Charles Esten caught up with Billboard's Lyndsey Havens at the ACM Awards 2024.
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00:00 We're here with Charles Esten. How's it going tonight?
00:02 It's so great. So many people around here that I love so much.
00:05 And when you're back in Nashville, we all don't get to see each other.
00:08 Everybody's out on the road doing their thing.
00:09 So it's a bit of a reunion and also just the splendor of it all.
00:14 You were definitely just out on the road. You have not been home in a minute.
00:17 Tell us a little bit about the tour that you've been on.
00:20 Well, we got to go to the UK and then Germany and then the Netherlands.
00:23 And then we ended up two places I've never been, which is Copenhagen and Oslo.
00:27 And honestly, it was so special. It's kind of hard to put it into words.
00:32 When you think about all of it, the fact that you sit in a room with some friends of yours writing these songs,
00:38 and they mean something to you and you're not sure if they're going to mean something to somebody else.
00:42 Then you spend all the time recording them, putting on an album.
00:45 And then you line up this tour and you're not sure who's going to show or if they'll show or how it will be.
00:51 And then you get there and this connection that they have with the songs that you wrote
00:56 and that you have with them. And there's a moment there that is what makes music so magical to me.
01:03 It's very different from acting. I'm not there when they enjoy that.
01:06 I'm there in that moment and there's a connection where there's not.
01:10 And there was, so it was amazing.
01:12 I guess there's more of that human reward that you get from your music
01:17 more so than when you film something and then it's maybe a little isolating.
01:20 Well, we definitely get the reward in terms of people coming up and saying
01:24 what Deacon Claiborne meant to them from the show Nashville.
01:27 Because I played a guy that went through so much, there's people that walk up
01:31 and they will just expose parts of them, their selves, the difficulties they've been through
01:35 or their families been through. So you can get that, but it's not in the moment.
01:39 It's not right as they see it. And that's what music is.
01:43 So I'm very grateful for that and grateful that they found this album and it moved them at all.
01:48 When you're writing an album, obviously you're not playing a character, it's all you.
01:51 Is that trickier to tap into or did it feel even more comfortable?
01:55 Well, it's my first love, songwriting, if I'm honest.
01:59 It's the thing I did long before anything else.
02:01 I was always singing and writing songs and playing.
02:03 When you are doing, I think the through line, and I got to think about this a lot
02:07 when I played a character who did music. I got to do acting in the music with Nashville.
02:11 They're both about the truth.
02:13 So when I'm playing Deacon, I'm trying to be as honest and truthful as I can in that moment
02:17 of those how I would respond.
02:20 When Raina says something, when I'm there with Connie, you better be truthful
02:24 because Connie Britton is as good as it gets.
02:26 Well, the same is there with your writing.
02:28 If we say something, it sounds phony and I don't mean that and that's not me.
02:33 Now, you can play a character when you're writing a song.
02:37 I mean, you can create this person that you're not really and an attitude that you might have.
02:42 That happens too.
02:45 When you write the gambler, I don't think he actually met a gambler on a train,
02:49 but he played a character and that's why it's so amazing.
02:55 All right, and then I have to ask you.
02:57 We were talking when you walked up about how you died on Outer Banks.
03:01 Let's be clear, a war died.
03:04 Right, of course. Is that a show that you'll still be tuning into though?
03:07 Oh, are you kidding me? Absolutely.
03:09 I will be like anybody else. I just want to see what happens next.
03:13 I love them all so dearly.
03:15 We were there from the ground floor.
03:17 I remember the first table read where I sat around the table with these young actors
03:21 that were not that known at all.
03:23 I remember looking at their Instagram and they had like 200 followers or 500 followers
03:27 or something like that.
03:29 I said, "Well, that's going to change."
03:31 They've taken the world by storm.
03:33 They're all doing these incredible projects, even apart from it,
03:36 but I know their heart is to stay with Outer Banks and make it something beautiful.
03:41 I can't wait to see what they've done.
03:43 It's fun because now Chase is sort of in the country community too.
03:45 Maybe you and Kelsey will work together.
03:47 He is. He absolutely is.
03:49 I've known Kelsey longer than I've known Chase.
03:51 I've known Kelsey since back in '12 I got to meet her.
03:53 We've always been friendly and buds and seen each other at events like this.
03:58 I've always loved her so much.
04:00 Then I meet this guy Chase and then after a couple of years I find out they're dating.
04:04 I said, "Well, we better go out."
04:06 The four of us, my wife and I, we went out and had a heck of a time.
04:10 Every time they're around each other it just really blesses me
04:13 because I love them both so much on their own to see just how nice it is,
04:17 how wonderful, how there they are for each other. It's lovely.
04:20 Crazy how small the world gets, right?
04:22 It really is. I think that all the time.
04:24 It's almost like, "How did that even happen of all the people in the world?"
04:27 But then you go, "No, it makes a great amount of sense."
04:29 I love it because I get to see my buddy Chase even more.
04:32 Well, I will let you get in there. Have so much fun tonight.
04:34 Thank you for talking to us.
04:35 Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
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