by Gary Sinise
On each of our trips to the DMZ, I felt terribly sad for the people of North Korea and for their inevitably difficult experiences living in a totalitarian society. For more than six decades, they have known only slavery. The soldiers of North Korea, their families, and their fellow North Koreans, all forced to worship and serve their supreme leader, while all those years ago the people in the south had the American military on their side and have been far more fortunate. The South Koreans have a tremendously skilled army too, and they work well with our forces in defense of their country, while the North Korean regime has defended only themselves, ruling through terror for decades. The existence of multiple labor camps has been verified in modern-day North Korea, and reports indicate an equivalence to Nazi concentration camps. In the twenty-first century, these things still exist. Reports say life outside the prison camps hasn’t been much better. Since military action was halted in 1953, the United States military, along with the army of the Republic of Korea, has provided a defense and security, and the people of South Korea have lived free because of it. One military force on the Korean peninsula has oppressed, prohibited freedom, and struck fear into the hearts of the people. Another military has provided freedom to its citizens. Two nations: one has flourished, the other has starved in darkness.
Freedom is truly a precious thing.
Our visits to the DMZ also held a few absurd moments. Officials on each side of the line had held an unspoken contest as to who could put up the biggest flagpole. The North Koreans would build a little bit on theirs, then the South Koreans would build a little bit on theirs. This went on for years until finally the South Koreans gave up. So now, on the North Korean side, one little hamlet of buildings exists with a huge skyscraper of a flagpole in the middle. The height of this structure is so glaringly out of proportion with the buildings around it, you look at it and go, “Yep. That’s a flagpole, all right.”
By the time of our second visit, CSI: NY had grown pretty big and was a hit even in South Korea. On the South Korean side at the DMZ sits a gift shop. We were inside browsing when a bus filled with Asian tourists pulled into the parking lot. Everybody climbed out, and although I pulled my baseball cap down a little lower, I was spotted. It turned into mayhem at the DMZ, everybody wanting my picture and autograph. The star of a hit American TV show was mobbed by Asian CSI: NY fans at the DMZ gift shop. Surreal, but that’s the power of television.
Our tours went smoothly. On that first band tour in 2004, we’d set the tone and format: we played our same set at each show, and I would talk to the troops a bit. My message was one of pure gratitude. I spoke my thanks that they were there, doing what they were doing. I told stories about my own family members who’d served with the military and mentioned how thankful I felt for them. I talked about getting involved with the DAV in 1994 and described how profoundly grateful l was for the people who sacrificed so much for the sake of freedom. I shared about 9/11, and expressed thankfulness for all the first responders on that fateful day. I told how events of that terrible day had motivated me to get out and support the men and women who were deployed. The message I was able to deliver was equally as important to me as performing the music. I loved playing, and I loved seeing the troops having a good time. Yet these concerts also enabled me to directly communicate a strong word of thanks, a central part of our shows from the beginning.
Soon after we came home from that first tour, I landed the role with CSI: NY, so my schedule quickly became a lot busier. But I wanted to keep doing the tours. I figured that during the nine and a half months each year when we filmed, the band could head out on weekends in between shoots. And in summer when the show was on hiatus, we could head overseas. The USO must have liked what we did overseas, because they soon said yes to setting up a domestic tour for us. Within three months, we were on the road. Three bases. Three states. Fort Polk in Louisiana, Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas, and Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. We were off and running.
For the first several years of playing for the troops, each summer we toured overseas when I was finished shooting my show for the season. As we ramped up more and more, we played thirty, forty, sometimes fifty shows in a year. During the television season when I was working on the show, we toured bases around the States on weekends. At the end of the workweek, I’d finish shooting, and I’d jump on a plane to meet the band somewhere. We would play two to three shows over the weekend, bussing from base to base, then jump on a plane to head home and go back to CSI: NY. The more I did, the more I wanted to do. In the early and middle years of the war, when the insurgency was at its height, our servicemen and -women were experiencing difficult times, and I found myself constantly wanting to do more, help more, and reach out wherever I could.
Compared to today, the Lt. Dan Band then sounded pretty raw. Yet from the start we came in with lots of energy and heart, and our mission has always been clear: we’re here for the troops. Period. This band isn’t about gaining recognition or becoming an international rock show or making any money. The mission has always been about encouraging our defenders. The people who fight to protect our freedom need to know they’re supported by the country they love. It’s all about honor, gratitude, and rock and roll.
