Charles Esten: 'I was more afraid of me than of anyone else'

For fans of Nashville, Charles Esten is a familiar face, and a much-loved one at that. Having shot to fame as the troubled but beloved guitarist Deacon Claybourne, he spent six years on the show alongside his costars Connie Britton, Hayden Panettiere and Sam Palladio. After contributing to the soundtrack, both as a singer and songwriting, throughout his tenure, Esten’s country music career took flight, seeing him perform at Nashville’s renowned and legendary venue Grand Ole Opry, where he has now played 100 times. It’s a rare gift being able to be both act and sing, but Esten is well and truly a pro at both.

Having just released his single "A Road And A Radio", Esten is currently on tour in the UK, with his final show closing Country Music Week this Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall. His time in the UK is not over though and his popularity here grows fast, as country music is finally having its day in the international spotlight. On Monday he was announced as a headliner for the annual Country To Country festival in March, with gigs at London’s O2 Arena and The SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

Only a few hours after Esten and his band landed in the UK from Nashville for the start of their nationwide tour, GQ caught up with him to go through his formative firsts just before he got on his tour bus. Candid, open and charming, he shares stories about the Nashville set and succumbing to his nerves as well as his best advice.

The first time you went to Nashville...

Even though I had flirted with the idea of going to Nashville more than once, it wasn’t until I got the job to play Deacon Claybourne in Nashville that I finally went. I had twice agreed to sing at The Bluebird Café with a friend of mine, but even though I had bought tickets, both times I had to cancel because of acting jobs. I remember saying to my wife that it wasn’t ever going to happen, and then after my auditions I headed out in 2012.

The first time you were starstruck...

The first time I was truly, as you say in the UK, gobsmacked starstruck was when I stepped into an elevator at the Pittsburgh airport with my mom as a kid and Mr Rogers was there. He was incredibly kind, nice and neighbourly. In this business that isn’t a forgone conclusion.

Later in life, though, as an adult, it would be when I met Paul McCartney. I was here in London playing Buddy Holly in the show Buddy and Paul McCartney, being a big fan of Buddy Holly, threw a party in celebration of his birthday in the Victoria Palace Theatre, where our show was. He was so expert at meeting people that are freaked out over meeting him and he seemed extremely calm and normal. Extreme fame like that can mess with people but he couldn’t have been kinde, and it was most certainly memorable.

The first time you fell in love...

Well, that depends on the bar for what the word means. Properly in love? That would have to be my wife. For a guy who had liked dating and wasn’t super monogamous when we met, I remember thinking to myself, "Oh, my gosh, she’s the one" and feeling that I hadn’t meant to meet her so early, but I realised I was done.

The first time you had stage fright...

When you move out to Los Angeles obviously you don’t just get to jump on a television show or a movie. Some people do and those are amazing stories, but for everyone else what you can do is go to an open mic night and do stand-up comedy. I had done it a few times in DC when I hadn’t been nervous at all. I mean I wasn’t great at it, but I hadn’t been nervous. I was at The Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard, which is renowned for the people who have been through there: Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams... I had prepared five minutes of material and had worked really hard on it. I got on stage after they introduced me, adjusted my mic and by the time I looked up into the room I felt all of those things that you hear about. My knees weren’t knocking but my legs were jittering, my mouth was white and foamy and I was just so nervous. It was a helpful turning point for me though, because I remember coming off stage and walking right back into the men’s room and being furious with myself because I had taken a giant leap to go there and I let 200 semi-intoxicated people intimidate me. When I went back a week later the nerves had gone, but I was more afraid of me than I was of anyone else. That lesson helped me through a lot of things, including improv auditions and on the stage. Now, I always get a good amount of nervous energy, which is what you want. It’s that bit of adrenalin that’s not nervousness, but makes you feel alive and reminds you why you’re doing it in the first place.

The first time you saw yourself on TV...

I went out to Los Angeles with just the money I had raised doing construction back home in Alexandra, Virginia and money I had made with my band in college, which wasn’t a lot. After a while I was too broke to stay and too broke to go home, which is when I found a game show in the classifieds called Sale Of The Century. I ended up being the five-day champion on the show, winning $34,000 in cash and prizes, prizes that I had to go and later sell for money. That was my first time on television and I wasn’t even an actor yet, but what I remember clearly is that you didn’t get your money from the show immediately, but it took a long time to come through. The show had aired and I was still flat broke, so I started doing handy-man painting jobs. The first time I saw myself on TV I had gone into a hardware store dirty and covered in paint and the guy behind the counter had the TV on my show. He did a double take and was like, "Is that you?" I was on it winning thousands of dollars and he was like, "What are you doing here?"

First time you realised you were any good...

I don’t recall ever going, "Hey, I’m good at this" but I remember a moment where I thought maybe I can do this and make a living of it. It was on an early job during a period of time where I had done small roles on sitcoms that hadn’t required too much of me. I had a role on Star Trek: The Next Generation playing a young Klingon, which I know sounds crazy, but my character was having a religious experience where I was required to get very emotional. I recall working hard in class and in auditions trying to achieve a concept called public solitude, where you have to push everything out and feel as though you’re alone. This was the moment when it finally worked for me and I really felt like I had captured this character. I enjoyed the hell out of it and I thought maybe I could do this.

The first scene you filmed on Nashville...

