Nashville star Charles Esten has teased a huge cast reunion – but says he’ll only do it for the right reasons.
Charles shot to fame as Deacon Claybourne on the iconic country-music series, alongside Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton. He’s also had roles in everything from Outer Banks to Whose Line Is It Anyway – and popped up in The Office US for a few episodes as Josh Porter.
Now he’s embarking on a headline tour of his own, performing tracks from his latest album Love Ain’t Pretty. But Charles looks back on collaborating with his Nashville co-stars fondly, and wouldn’t say no to getting the band back together.
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In an exclusive chat with Daily Star, he confessed: “That show, those of us that were on the show, get to live daily the incredible bank account of goodwill it’s created. These deposits mean so much to so many people.
(Image: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
“Now there’s two ways to do a reunion – there’s one where you’re just going up to the ATM and withdrawing all of that goodwill, taking it all out to get yourself a little money and have a little fun. I don’t want to do that.” But there’s one set of circumstances that could tip the scales the other way.
Charles added: “If I ever saw a script or a project that made me think, ‘This would be adding to the legend, this would be a deposit into that bank of goodwill’, I would do it then. That would be hard to imagine, especially without our sweet, amazing Rayna [played by Connie Britton], we know how that went.”
While an episode might not seem likely, a reunion tour with his cast-mates definitely does after the success of its international concerts in 2023. Esten said: “How many shows get to go out on a reunion tour? Shows you loved desperately don’t get to do that! You’re not gonna see Prime Suspect in concert, though I’d love that!
“We’re also very fortunate in the sense that you don’t need to go binge the whole show – you can, but you can just go wherever you stream your music and you’re back in that world again, and so can we. So it would be my dream to keep playing those Nashville songs with those Nashville friends for as long as we can.”
Charles is currently embarking on a solo UK tour with his original country tracks, having discovered the genre with his dad from a young age. He explained: “I started off early with country, with Waylon [Jennings] and Willie [Nelson]. I’d already known some, and then in 1980 John Travolta was so powerful in those days that he brought country mainstream with Urban Cowboy.
(Image: Lime Tree Music)
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“Even before that, my father had shown my Johnny [Cash] and Merle [Haggard], even the greats before that like Tennessee Ernie Ford and Jimmy Rodgers, Hank Williams. I was steeped in the knowledge of those older ones. Then you get to be a teen and it gets a little more rock and roll – the Beatles, the Clash, U2.
“After that I played Buddy Holly for two years, which brought me back to the rockabilly, then you start having kids and you’re not turning on that rock station so much anymore! When 90s country was having its boom I was back listening to Garth [Brooks], Trisha [Yearwood], Vince Gill, Tim McGraw. I started realising that was where my heart was because they were telling stories about the life I was living.”
You can catch Charles on his UK tour here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