Along the way, some band members have left, and new ones have come in. Kimo left the band in 2012 to focus on his own veterans’ charity work. Gina left shortly afterward, preferring to stay home more to focus on her own music. Today, twelve regular members plus myself make up the band, along with a great crew. We’re still a cover band. We play songs people like, everything from classics by Journey, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Wonder to contemporary songs by Bruno Mars, The Band Perry, Sara Bareilles, the Dave Matthews Band, Beyoncé, the Zac Brown Band, and others. We dip into pop, rock, blues, Motown, soul, country, even tunes from the 1940s big band era, which World War II vets love. We’re deliberately a show for all ages, and it’s common to look out and see kids dancing along with their dads and moms and having a great time. Our goal is always to have fun and rock the house, and in the middle of each show I throw in a couple of familiar lines from Forrest Gump like, “Life is like a box of chocolates,” which crowds the world over recognize and cheer for. We play a certain few songs at nearly every show. “Another Star” by Stevie Wonder is a crowd favorite since it talks about falling in love, and the beauty of days that go well—and just for fun, in the tradition of great 1970s bands, we put a huge drum solo in the middle. Everybody loves a drum solo. And we always end with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” a powerful and emotional closer.
Our level of musicianship rose quickly in the early days. The level was never bad, yet with the number of concerts we played, combined with our common purpose, we gelled quickly. Quality players and singers were crucial from the start, because I wanted the troops to have a first-class show. If anyone’s wondering, yes, I do pay my musicians and stage crew. They’re all professionals, and this is what they do for a living—and they work hard for me. But I don’t personally receive any money for the work I do with the Lt. Dan Band.
One thing I love to do at every show is feature different members of the band up front and let them showcase their talents. I’m technically the band’s “front man,” but other than the Beatles and the Police, there aren’t many bands with bassists as front men. I don’t sing, so during each concert I’ll come to the front of the stage and thump along on my bass for a while, then I’ll head back upstage and let other members of the group perform down front.
Today, in the seventeen years since we’ve been around, the Lt. Dan Band has played more than four hundred shows for troops. This band is another part of my mission of service to honor our defenders, and we’ve played all over America and all over the world in service to that mission. The show has been crafted and fine-tuned over the years, but the basic message remains the same. We are a band created solely for the troops’ enjoyment. We are here today to say the hugest thanks we can, and to reflect the overall appreciation of a
grateful nation.
CHAPTER 13
Perfect Timing
Back in 2002 and 2003, I wasn’t sure where my movie career was headed. I’d had a solid string of hits in the 1990s followed by some up and down movies around the turn of the millennium. I appeared in several movies during those first couple of years of the 2000s—Impostor, A Gentleman’s Game, The Big Bounce, and a few others—but none of them did any business. The Big Bounce was a small part, but it was shot in Hawaii, so I took it. It starred Owen Wilson and Morgan Freeman, my only time acting with either of them. My scene with Morgan? I fall down the stairs. He walks up, puts his hand on my neck, checks my pulse, and says, “He’s dead.”
So the career had slowed down a little at this point.
But one movie made during that season shone a bit more brightly: The Human Stain with Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, and myself in the cast. Based on the novel by Philip Roth, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2003, so along with the film’s director, Robert Benton, and some of the producers, we all traveled to Venice for that. Although it received mixed reviews when it opened in October that year, it felt good to be part of another movie with great actors. In a moment of on-screen silliness, I had a wonderful Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers–type dance scene with Anthony. My character, Nathan Zuckerman, is a bit reserved and inhibited, and Anthony’s character tries to snap him out of it. When the song “Cheek to Cheek” comes on the radio, he yanks Nathan out of the chair and spins him around until Nathan is laughing. Not many people have danced with Hannibal Lecter and lived to tell about it.
In 2003, I starred with Joely Richardson in a warmhearted Hallmark movie for CBS called Fallen Angel, a lovely little Christmas movie about an L.A. attorney who returns to his deceased father’s home in Maine where he’s reunited with his past. It was a love story, and I really hadn’t done that type of thing before. It also turned out that my work in the movie and track record of solid performances caught the attention of the CBS executives.
The movie aired just before Christmas 2003 and did well, with some eighteen million viewers tuning in. The network execs were happy with the ratings, and in early 2004, just as I was heading out on my first overseas USO tour with the band, I got a phone call. One of my agents told me that CBS was offering me the lead role in a big new TV series. CBS planned to do a third spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the award-winning forensics crime drama. The original CSI had been set in Las Vegas and was a massive hit. The network had already spun it off in another series, CSI: Miami with David Caruso, and it had also done well. The new spin-off they offered to me was tentatively titled CSI: New York.
Lead roles don’t come along every day—and I felt grateful for this initial offer. Network execs expected, reasonably, that CSI: NY would become a big hit—they were going to give strong support. That sounded really good to me. But strangely enough, my first reaction to the offer was mixed. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into a weekly TV series. I’d always been an actor who moved from role to role and stayed flexible, and I couldn’t envision myself settling in and playing the same role week after week.
My agents set up a meeting for me to meet Les Moonves, the president of CBS, to discuss the role. The meeting went well. Then I sat down with Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the CSI franchise, for another conversation. We met at the Sagebrush Cantina in the San Fernando Valley for nearly four hours, and Anthony described how he envisioned the spin-off. The lead detective was named Rick Carlucci in the pilot script, and Anthony wanted Rick to be a fast-talking, hard-hitting, no-nonsense New York crime scene investigator who got things done. We tossed around a lot of ideas and hashed it out in a productive meeting, but still I didn’t say yes right away.
