All the world’s a stage Q&A: Gary Sinise Chris morris / las vegas sun

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007 | 10 p.m.

IF YOU GO

Who: Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Where: Cannery

Tickets: $10, general admission; $25, reserved; and $15, reserved for active and inactive military; 507-5700

By Jerry Fink

Las Vegas Sun

Many actors are singers/musicians, many singers/musicians are actors -- they use the celebrity status from their first career to further their second. Add Gary Sinise to the list. He's best known to movie fans as Lt. Dan Taylor in “Forrest Gump” and to TV fans as Detective Mac Taylor in “CSI: NY.”

But the Chicago native is equally at home on stage. In 1974 he co-founded the distinguished Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the basement of a church in Chicago, and it has grown into one of the nation's most respected regional theaters.

But put a bass guitar in his hand and surround him with a band and he's in paradise. Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will perform at 8 p.m. Sunday at The Club at the Cannery as part of its military appreciation show, which will include a color guard presentation and the singing of the national anthem. The first 1,000 to enter The Club will get a commemorative set of dog tags.

Sinese recently spoke to the Sun from his home in Los Angeles.

Q Do you run across many actors who are singers and musicians on the side?

Jim Belushi has a band. He's come in and sat in with us a couple of times. Bruce Willis is on the road. Dennis Quaid. A lot of guys just have fun doing it. I've got to admit the celebrity that I've achieved in the movie business has made it possible for us to go out and actually have some people show up and watch us play. They're curious as to what the hell I'm actually going to be doing in the band. Usually when they show up and hear us, they're shocked and surprised that we're actually good. We play a good, long show. There are a lot of fun moments.

For you, which came first, acting or music?

I had my first guitar when I was in fourth grade. That's the first performing I ever did, in bands. From the fourth grade until about the time I was a sophomore, that was my main interest. It was actually through the band that I ended up acting.

How did that happen?

I was standing in this hallway with members of my rock band. This lady came marching down the hall. She looked at the four or five us. We were looking kind of scruffy. She turned around and came up to us and said, “I'm directing ‘West Side Story' and you guys look perfect for the gang members. Come and audition.” So we thought that'd be kind of funny. We weren't thinking much of it, but we all auditioned. Me and two of the other guys in my band got in the play. From that point on I juggled acting and music, and then when I was in my early 20s I started a theater company, Steppenwolf. I got so busy with the theater company that I just stopped playing music. It was just about 10 years ago I started at it again. Been playing ever since.

What motivated you to create Steppenwolf?

I guess I was always kind of a self-starter as a young teenager. I started my own bands, my own baseball teams. I was always starting things up. I was kind of an organizer, director, leader type, creating these different things. When I was acting I kind of wanted to do it in a way that I wouldn't have to depend on anybody. Me and some pals, we were willing to sacrifice employment for having control over the kind of work we wanted to do as actors. We didn't rush off to Hollywood or New York or something and try to get in the movies or Broadway or anything like that. We just found this little space and put a group together and started producing plays that we wanted to do. We'd go work our day jobs to support that and then after our work was over we'd go to the theater and work until the wee hours of the morning and then get up and go to work the next day and then come back to the theater at night. Now the theater is over 30 years old and owns all kinds of real estate and it's a big, well-known company in the theater world.

Are you still heavily involved?

More on an executive level. I'm a founder so I'm connected to it always. On a day-to-day level, I don't run the company anymore. I live in Los Angeles. The company's in Chicago. We have great people that are running it now.

Do you still perform there?

The last time was 2001.

Do you prefer stage or film?

I like both. I love being onstage. I have a long history with theater. But, you know, you get the right role it doesn't matter where you are. If the part is good, the director and the people and the script are right, it doesn't matter if it's a movie or TV or stage.

Talk about “CSI: NY,” a major hit on TV.

It's amazing how big “CSI” is. I just did a USO tour with the band over in Germany and Belgium, and one of the bases we played at over there was the NATO headquarters in Belgium. There are 26 different nations represented there, with military and their families from all these different countries -- and that was the wildest show we played on the tour. It was completely packed and they just screamed form the beginning to the end. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that a lot of these folks had seen me in “CSI: NY” and “CSI” is big over there and that's why they showed up.

“CSI” is a phenomenon, no doubt about it. And it started here in Las Vegas.

I think it's the first time in television history that a franchise has been born so quickly. Two years after the original show there was another one and then two years after that there was another one.

Because of the TV show, are you limited on your time to do other things, such as the concerts? Is it troublesome?

You know what, it's a great job and I'm just going to enjoy it while it's here. I'm not going to be doing this series forever or anything like that but while it's here it's a good group of folks. It's lucrative. It's within a short little drive of where I live, five minutes from where my kids go to school. It's a great opportunity and I'm blessed to have it.

When do you find time to tour?

During the TV season we can't go overseas or do any type of extensive tours. What we do is get on a plane and fly to a gig and then fly back home in time for work. We do that several times a year. Then during my hiatus from the show we usually take some type of a tour. Last year we went to Germany and Belgium for 12 or 13 days. The year before that we did a 10-day bus tour around the Midwest and played five or six military bases, did a little USO tour. Usually on the show's 11-week hiatus we'll spend some time touring, like two weeks ago we played in Chicago at a big troop-support festival there. Had about 11,000 people show up. It was great.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.