A Conversation With Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner has a few dozen movie credits to his name, but baseball has been at the center of some of his most beloved work. "Bull Durham" (1988) and "Field of Dreams" (1989) are sports-movie classics, and "For Love of the Game" (1999) continues to hold a special place in the actor's heart.

As important as acting and sports are to Costner, music is right there, too.

After dabbling in rock and roll more than a decade earlier before giving it up, Costner got the itch again a couple of years ago. The result was Modern West, which will bring its country-tinged rock to Straub Park in St. Petersburg on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. as part of the events celebrating the Rays' new uniforms - a pairing Costner described as "a perfect fit." Costner recently spoke to Tampa-area reporters about baseball, music and movies, and how they all fit together. Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

About his relationship with baseball:

Baseball, for me, started real early - with my pop. He was a hardball player, and I was raised in Compton, Calif., and you want to be with your dad. My first recollection so much about baseball was just the sounds of his cleats on cement - the 'click, click, click.' I used to make him wear them when we'd walk through the school out to the field, and he used to say, 'Well, that will wear them down,' and I was like 3 or 4 years old and I didn't care. I wanted to hear that sound. ... Baseball's always been a real part or our family. The vacations had to wait to see if we got to Williamsport Pa., home of the Little League World Series. That's where we all wanted to play one day.

About the favorite of his three baseball movies, "For Love of the Game":

Really, to pitch a perfect game and have Vin Scully call it was kind of a favorite opportunity for me. I think probably the other two movies are thought of as more popular and maybe your guys' favorites, but if you ask me personally, out there pitching in Yankee Stadium, throwing a perfect game, kind of looking back on your life ... there was something very complete about that particular movie for me.

About his mind-set in deciding to assemble a band:

Listen, when you stand up to talk in a crowded room, you'd better have something to say. And if you're going to play music in front of people, you'd better have a good idea that you think it can be received well. We can all be delusional, and I think I've tried to conduct a life where I was not making gigantic mistakes like that. I've definitely tried to just raise the bar in whatever I've done, and I've taken a lot of risk as an actor. There was a definite risk - a perceived risk - by people going, 'Well, why would you want to destroy whatever reputation you have and risk it on music?' That was a consideration in me, but I'm not that timid about who I am and about what I do. I had to kind of make my own judgment - 'Is it presentable to people?' - and if it wasn't, I wouldn't have done it. So it had to pass my own test.

About taking his music out on the road:

I am asked to go around the country and either play golf or do something, and I always feel like it could be so much more than just being a person who's taller than you thought he was. So that's how it came about, and I'm really glad that I did it. There is going to be somebody who goes after me, I'm sure - I'm not naïve about that. But I'm comfortable knowing what my relationship is with an audience out front.