Kiefer Sutherland had been around the Hollywood block long enough to understand that the actor-turned-singer thing rarely ends well. For every Jennifer Lopez and Jamie Foxx, there are dozens of actors whose recording careers are met with universal ridicule. So earlier this decade, when he was looking to scratch his musical itch, he opted for the safest path possible: He and longtime friend/producer Jude Cole would co-write some songs, record them as demos, then pitch them to country artists.
That plan changed, though, when Cole—so impressed with Sutherland’s deeply personal songs—encouraged him to keep them and record an album. It took some arm-twisting, but the skeptical Sutherland eventually caved. The result—2016’s Down in a Hole—was so well-received that it led to the follow-up Reckless & Me, which was released in April. Now in the midst of a West Coast tour fronting the Kiefer Sutherland Band, the former star of 24 appears to have bucked the actor-turned-singer odds—much to his own surprise. “I had no intention of making an album,” Sutherland told People magazine on the day Down in a Hole was released. “I hear about an actor wanting to do music, and my eyes roll back, too.”
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