John C. Reilly Forecasts ‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’ 20th Anniversary Tour
Before the biopic boom that has brought a dizzying number of nostalgic music films in recent years, there was Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a masterpiece of parody and a certified cult classic. Since its release, John C. Reilly, the Grammy-nominated musical comedy’s star, has firmly established himself as a musical talent and aficionado with regular live and recorded projects. Now, with the film’s 20th anniversary on the horizon, he’s forecasted a tour celebrating its legacy.
In an interview for Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast, Reilly called the process of writing and recording original songs for Walk Hard “one of the greatest moments of my life.” To properly honor that memory, he disclosed plans to re-release the soundtrack on vinyl–Jack White, who appeared as Elvis in the film, has expressed interest in pressing it through his Third Man Records label–as well as a “concert tour, Dewey Cox and the Hard Walkers. As many dates and as big of places as we can do.”
Reilly went on to recall a short tour he participated in to promote the film’s original release, spurred in large part by the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike and a need to introduce the satire without access to talk shows. “It worked out great,” Reilly recalled. It seems insane. No studio would ever pay you to go even one time on a private plane anymore. But they were desperate at the time. Anyway, they would show the movie, and then people would come to see the concert, and I remember the concerts went great. They really did love the music. They barely knew the songs, though; they had just seen the movie.”
In June, Reilly expressed his musical side with What’s Not To Love?, his debut studio album as the schmaltzy, vaudeville-inspired Mister Romantic. In July, he continued a long-running tradition of taking part in Newport Folk Festival, where he joined Remi Wolf for a duet of Grover Washington, Jr.’s “Just the Two of Us” and later participated in Josh Kaufman’s “Songs for the People” supergroup set.

