'Total Recall', 'Deliverance' Star Appearing on Stage

Out of all the decisions facing singer-songwriter-actor Ronny Cox on the eve of a concert, the most daunting one is choosing a set list.

He’s a man who thrives on living in the moment. Just as he avoids intense preparation prior to the production of a film or television show, Cox also refuses to rigidly structure a live performance, opting instead to gauge the vibe of the audience. 

“I’m a real believer in simplicity,” Cox told Skokie Patch prior to his July 28 performance at the Skokie Theatre.

Check out some of our most recent movie reviews.

Though the accomplished entertainer has spent several decades in show business, he’s more eager than ever to perform in front of a crowd and develop a personal connection with his listeners.

Cox’s extraordinary acting career caught fire when he made his film debut as the vacationing everyman, Drew, in John Boorman’s 1972 classic Deliverance, where he took part in one of the most iconic scenes in film history, performing the now-infamous song “Dueling Banjos” with a backwoods savant.

The New Mexico native also garnered fame for playing the villains in hit films such as RoboCop and Total Recall, as well as the sci-fi series, Stargate SG-1.

In recent years, Cox, who celebrated his 73rd birthday July 23, has turned his attention toward his music career, and has released several albums. His stage shows seamlessly blend folk tunes and personal stories, and Cox said he was excited to share them with his latest audience in Skokie. 

He spoke with the Patch about his favorite films roles, his work as an “interpretive artist” and his belief in the life-altering power of music. 

Skokie Patch: Why has storytelling become an integral part of your stage work?

Ronny Cox: I’ve just always been a storyteller. I recently completed a book on the making of Deliverance, and it’s in the form of stories. There are thousands of stories about Deliverance out there, most of them false. I’m not looking for literary merit so much as I am storytelling merit.

There are certain phrases I use that are not grammatically correct, but they add a lot to the story. There are two schools of thought on folk music. Some people think you should just sing the song and shut up and let the song speak for itself. It’s a perfectly valid point of view, but it just doesn’t work for me.

I think people love that this embodied idea over here--on the left--has somehow miraculously turned into this song--on the right. People like to know something about the background of a song. Over the years, I’ve found that if I didn’t have a story, I’d make one up.

I love acting and I’m pretty good at it, but I don’t love it as much as the music. With acting, there always has to be that imaginary fourth wall between you and the audience. In the show that I do, where I tell stories and interact with the audience, there is the possibility of a profound one-on-one sharing that can take place.

When I have a choice, I ask them to leave the house lights up. I want the audience as close to me as possible, and I want it to feel like it used to feel sharing songs with your friends and family around the kitchen table or out on the porch.

Patch: Music also played a key role in your early film roles...

Cox: I was struggling as a folk singer at the same time I was struggling as an actor. I got Deliverance because I could play, but I’m not a hot bluegrass picker and would’ve never played [“Dueling Banjos”] that way.

But John Boorman wanted me to play that song, and had I done it, we may not have had a hit song. John Boorman didn’t care if I didn’t look so good playing the guitar. He wanted the kid [Billy Redden] to show up this city guy. So when it came time to record the song, John Boorman came to me and said, “Ronny, I need you to go to Atlanta and record it.”

You’ve got to realize that none of us thought it would be a hit song. When [musician] Eric Weissberg came down, he said, “Why are we doing this? Why aren’t we doing something good?” [laughs] And since the kid couldn’t play, we were going to prerecord it and I was going to match the playback.

This was not only my first film, but my first time in front of a camera. I would have to miss a day of canoe practice and rehearsal to record, so I said, “John, get someone else to do it.” He was kind of adamant, and said, “No Ronny, it’s important for you to play it.” I said I’d match it note for note during the playback, and eventually talked him into it.

Steve Mandell played the guitar with Eric [playing the banjo], and I spent two or three days learning their recording. I did match the playback note for note, so did I play it? Yes. Is that actually me on the soundtrack? No, and that probably cost me about a million dollars. [laughs]

Patch: Your next major film role was the country singer Ozark Bule opposite Woody Guthrie (David Carradine) in Hal Ashby’s 1976 biopic, Bound for Glory...

Cox: In some ways, that’s one of my favorite roles that I’ve ever gotten to play.

My favorite director I’ve ever worked with is Hal Ashby. If you look at every film he made over a span of 10 years—Coming Home, Being There, Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo—you see that he’s just such a great filmmaker.

