Kevin and Michael Bacon
10 minutes with... THE BACON BROTHERS
Kevin and Michael Bacon
For three decades, Kevin and Michael Bacon have performed together as The Bacon Brothers. In a recent conversation with the prolific duo, I began with what I thought was a straightforward question: Have they started their latest tour? I should know by now that the simplest question may not have the simplest response.“ We’ re sort of always on tour and never on tour,” says Michael. Bingo. And he’ s not kidding. He and Kevin have been jumping on and off the road ever since they started playing live, keeping in balance the other parts of their lives— like making movies, recording new songs, teaching, film scoring, spending quality time with family, even tending to the farm animals back home in the foothills of the Berkshires.
An accomplished guitarist, keyboardist, and cellist, Michael is a full-time professor of music at Lehman College. He has composed hundreds of songs for motion pictures and television shows, including Finding Your Roots, since 2012. He won an Emmy ® for his original score for The Kennedys( 1993) and three Academy Awards ® for his scoring of The Johnstown Flood( 1989); A Time for Justice: American ' s Civil Rights Movement( 1995); and King Gimp( 1999). Jerry Lee Lewis, Carlene Carter, and Peter Yarrow are just a few artists who have recorded songs written by Michael.
Kevin’ s career includes acting in at least 64 movies and eight TV shows, and his career has spawned a game called " Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," with the premise that any actor can be linked to Bacon through their movie roles in six steps or less. There’ s no way to think of Kevin without thinking of the 1984 cult classic Footloose( 1984). His filmography goes well beyond that foot-stomping film, though. The Golden Globe winner also appeared in Animal House( his first movie role at age 19); Friday the 13th; Diner; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; JFK; A Few Good Men; Apollo 13; Mystic River; and many others. More recently, he stars in the non-rated horror / comedy The Toxic Avenger, released in the U. S. on August 29, and he plays opposite his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, in this year’ s romantic comedy The Best You Can. He is working with his whole family— Kyra and their kids Travis and Sosie— on another horror / comedy movie entitled Family Movie.
Kevin also has a large following on social media with videos from his farm, his family, # MovieMondays featuring classic movies, and # MondayBlues featuring songs to combat— you guessed it— the Monday blues.
Kevin is younger than Michael by nine years, and they have four sisters. They were raised in a closeknit family in downtown Philadelphia; their mother taught elementary school and their father was a
The Bacon Brothers perform at The Cab on Sept. 13.( Photos courtesy of Mohegan Sun)
well-respected urban planner. Michael lives in Pennsylvania and New York City with his wife, Betsy. Kevin has a home in Manhattan and has a 40-acre farm in northwest Connecticut. His close connection to the Berkshires is not only because of his farm’ s proximity, but also his wife’ s family lineage.( Kyra is a descendent of Judge Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer, politician, and judge who played a role in helping a formerly enslaved woman named Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mum Bett, gain her freedom.)
Kevin and family have skied plenty of times at Butternut and Catamount, and The Bacon Brothers have performed at the Mahaiwe and Barrington Stage.( We hope they will again someday soon!) You can catch them live at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, a favorite casino destination for Berkshirites that’ s under two hours away. They will perform in the 450-seat Cabaret Theatre(" The Cab ") on Saturday, September 13.
We caught up with the two brothers on an off day from touring.
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