’m lucky I was able to get in there and sort of get out and learn from it.”
It shouldn’t be understated how much of an impact Lukas had on the reboot.
Not only did he play the guitarist in Cooper’s hard living rocker Jackson Maine’s band, but the lead character was also modelled on Lukas, who is the son of rock ‘n’ roll hall of famer Willie Nelson.
Americana fan Bradley personally sought him out after watching him play guitar for Neil Young at the Desert Trip music festival in California.
It proved a genius decision as they, along with Gaga, combined perfectly for the moving soundtrack that was based, in part, on moments from Lukas’s own life.
Though Lukas hasn’t acted since working on the film, he hasn’t ruled out getting in front of the camera again if the circumstances are right.
He says: “I love creating and I can’t stop, I’m always writing. I think as time goes by I’m sure that someone out there might want to use the songs I’ve written or to ask me to write a song or two for a film you know and I’d be happy to do it.
“If I end up acting it’s got to be something that makes sense.”
However, his immediate priority is the release of his and band Promise of The Real’s eighth album Sticks and Stones on July 14.
The record will feature heavily in the group’s June tour dates which begin in Oxford on the 13th.
The biographical set of songs were crafted with the audience in mind, and Lukas has promised plenty of anthemic choruses to sing along to.
He said: “The last record we did was really reflective and I just thought, well, I wanted to write songs that got people off their seats and in the mood to dance and really be merry.
“It was inspired by many different types of artists that are really great performers: my father [Willie Nelson], Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, the Bakersfield sound is really prevalent in like a Buck Owens type thing.
“It’s a very country record in the sense of the type of country I really like. I wanted to make a full on country record that still had my little twists to it but that really paid tribute to the type of singing troubadour style music I grew up on.
“When this album comes out we’ll be playing a lot of these new songs, which is great because they’re designed for the live show. I could play this whole record all the way through and it’d be a great live show.”