Bound for Glory also has the most wonderful Stedicam shot I’ve ever seen. [Cinematographer] Haskell Wexler won the Oscar for it. That’s also the film where I met Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter, and we’ve been friends ever since. I actually just got back from performing at WoodyFest.

Patch: What was your collaboration with Carradine like? Did you offer him any musical tips?

Cox: David could play, but I’ve heard in interviews that he’s given me credit for his work. He came at the music sort of cavalierly at first, and he’s said in interviews that “one of the reasons why the music came off so good was because Ronny kept after me.”

I really enjoyed playing the character of Ozark Bule, though the funny thing is that in real life, Woody was short and David and I are about the same height. I’m maybe half an inch taller than David is, but in the screenplay, there were all these references to Woody being this little guy and Ozark being much bigger. So I wore special boots with lifts that made me like 6-foot-6.

For the first time, I realized what women have to deal with in high heels. It was eye-opening experience, I’ll say that.

Patch: What made you decide to release your first album, Ronny Cox, in 1993, and why did you choose the genre of country?

Cox: My young son John produced one of my albums and used to be the leader of my band. He’s an incredible musician, and was a monster bass player. Unfortunately, John has a real job now because he had a family, and we all know that there’s dozens of dollars to be made in folk music. [laughs]

So as long as John was at home to play with me, I had an outlet for my music. You hear about mothers suffering from the empty nest syndrome, and I’m not saying [my wife] Mary didn’t, but she didn’t suffer nearly as much as I did. Since I didn’t have anyone to play music with at home, I did a miserable failure of a show that I loved called, Cop Rock. It was like a train wreck but it allowed me to do songs every week.

That’s when I realized how much I had missed the music. The only thing I knew to do was to go to Nashville. I’m not a country artist, but I got signed there by a man [at Mercury Records]. I was one of four people signed to the same label: Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Billy Ray Cyrus and me.

Those Nashville guys taught me how to write, and it took me a few more years to find the folk music community. To tell you the truth, it’s taken a little while to live down being an actor. I won’t name names, but there’s a whole bunch of actors who think just because they’ve been in a movie, they can strap on a guitar and that makes them a singer. They haven’t really done the homework or laid the groundwork.

Patch: Why do you enjoy putting your own spin on old tunes?

Cox: I’m one of the few singer-songwriters that consciously plays other people’s music. Coming from the world of theater and acting, I’m comfortable with the phrase “interpretive artist.”

There’s sort of a disdain these days for people who don’t write their own songs. I think it’s part of our job as musicians to pass on great music. Oftentimes when I’m playing a character onstage or on film, I know more about that character than the author or the director or anybody else does.

I once did a play, Summer and Smoke, with Eva Marie Saint, and Tennessee Williams actually came to the play. He went up to me afterward and said, “Ronny, you found things in John Buchanan that I didn’t even know were there.” If you look at all of the different versions of Hamlet that have been done, you start to realize what interpretation means.

I’m certainly not a Method actor, but regardless of who I’m playing, I have to find a way to make him move out of my own impulses.

Patch: Would you consider your 2009 album, Songs...With Repercussions, to be more personal than your previous work?

Cox: Yes, it’s largely about the absence of Mary. She moved to my hometown when she was 11 and I was 14. We started going together when she was 15 and I was 18, and we got married when she was 19 and I was 22.

I never had another girlfriend or another date. So when she died four and a half years ago, my world came crashing down pretty good. I don’t know how I would’ve survived without the music. It has allowed me to grieve publicly.

I talk about Mary during the show, and audiences get that. I had writer’s block after Mary’s death and am now just starting to write again. I didn’t write that many songs about Mary, but everything was about her. I recently wrote a song to Mary and somehow it has opened the floodgates, and I have all these things that I want to write now.

The person I write with more than anyone else is Wendy Waldman. She produced a couple of my albums, and we’re working on a new one. I’ve been busy these days. I just did an episode of Dexter, and I played the worst serial killer they’ve ever had. [laughs]

Patch: What attracts you to playing so many sinister characters?

Cox: The most fun roles to play are the villains. I try to be a good guy every day of my life so playing one is no fun.

I liken it to painting. When you’re the good guy, you get three colors: red, white and blue. When you’re the bad guy, you get the whole palette. 

Ronny Cox will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Skokie Theatre, 7924 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets are $15. For more information, call the theater at 847-677-7761 or send an e-mail to info@skokietheatre.com.

Like us on Facebook