Stephen Wilson Jr. has become a formidable force in Americana music over the past few years. Now, he’s got a song in a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt, who has become a massive fan of the country rock singer.
Pitt’s new film is titled Heart of the Beast. It’s about an ex-soldier who must survive the Alaskan wilderness with his dog after a plane crash. The film was directed by David Ayer, who previously worked with Pitt on the WWII film Fury.
After hearing Stephen Wilson Jr.’s cover of “Stand by Me,” Brad Pitt grew captivated by the singer’s music
As part of the film, Stephen Wilson Jr.’s cover of the Ben E. King classic “Stand By Me” serves as a crucial element of conveying the bond between Pitt’s character and his dedicated German Shepherd, Odin.
Whiskey Riff notes that Pitt had some very glowing comments for Wilson Jr., confessing that once he heard the singer’s cover, he was immediately hooked. “I don’t think film can exist without music,” the actor said. “I hear this cover. It’s sung with such power and passion; this voice, it was just like, I had to look it up. And I went on this deep dive, like, ‘Who is this guy?’”
Stephen Wilson Jr. is a very fascinating individual. He is married to Sixpence None the Richer frontwoman Leigh Nash, and up until a decade ago he was living a quiet life as a food scientist.
Stephen Wilson Jr. released his debut album, ‘Son of Dad’, in 2023
In 2016, he started working with the Big Loud label as a songwriter, eventually developing his own career. Now, he has an acclaimed album under his belt, Son of Dad (2023), and a slew of high-quality singles.
Interestingly, he previously told Much Music that, while he’s literally a singer-songwriter, he doesn’t “really listen to lots of music.”
He continued, “I listen to a lot of silence. It’s really important, I think, for musicians to not listen to music as it is for them to listen to music. Because when you listen to things, you tend to start replicating them. Which can be great when you first start.
“But when you are trying to create your own path, I think the silence is where originality lies,” Wilson Jr. added. “It’ll never be music that snaps me out of writer’s block. It’ll be the sounds of a forest, or the sounds of nothing. The sound of a bus; The sound of a plane taking off; The sound of chatter at a busy bar. A lot of white noise, background noise… nonspecific, non-intentional noise.”
Heart of the Beast opens in theaters on September 25, 2026.
Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
The post ‘Who Is This Guy?’: Brad Pitt Was So Blown Away by a Country Rock Singer’s Cover of a 60s Classic He Went Down a Rabbit Hole appeared first on VICE.
