page_title: Jeff Bridges
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Jeff Bridges / Career / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: Jeff Bridges at the premiere of "The Men Who Stare at Goats" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.
context_page_description: Jeffrey Leon Bridges is an American actor, singer, and producer. He comes from a prominent acting family and appeared on the television series Sea Hunt, with his father, Lloyd Bridges and brother, Beau Bridges. He has won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as an alcoholic singer in the 2009 film Crazy Heart.
  Bridges also earned Academy Award nominations for his roles in The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman, The Contender, True Grit, and Hell or High Water.
context_section_description: Referring to his career as an actor and his passion for music, Bridges says, "I dug what an actor did, but it took me a while to feel it, to truly appreciate the craft and the preparation. Plus, I was still playing music a lot, and I guess I had a hard time choosing: was I an actor or a musician, or could I be both?"
  Bridges studied piano at a young age, strongly encouraged by his mother. While working on the 1980 film Heaven's Gate, he often played guitar with his co-star, singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, between takes. His character in Crazy Heart, Bad Blake, was later based partly on Kristofferson. In 1982 he did the voice of Prince Lír in the animated film The Last Unicorn, and in that role sang on two songs, one being a duet with Mia Farrow. He released his debut album Be Here Soon on January 1, 2000. In 2005, Bridges, known as "The Dude" in the film The Big Lebowski, showed up at a Lebowski Fest in Los Angeles singing and playing the film's theme song written by Bob Dylan, "Man in Me".
  On January 15, 2010, Bridges performed the song "I Don't Know" from Crazy Heart on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. In the film The Contender, in which he co-starred, Bridges recorded a version of Johnny Cash's standard "Ring of Fire" with Kim Carnes that played over the pivotal opening credits. In February 2010, he was among the nearly 80 musicians to sing on the charity-single remake of We Are the World. On October 24, 2010, Bridges appeared at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit concert and played a set with singer-songwriter Neko Case.
  On April 19, 2011, Country Music Television announced that Bridges had signed a recording contract with Blue Note Records/EMI Music Group. He worked with producer T-Bone Burnett and released his second album, Jeff Bridges, on August 16, 2011. On November 5, 2011, Bridges played Austin City Limits in support of this album.
  In 2015 he sang on album Strangers Again with Judy Collins singing a duet of the musical tune from Candide by Leonard Bernstein called Make Our Garden Grow.
  In 2015, Bridges released an ambient/spoken-word album entitled Sleeping Tapes. All proceeds from the album go directly to Bridges' charity No Kid Hungry.
  Bridges plays many guitars, including the Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentlemen Model G6122-1959.
caption: Bridges at the premiere of The Men Who Stare at Goats, during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
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