Dennis Quaid Talks Easter Traditions, Sharing His Faith and New Gospel Special (EXCLUSIVE)
With the 2023 release of Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners, actor and singer Dennis Quaid explored faith on a critically acclaimed album that both revived beloved gospel classics and served up insightful new songs that explored his faith journey. Now, fans can see those songs come to life and hear the heart behind the album on a new television special premiering on March 29th on UPtv at 7pm ET and streaming on GaitherTV+. The project is also being released on DVD from Gaither Music Group.
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In addition to sharing beloved hymns and five new original songs, Dennis sits down with Bill Gaither for a wide-ranging interview on his life and career at the Southern Gospel music legend’s studio in Anderson, IN.
“It was the band and Bill and everybody that worked there came in. It felt like a family audience in a way,” Dennis tells Woman's World of shooting the TV special/DVD release. “It was very satisfying being able to do the entire record live like that. Ben [Isaacs, who co-produced the record] was there. He put together a good band and it was a very special day.”
Quaid's dog Peaches, sat at his feet during the interview with Bill and adorns the stage during his performance.
“She’s a miniature English Bulldog. She’s my biggest fan,” he says with a laugh, and even though this is a phone interview I can feel his signature grin over the phone. “She’s always there when I play. She’s a music lover.”
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
The show is airing as part of UPtv’s annual Bring the Spring programming event. “This is the only time I did it top to bottom and I was a little bit nervous about it going in because you are performing like the entire thing. It’s been a while, but it just really took a life of its own,” he says of the album, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart after its July 2023 release.
Dennis Quaid on using music to display his faith
The Emmy Award-winning actor has had a long, distinguished career that includes such films as The Parent Trap, Frequency, Great Balls of Fire, The Rookie, The Day After Tomorrow, Soul Surfer, A Dog’s Purpose and I Can Only Imagine, among many, many others.
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But until the release of Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners, many didn’t know that the Houston, Texas native has also been a musician most all of this life.
“A lot of people don’t even know that I’m a musician and they are surprised that I’m doing a gospel record,” the two-time Golden Globe nominee says. “This is an opportunity to express my faith and to share with other people. It’s like fellowship basically. That’s what this is. I hope that’s the way people take it and I hope it touches people. That’s the whole point of it.”
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ACM
Celebrating Easter with family
The timing of the new show is the perfect kickoff to Easter weekend. “Right now, I’m here in LA with my kids and their spring break has started,” Dennis says of his Easter plans.
“We’re going to go to a church service on Good Friday, and then we’ll take the kids on a spring break trip as a family. We’ll have a week on the beach and that will be really nice.”
Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for UTA
Dennis says his teenage twins Thomas and Zoe enjoy celebrating Easter. “They still do the Easter egg hunt,” he says. “There’s a couple things of childhood that they want to hold onto.”
Dennis also has fond memories of his own Easter Sundays as a child. “What was special that I remember was going to sunrise services growing up in Texas, we did that a lot,” he says. “We’d go to a drive-in movie theater sometimes is where they were held. It would be outside and I’d be in the backseat with my brother listening to the story of Easter.”
During the past year, Dennis has performed songs from the album at different venues including well-known pastor Greg Laurie’s California church and at Gaither Homecoming events in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Harvest Riverside Church
Dennis Quaid launches production company
But Dennis' acting career has continued to thrive as well. In 2021, he launched his production company Bonniedale, which he named after his late mother Juanita’s middle name. On April 12, the first film from that new company hits theaters with the release of The Long Game.
“It’s a great story of these five kids down on the border of Texas and Mexico in the 50s,” he says. “They were caddies at a country club there, Del Rio Country Club, and they couldn’t play at the country club. They could only caddie because of discrimination back then so they built their own golf course in the desert. It was like one hole with 9 ways to get to it. They started their own golf team at their high school and they won this Texas State Championship the very first year at the country club where they couldn’t play. It’s very inspirational story. It really touched me and I had to do it. We were at South by Southwest last year and it won the audience award there. There was really great reaction to it.”
Exciting new roles
Dennis is also slated to play a killer in the Paramount+ series Happy Face. “It’s a really well written piece,” he says. “It’s about a guy who was a killer and it focuses on the relationship that he has with his daughter. He was a doting father in fact and they had a very sweet relationship when she was growing up. The story is more on her. How do you put your life back together and who are you with your dad being a serial killer? And finding that out and he’s in prison? She didn’t speak with him for 15 years and now she goes out helping other families cope, families of other serial killers. It’s an interesting part.”
One of the roles he’s most excited about hits movie theaters in August with the release of Reagan, a biopic of President Ronald Reagan. “I’m so proud that it’s coming out,” he tells WW. “After all, said and done I think it’s a good time for it to come out too. It’s been a very long road. He was my favorite president. It was one of my favorite roles to do actually because I learned so much about Reagan just personally by playing him.”
Juggling family, films and music keeps Dennis perpetually busy and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “There’s so much going on right now,” he says. “There’s been a lot of blessings coming our way from planting seeds. You plant seeds and they take time then before you know it they sprout.”
To keep up with Dennis Quaid, follow him on Instagram and visit DennisQuaidIsHere.com.
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