I could be wrong about this but in my memory it was a scene at The Bluebird where I was playing Deacon’s first set for the pilot. I was sitting in the round in the actual Bluebird with a great country star Pam Tillis across from me and on the other side of the room was Hayden Panettiere playing Juliette Barnes with a hat pulled low over her eyes so she wouldn’t be recognised. She had a tear gently rolling down her cheek because of the sheer beauty of what Deacon was singing and in my memory that’s the one.

First thing you would do if you were president...

Call for a revote? Man... I would pray. I would get on my knees because I can’t imagine the pressure that would and should hit you in that situation. There’s a book called Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, which says everyone has areas of influence and areas of concern. You made me think of this because for most people your area of concern is huge and your area of influence is not that huge. Being president, suddenly your influence would be massive and, man, that would be terrifying for me. Someday, now I’ve said this, I’m going to try to run for president and then they’re going to bring that up: "He’s scared to death we can't elect him.”

First person you would call if you were in trouble...

My wife, for sure. She has my back in everything. I do so much of what I do independently, and currently I’m an independent artist, so we work on everything together. Other than my wife, I’ve still got my mom on speed dial or I’d call my sister.

First time you got really drunk...

I was in high school. Until eleventh grade I played football, as the back-up quarterback, but I quit when I became a senior in order to get a job and have some free time. The first game I went to that year, I hadn’t realised how much not being on the team any more had hit me and it made me get a little reckless. Somebody had something to drink and I kept asking for another one. It was nasty, cheap wine if I recall and my sister ended up taking care of me. I may have been drunk again after that but it was never on wine because that was nasty.

First person you met from the Nashville cast...

I had known Eric Close, who plays Teddy, for about 20 years before we did Nashville because we had been in acting class together when I first went out to Los Angeles. We got to know each other back then and bumped into each other over the years, but it always meant that when our characters would fight on the show it was always a little more fun. We’d call each other up like, "Are you hurting?" When it comes to actually filming Nashvillethough, I met Hayden Panettiere first during the audition process. We were in Hollywood and I had gone into the audition room to do two scenes and two songs. When I came outside the door, Hayden was waiting, just like her character Juliette Barnes, with her ear practically against the door. We had never met, but I came out and she started clapping and said I had done great. I knew who she was from Heroes and she was so kind. I was nowhere near to landing the job at this point so I said, "See you on set" and it turns out we did.

First person you would collaborate with musically...

“Elvis Costello would be a dream come true. I’m such a fan of his writing and have been for a long, long time because of his sensibility and great intelligence. I mean throwing that out there has left so many off the table, but considering it's all a dream anyways I’ll say Paul McCartney as well. He has done some great country music and I’m such a big fan.

The first song you always add to your playlists...

Maybe "Romeo And Juliet" by Dire Straits. My wife and I met in college and one night when I was performing with my band I saw her in the audience and I sang it to her. So over the years I listen to it not just because I love it musically, but it’s for those personal reasons that I like hearing it again and again.

The first time you performed at Nashville’s most iconic venue, Grand Ole Opry...

That was a month after the debut of Nashville on TV, 10 November 2012. I say I don’t get nervous any more, but that was a major exception and it was just the sheer awe of it. Growing up I had known the importance of the Grand Ole Opry, not just to country music, but to our country as a whole. They call it the show that made country music famous, when in virtually every situation music is what made the venue famous, not the other way round. Every great that had ever sung country music has stood on that stage and because they took a six foot circle of wood out of Ryman Auditorium and brought it there you’re also standing where Hank Williams, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell all stood. It was huge for me. It’s funny though because my character, Deacon, stood on that stage and played before I did. I remember clearly Connie Britton as her character, Rayna Jaymes, was singing a song and Deacon was behind her playing guitar. We walked off stage and Deacon places his hand on Rayna’s shoulder and that was the early hint that there may be more to these two than we know, so it was special.

The first time you thought Nashville was going to be something special...

When I read the script and saw Callie Khouri had written it the story became very special to me. But when I heard Connie Britton was playing Rayna Jaymes and Hayden Panettiere was playing Juliette I really knew.

The moment that stands out to me though was when I stood on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry with Connie Britton and a band behind us. I had figured that in Hollywood half the time you would just get a bunch of guys that maybe have held a guitar once or maybe just had a bass hung around their neck, but I heard how good these musicians were at every turn. The producers didn’t have to make this as real as they did and their dedication to the authenticity gave me a really good feeling.

I also think the pilot was so special. There’s a scene where Connie Britton and I are walking over a bridge and as we were filming it I thought she and I really had something as a couple, as our characters. It was written in such a lovely way by Callie and I knew how much I enjoyed filming it. It was a tough scene, we had to do a lot of walking, but I knew it was going to be something.

First poster you had on your wall as a teenager...

I actually didn’t have posters on my wall. Is that weird? It is weird. I guess my mom would have let me, but I just wasn’t a poster guy. Is that sad? I guess if I had put them up it would have been The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, but I just didn’t do it.

First time you came to London...

That was when I was playing Buddy. If you were making the movie of my life, you would have to include this moment where I came out of the tube at Victoria Station, at the exit near the Victoria Palace Theatre, and as I came out of the exit the heavy fog had made the neon on the sign reading "Buddy" this watercolour of a dream and here I am, this young guy in London, having just flown in to be in this show.

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