John C. Reilly can rock. No, really.
This is why we shouldn’t be shocked that his alter ego’s band — Dewey Cox & the Hard Walkers — will kick off a seven-city tour Wednesday at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to support the soundtrack from his upcoming comedy, “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.” The following night, the South Side native rolls through his hometown to perform songs from the film at The Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville.
“This really was a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy come true,” Reilly told Armour & Co. when we tracked him down in Los Angeles a few days ago. “All the music I have been playing my whole life–all the different bands–it seems like the culmination was for me to pull off ‘Walk Hard.’ “
Producer Judd Apatow and director Jake Kasdan collaborated with Reilly on most of the film’s 30 original songs (the soundtrack comes out Tuesday, with a “compilation” boxed set of songs released later). In fact, most of the songs were recorded before “Walk Hard”–which opens nationwide Dec. 21–even began filming. It’s sort of “This Is Spinal Tap” meets “Ray” and “Walk the Line,” taking us through the ups and downs in the life of Reilly’s fictitious, self-absorbed rocker.
“There’s a lot of serious stuff going on in the world right now and a lot of serious movies coming out right now,” Reilly told Armour & Co. “This is a fun movie. It’s period- specific with amazing costumes and familiar stories. It’s almost like we took a real biopic, hijacked it and replaced the actors with funny people.”
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