Soundtrack Of My Life: ‘Yellowstone’ star Ryan Bingham

14 July, 2023

Ryan Bingham

The first song I remember hearing

The Marshall Tucker Band – ‘Can’t You See’

“My dad and uncles used to run a bar out in New Mexico and it had all the vinyl records from the ’60s and ‘70s out there. I spent lots of nights driving on back roads with them on the ranch listening to those old tunes and that was one of their favourites that we all played all the time, so that’s definitely one that’s stuck with me.”

The first song I fell in love with

The Marshall Tucker Band – ‘Can’t You See’

“I fell in love with the sound and Toy Caldwell’s voice and the guitar playing. It still feels like home every time I hear it. They’re kind of a southern band – I can’t remember if they were from North Carolina or Georgia, down around there. It’s that Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers type vibe, heavy acoustic and electric guitar. I guess you’d call it southern rock or classic rock these days.”

The first album I bought

Beastie Boys – ‘Licence To Ill’

“I remember my mother taking me to a record shop and I think I might have even bought it because I liked the album cover – I was pretty little. I was looking around and she told me to pick something out and it was on the shelf. She was probably shocked once she heard what it was!”

The first gig I went to

Cypress Hill at Woodlands Pavilion, Houston

“Some of the first bands I saw were out in west Texas where I grew up, there were a lot of country and western dancehalls and I used to go with my folks. We’d go to the dancehalls on the weekend and there’d be cover bands mainly playing country music, honky-tonk stuff. But the first gig I ever went to, bought tickets to, I think I was 16 and we’d moved to Houston, Texas and there was a place called the Woodlands Pavilion outside of Houston, Texas and I went and saw Cypress Hill. I have a vivid image of the main guy walking out onstage with a four-foot long blunt that he lit with a fuckin’ blow-torch! Welcome to Houston, Texas!”

The song that reminds me of home

Townes Van Zandt – ‘Pancho & Lefty’

“The first version I ever heard of it was by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. It’s just the whole vibe of that song and where I’m from in New Mexico and west Texas, it’s Billy The Kid vibes out there. [Mexican revolutionary] Pancho Villa and all the history really reminds me of home. There’s lots of room for imagination out there.”

The song I wish I’d written

‘Happy Birthday To You’

“I don’t know who actually wrote it, but that’s one that I wish I penned a long time ago. I bet somebody’s still making money out of it!”

The song I do at karaoke

Something from the hair metal era

“I’m not big on karaoke, I’d probably be more of a spectator at the karaoke bar. It’d be something everybody would know, maybe some old ‘80s hair band song by Motley Crue or Bon Jovi or AC/DC, something that would put some rock ’n’ roll into it. I don’t know if I have a good rock voice but I can blast it out there with the rest of ‘em.”

The song that makes me want to dance

Notorious B.I.G. – ‘Hypnotize’

“As soon as that comes on you can’t help but move. It’s just the beat, My introduction to hip-hop early on is something that was part of growing up and those songs always make me move.”

The song I can’t get out of my head

‘The Ballad Of Davy Crockett’ (music and lyrics by George Bruns and Thomas W. Blackburn)

“I catch myself singing it all the time – maybe my mother played it when I was just a young ‘un but sometimes when I’m walking around I’ll start humming the song and I don’t know why. ‘The Ballad Of Davy Crockett’ always comes up somewhere.”

The song I can no longer listen to

Most Ryan Bingham songs

“Once you write some songs and you spend hours and days and months in the studio recording them, usually by the time the album’s finished I’m so sick of the songs I can’t hardly hear any of them anymore!”