For so long, it seemed, Steve Martin was the wild and crazy guy, a hugely successful comedian in the '70s, playing stadiums, dressed in a white suit, wearing bunny ears and performing magic tricks, juggling and making balloon animals.
And yes even playing a few songs on the banjo.
But that was over 30 years ago, and after burning out on standup, Martin deftly reinvented himself as a renaissance man -- a successful comedic and serious film actor, a playwright, screenwriter and an author of novellas and an autobiography.
His latest role is as a full-time musician, a bluegrass banjo player to be exact.
Martin's first full-fledged music tour -- he's actually been playing banjo for 45 years -- is in support of his first all-music album, The Crow: Songs for the Five-String Banjo, which came out earlier this year and wound up at No. 1 on the bluegrass charts, and was nominated for six bluegrass awards (he won for liner notes).
During a conference call, the 64-year-old admitted there were nerves involved in performing live on stage solely as a musician for the first time, especially after all this time off from the road.
"Yes, I was very nervous," he said. "But that's why I did about six shows (in L.A. and New York) just to get at ease. And I think I'm finally at ease. But it did take awhile because, you know, it is very different from playing in your living room to playing on stage. Now I had played on stage before in my comedy acts and when I was opening for the Dirt Band. But that's a long time ago -- and I wasn't the lead. So I had to really concentrate. And, you know, the first shows I did, I'm just sitting there, just staring at the neck, you know. But now I'm much more relaxed and I feel more confident."
