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Kevin Costner's done it. So has Kevin Bacon. Gary Sinise too. All big actors who have played concerts at the Niagara Fallsview Casino.
You can add Jeff Bridges to the list this week, with one big difference: He's the only one polishing a brand new Best Actor Oscar. And many of the tunes he'll perform Wednesday and Thursday in Niagara Falls are the same ones he sang in Crazy Heart, the movie which finally landed Bridges the gold statue after four previous nominations.
On the line after touching down in Buffalo Monday night, Bridges has nothing but respect for actors who give singing a shot. They often endure ridicule for doing what they love.
"I'll bet those guys are like me, where they just love playing music," he says. "They just play it and hope people will dig it.
"But I know, it is a problem. In my acting career, I really steer as hard as I could from creating a strong persona, because when people get an image of who you are, that's who they think you are. My father Lloyd Bridges, doing Sea Hunt, people thought he was a skin diver.
"That was wonderful as far as making it in the business, but it was tough as an actor because he was very versatile."
The jump to credibility isn't that far for Bridges - a huge reason he won the Oscar for Crazy Heart, in which he plays an alcoholic country singer named Bad Blake, is that he sang and performed during most of the musical scenes. What you'll see onstage at Fallsview isn't that different from what you saw in the film.
For Bridges, who has been playing guitar since he was a teen, Crazy Heart wasn't a sure thing until he heard the songs.
"We had a great time time doing The Fabulous Baker Boys with my brother (Beau) and Michelle (Pfeiffer) - so I had my eye out for a music movie, but it had to be up there on that level of Baker Boys," he says. "So when I read the script for Crazy Heart, it was pretty good but it didn't have any music at all.
"Then I ran into my buddy T-Bone Burnett - we met on Heaven's Gate 30 years ago - and he had read the script too. He said, 'Hey, you wanna do this? "¦ if you do it, I'll do it.' So I said, 'Let's go!' I knew that having T-Bone at the musical helm, it would be in good hands."
And then some. Burnett corralled songwriting friends Stephen Bruton, John Goodwin, Greg Brown and Ryan Bingham to write the bulk of the film's unforgettable soundtrack. Bridges was blown away by what he heard.
"It was very exciting," he says. "Ryan Bingham came in with a tape in his hand and said, 'Hey, here's a song you might want to look at.' He was originally just involved as an actor in the movie, and then he brought this tune.
"I remember that moment, sitting in the room with T-Bone and Scott Cooper the director while he played that song "¦ we all looked at each other and said, 'Wow, man. Aren't we lucky?'"
The Weary Kind, co-written by Bingham and Burnett, is the film's musical centrepiece and won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
The movie was filmed two years ago, has been on DVD and Blu-ray since April, but it's still in Bridges' pores. It prompted him to put a band together with some Santa Barbara friends and play a few charity gigs earlier this year.
"Crazy Heart kind of tickled my music muscle, or whatever you want to call it," he says. "I've been playing music since I was a kid. I thought, if there's ever a time to get a band together, now would be the time.
"(Niagara Falls) will be like the first bigger thing we've done, and it gives us great impetus to get together and play music. If you don't have any place to play for, you don't play it as much."
When told Niagara Falls will be his first paying audience, Bridges laughs and channels his iconic character The Dude from The Big Lebowski.
"We did charity, but this is like "¦ we get to keep this money, man!"
Next up for the actor is the sequel Tron: Legacy and the remake of True Grit, which reunites him with Lebowski directors the Coen Brothers. Both movies will open within a week of each other this December.
As for Bridges the singer, he'll take gigs as they come. Sort of like Bad Blake.
"You never know what's going to happen - you just go with the flow," he says. "I hope people appreciate my music, but the main thing is that I appreciate it."
Jeff Bridges plays the Avalon Ballroom, Niagara Fallsview Casino, Sept. 1 and 2 at 8:30 p.m. Tickets start at $60. Phone 1-877-833-3110.
jlaw@nfreview.com