Trace Adkins Makes the Old West New Again in ‘Stagecoach’

Adkins stars in the film as Nathaniel Reed a retired outlaw, whose gun-slinging past suddenly comes back to haunt him when he learns that the man will stop at nothing to find vengeance.

Written by Chuck Dauphin
Trace Adkins Makes the Old West New Again in ‘Stagecoach’
Photo courtesy Submersive Media

Trace Adkins’ latest gig gives him a chance to live out an All-American dream – being a cowboy in the old west. As star of the new film Stagecoach, Adkins took full advantage of the opportunity to go back in time.

“Anytime you get paid to ride horse all day, it’s a good job,” the singer told Sounds Like Nashville. “It was a lot of fun.” Adkins says that the public’s fascination with westerns – as evidenced by the recent success of The Magnificent Seven remake – is something that simply a part of American life.

“I think it’s an American genre. It’s a genre that is ours, and I think there is incredible appeal still. It takes you back to being a kid again, and role playing as a cowboy 150 years ago. It takes you back to that place.”

Photo courtesy Submersive Media

Trace Adkins; Photo courtesy Submersive Media

Adkins stars in the film as retired outlaw Nathaniel Reed, whose gun-slinging past suddenly comes back to haunt him when he learns that the man he once maimed during a stagecoach robbery is now a U.S. Marshal who will stop at nothing to find vengeance. After a violent shootout brings tragic consequences, Nathaniel returns to his old ways and becomes Texas Jack: the most wanted outlaw in the West.

The Wheelhouse Records recording artist said that the character did offer some qualities that he said he could identify with. “He’s kind of outside the lines, but there are some struggles,” he admitted, while saying that though he has been in several films over the years, there has to be something he can empathize with when choosing to play a character.

“I only accept roles and try to do things that I think that I think I can do. A man has to know his own limitations as Clint Eastwood once said. I certainly know mine. I would love to be the kind of actor who could take any role and pull it off, but that’s not who I am.”

Actor Judd Nelson – best known for roles in 80s classics The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire, agrees with his co-star about the aura of the cowboy lifestyle. “I think it has a lot to do with where we came from, as far as the old west – Go West Young Man, How The West Was Won – other than the fact that we were horrible to the Native People, there is a sense that we kept expanding from sea to shining sea. In most westerns, you pretty much have a black hat / white hat kind of thing with the bad guys and good guys, so I think there’s that excitement. You also have gunplay, which is very exciting in movies – and there’s a lot of that in Westerns. The railroad is also very important to westerns. I just think it’s a blast. I don’t know how easy it would have been to have lived in that time period. I think it would have been tougher than hell.”

Photo courtesy Submersive Media

Judd Nelson; Photo courtesy Submersive Media

In talking about his role in the film, Nelson said “I play one of Trace’s sidekicks, one of the henchmen or the gang of stagecoach robbers. I am more like the source of levity.” He has nothing but praise for Adkins. “He was such a great guy to work with. I really dig him.”

He admitted that it was a change of pace for him, as this was Nelson’s first western film. “To say that I’m an adequate horseback rider would be an exaggeration,” he confirms with a laugh. “I didn’t have to gallop, and that was key. When they cut to the galloping, that was the professionals. But, just getting on the horse was fine, and the people that were there were expediting it were great, so I didn’t look like bad.”

In further describing Adkins’ character, Nelson says he is a man of contradictions. “Trace is not a bad guy. Texas Jack thinks that all this tragedy has befallen his loved ones, so there’s no reason to go back to that kind of a life. He goes back to his old ways, but he’s never a killer or a murderer. He is just against the wealthy corporations and banks, so its’ excess money. He’s like Robin Hood, in that sense.”

The movie also features Sons of Anarchy’s Kim Coates in the role of Marshal Calhoun, the nemesis of Adkins’ character. “At the very beginning – though I can’t give away too many of the plots – I’m the stagecoach driver,” he says. “We have a couple of passengers, and I’ve got some money in the stagecoach. I’m about to take the money to the ban, and these robbers come out of nowhere. Their guns come out, and we give them whatever they want, and as Trace’s character and his gang are riding off, just for good riddance, he fires a shot off and it hits me right in the eye.”

Kim Coates; Photo courtesy Submersive Media

Kim Coates; Photo courtesy Submersive Media

That changes Coates’ character, and turns it into one bent on seeking payback. “From that point, the entire story, which is about redemption and forgiveness, as well as revenge. My character turns into the baddest Marshal the west has ever seen. I’m bent on revenge, and I’m going to find this guy, this stagecoach robber who goes into hiding. He needs forgiveness. He doesn’t tell people who he was in a previous lifetime. He gets drawn back into the fray, and it’s on. I will not stop my hunt for him until I find him.”

So, who wears the black hat, as well as the white? Coates says that is the beauty of Stagecoach. “That’s the good thing about this script. He’s the bad guy who turns into the good guy, who then gets forced to be good. I’m the one who is hellbent on destroying the west until I find this guy. It’s a very complex story of the west, and the way it was back then.”

Just as Nelson was, Coates was struck at how natural Adkins was – in front of and outside of the camera. “I was familiar with his rock star country status, and his voice is as deep as it would be to dig from here to China. He’s got such an amazing voice, and his lyrics are great, too. I didn’t know about his acting, but he knew me from Sons, and some of my movies. To meet and hang with him, as well as to work with him, he was just awesome. He wanted to get better. He was awesome. I can’t say enough about him. We’d give each other pats on the back when we needed to, but we could also turn ferocious when we needed to,” he jokes.

Sitting in 2016, Coates says it was fun to enter the time machine. “With technology, iPhones, and texting, computers, and games for the kids, isn’t it nice to go back to a time where things were so different. There was violence, but there was also love and simplicity. I think westerns are starting to make a comeback. Look at the success of The Magnificent Seven. I don’t know what it is, but I love that people want to see westerns again. I’m just so lucky to be involved in this one, and another one called Godless, that will be out next year. I love horses, and I love the whole thing.”

Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story is in theaters now.