Country music Costner is the singer in
Kevin Costner & Modern West, a
country rock band which he founded with the encouragement of his then wife, Christine. In October 2007, they began a worldwide tour, which included shows in
Istanbul and Rome. The group also performed at NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Daytona International Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The band released a country album,
Untold Truths, on November 11, 2008, on
Universal South Records. The album peaked at No. 61 on the
Billboard Top Country Albums and No. 35 on the
Top Heatseekers chart. Three singles ("Superman 14", "Long Hot Night", and "Backyard") have been released to radio, although none have charted. For the single "Superman 14" a live music video was made. In 2009, they went on tour with
opening act The Alternate Routes. In August, at the
Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose,
Alberta, Costner and the band were scheduled next on stage when a severe thunderstorm struck, causing the stage and stands on the main stage to collapse. One person was reported dead and forty injured. Later, an auction was held to raise money for the two young sons of the woman killed. A dinner with Costner was auctioned off for $41,000. Two guitars, one autographed by Costner, helped raise another $10,000 each. A second
Kevin Costner and Modern West album,
Turn It On, was released in February 2010 in Europe and was supported by a European tour. In July 2012, the band performed in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the 20th annual
Telus World Skins Game in support of the
IWK Health Centre Foundation, donating a guitar autographed by Costner. Costner has also appeared in the documentary film
Country Roads by Marieke Schröder. The most recent album released by Kevin Costner and Modern West,
Tales from Yellowstone, was written by Costner and his co-writers from the perspective of John Dutton, Costner's character on the hit TV series
Yellowstone. Songs from the album were featured on Season 3 of the show.
Baseball Several of Costner's films have included a baseball theme:
Chasing Dreams,
Bull Durham,
Field of Dreams,
For Love of the Game, and
The Upside of Anger, in three of which his character is a pro baseball player and one a former pro baseball player. Costner has a home in
Austin, Texas, and sometimes appears at
Texas Longhorns baseball practices and games. He was a close friend of former Longhorns baseball coach
Augie Garrido from Garrido's days coaching at
Cal State Fullerton, Costner's alma mater. He cast Garrido to play the role of the Yankee manager in
For Love of the Game. He tries to attend every
College World Series game that the
CSUF Titans team plays in
Omaha, Nebraska. Costner walked on for a tryout, but did not make the team early in his time at the university. Costner was a partial owner of the
Zion, Illinois-based
Lake County Fielders independent baseball team in the
North American League. The Fielders name was an homage to
Field of Dreams, with the logo showing a ballplayer standing amid a field of corn. On August 12, 2021, he led the
New York Yankees and
Chicago White Sox onto the field prior to the
MLB at Field of Dreams game held in
Dyersville, Iowa and gave a short speech.
Business interests In 1995, Costner bought a company that was developing
oil separation machines based on a patent he purchased from the
US government. The machines developed by the company were of little commercial interest until the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, when
BP took six of the machines from a company in which Costner owned an interest, Ocean Therapy Solutions, for testing in late May 2010. On June 16, 2010, BP entered into a lease with Ocean Therapy Solutions for 32 of the oil-water separation devices. Although Spyron Contoguris and
Stephen Baldwin had previously sold their interests in Ocean Therapy Solutions in mid-June to another investor in the company, they filed a lawsuit in Louisiana District Court claiming $10.64 million for securities fraud and misrepresentation. The suit claimed that Costner kept a meeting with BP secret from them, and the secret meeting resulted in an $18-million down payment on a $52 million purchase, and that after the down payment, but before any announcement, another investor used part of the down payment to buy out their shares, thus excluding them from their share of the profits from the total sale. The suit claimed that, despite public statements by Costner, Ocean Therapy Solutions, BP, and others to the contrary, Baldwin and Contogouris were told that BP was still testing the machines and had not yet committed to lease the machines from Ocean Therapy Solutions and that the other investor in Ocean Therapy Solutions purchased their shares for $1.4 million to Baldwin and $500,000, to Contogouris. In June 2012, a federal jury in Louisiana deliberated for less than two hours before rejecting Baldwin's and Contogouris' claims in the multimillion-dollar oil-clean-up case, and the court ordered Baldwin and Contogouris to reimburse Costner and the other defendants in the case for their costs. On June 6, 2004, Costner opened
Tatanka: The Story of the Bison one mile south of
Deadwood, South Dakota, on
U.S. Route 85, saying he hoped it would be an educational and emotional place for people to learn about America's westward expansion. Promoters stated in a news release that the $5-million attraction had a new, 3,800-square-foot interactive center featuring exhibits, retail, and food and beverage areas, offices, and a small theater. The visitor center features graphics and text about the bison and the relationship of the
Plains Indians to the animals – historically hunting and now raising them for food and clothing, among other things. The centerpiece is a bronze sculpture depicting a
buffalo jump by
Hill City artist
Peggy Detmers, depicting 14 bronze bison in the act of running from their pursuers and three bronze
Lakota riders on horseback. Three of the massive bison are posed in midair, cascading over the face of a cliff. Costner commissioned the work in 1994 from Detmers. The five-fourths-scale bronzes, each weighing between 2,500 and 8,000 pounds, were cast at Eagle Bronze Foundry in
Lander, Wyoming. Costner opened the Midnight Star Casino and Restaurant in Deadwood, S.D., in 1991. He hired Francis and Carla Caneva to manage the establishment and gave each of them a 3.25 percent ownership and paid them salaries and bonuses. He terminated their employment in July 2004 and asked to agree to an amicable disassociation. When they declined, Costner dissolved the partnership and hired an accountant who determined its fair market value to be $3.1 million. The Canevas sued Costner to buy their shares based on twice that amount or sell the company on the open market. They won in the lower court but, on Costner's appeal, lost in the South Dakota Supreme Court. Costner closed the establishment in 2017 and sold it in 2020.
Philanthropy Costner serves on an honorary board for the
National World War I Museum in
Kansas City, Missouri. In spring 2011, he recorded two radio spots for the museum that were aired on
Kansas City Royals Radio Network.
NASCAR Costner was named ceremonial
Grand Marshal of the
NASCAR Cup Series'
Auto Club 500 which took place on February 25, 2007, at the
California Speedway. In 2008, he worked with the NASCAR Media Group and
CMT Films to help produce the NASCAR Documentary
The Ride of Their Lives which was released in December of that year. Costner would be the narrator for that documentary. Also in 2009, he was named the spokesman for NASCAR Day which took place on May 15. The next day, May 16, he and his country music band would perform in the infield of
Charlotte Motor Speedway as well as participate as a judge in the 2nd annual Victory Challenge before the
25th Running of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
Writing In 2015, Costner co-authored ''The Explorer's Guild: A Passage to Shambhala'', a hybrid
adventure novel and
graphic novel, with John Baird, researcher
Stephen C. Meyer, and illustrator Rick Ross. Costner has a chapter giving advice in
Tim Ferriss' book
Tools of Titans. ==Personal life==