You know him from such classic movies as “The Bodyguard”, “Field Of Dreams”, “Dances With Wolves”, and dozens more, but these days Kevin Costner is on a smaller stage.

“I don’t separate my music from my movies, because most of the songs you will hear were written during the making of those movies. It’s not an ‘okay lets start taking me serious for music and please forget about my movie life’. I don’t separate them, they’re the same.”

His band, Kevin Costner & Modern West, is currently touring the globe and performing songs from their current release “Famous For Killing Each Other”, and while you know him first from movies, music was his first love.

“My grandmother played the piano, and my mom and her sister, it was just a way of life so music for me was first. I took the stupid piano lessons. Not that they were stupid, but they just kept me locked up as a kid. I would look out the window and see everybody playing, I would just be thinking, this ain’t happening. I did that for about 4 years.”

If you catch Modern West on tour, according to Costner you can hear “4-5 songs from Famous For Killing Each Other“, as well as other song’s from the band’s previous two releases.

However, one place you won’t see Costner is behind the judges table on American Idol.

In regards to possibly filling the shoes of the likes of Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, would he consider the gig?

No, I won’t. Criticisms come in a lot of different forms, sometimes it has to find a level of entertainment and sometimes that comes at somebody else’s expense. Even if you’re even being honest. I can remember when I started I remember the first play I was in, I was awful. I was really bad and I knew I was bad. There is a real problem in life when you don’t know your bad. The difference was, I knew that is what I wanted to do and I knew that I would get better. I knew that I would and no one thought I could, because I was awful, but I knew I would. So wherever you catch somebody on a show like that, it really doesn’t matter what a lot of people think. I mean, its not that you don’t take that into consideration, but you can crush somebody and some people are better at that. The difference is I know I wouldn’t be good at that and so that’s something I wouldn’t attempt. When I audition actors when I direct, I swear to God I want them all to get the part. I want people to succeed.”

Click here to hear the full interview from US99.5′s Trish Biondo.

Kevin Costner & Modern West’s “The Angels Came Down”

Steve Koscik / US99.5