I set off for Diego Garcia, Singapore, and South Korea, and all during the tour, in every free moment, I considered the role, trying to figure out if I should accept. The show would receive a lot of attention and support from CBS. They held a great stake in making a successful third show in the franchise, and my agents and manager felt it was a good move for me. And I did love many of Anthony’s ideas. My family also encouraged me to do it. Even though the show would be set in New York, it would be filmed mostly in Hollywood, and as I had traveled so much over the years, Moira really liked the idea of my working closer to home. So did I. It felt like something big, something life-changing, was about to happen, although I couldn’t exactly see the future. But how would I feel about playing the same role week after week? That was still something I was trying to wrap my head around. As a character actor, changing things up from role to role is what I had always tried to do in my career. It’s a major element in what I love about acting. Inhabiting different people, different personalities. But I started thinking more about my family and my financial situation and the whole idea of steady work, something actors rarely get to experience, unless on a successful series. I went back and forth with this. Then I considered that by taking this offer, if the show did well, I’d not only have a steady job, but having that steady job could help me in my ongoing mission to support the troops. It would be hard to go overseas regularly, but I could still travel to military bases around the States on weekends. I could go forward with my new mission without needing to worry about scrambling for a paycheck all the time. And, come on, it was a leading role on a major network, a quality show in a very popular franchise, and I liked the creative potential offered by the part! What was I thinking? Finally, it all started to make sense.
When we came back from the tour, I said yes to CSI: NY. Just before we shot the pilot, I met with Anthony and told him I liked the character, but I didn’t feel like a “Rick Carlucci.” Could we change his name? I also wanted to give him a military background before he became a detective, to reflect my support of the troops. Anthony liked my suggestions, and we made the main character a veteran of the Marine Corps who served with the First Battalion Eighth Marines, surviving the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing attack and deploying in Operation Desert Storm. (In the third season, we did an episode called “Charge of This Post” where my character talks about his past with the Beirut bombings.) One of his most memorable lines is when he says he wants to serve his country more than anything else in the world.
Anthony asked me for ideas for a new name, and I gave him a list of suggestions for both the first and last name. The name I liked most was Mac, for obvious reasons. For the last name, I suggested the surname of Lieutenant Dan. Anthony wrestled around with the suggestions, along with some others, before coming to me and saying, “Let’s do it.” Right away, I felt gung ho for my character’s new name: Mac Taylor.
In the spring of 2004, we shot the pilot episode in New York as an episode of CSI: Miami, near the end of their season. David Caruso’s character in Miami must go to New York to follow up with a case, and while there, he meets Mac and the CSI: NY team. Even before the pilot aired, CBS execs decided to proceed, and we started shooting our first regular season in July.
CSI: NY officially premiered September 22, 2004, and the first episode, titled “Blink,” did well from the start with more than nineteen million viewers tuning in. Anthony added the idea that Mac Taylor had lost his wife at the World Trade Center on 9/11. I had become friends with several 9/11 family members by now, so the idea of honoring family members and first responders this way—by having Mac be a character who shares their loss—appealed to me. In the first episode, a crime victim is in the hospital in a coma, her eyes wide open. Toward the end of the episode, Mac Taylor sits with her while nobody else is in the room and shares a story about how, after the 9/11 attacks, he went back to the apartment he shared with his wife. In the closet was a balloon, inflated by his wife, and Mac realized the breath of his now-deceased spouse was still inside that balloon. It’s a beautiful scene.
After that moment in the episode, Mac goes to Ground Zero. We were filming in the summer of 2004, and television crews had not yet been allowed to shoot at Ground Zero. Anthony secured permission,
but we needed to go there at 2:00 a.m. when nobody else was around. At the time, Ground Zero was just a big, empty fenced-in pit; nothing had been rebuilt. We took a small crew, and we shot Mac simply standing there, near the pit. There’s no sound, and I rest my head on the fence and close my eyes in thought. You see Mac’s wedding ring on his finger. The camera pulls back and tilts up in a wide shot of the night sky where the Twin Towers used to be. It’s a very powerful moment.
That first season we worked hard and put in lots of long hours. When a show is just beginning, everybody is finding their feet. Between the first and second season, CBS execs took a closer look at the show and decided to reshape its look. The mood of the show was a little dark at first. The offices were set in what looked like a warehouse, and the entire season I wore a dark suit and tie. At the end of the first season, CBS execs decided to rebuild the entire set. Our new offices were now set on the thirty-fifth floor of a high-rise where the sun blasted through the windows and lit up the rooms. In the first episode of the second season, you see us moving boxes into the new offices, and I throw out a line, something like, “I’m just about done moving.” That was all the explanation given. Yet behind the scenes, the move had been major. CBS invested a lot of money in the new set, and the new look really improved the show.
Right around that time I started getting more serious about golf. A number of my buddies played a lot, and I wanted to join them. I’d dabbled for years but had never been much good, always too busy to practice. But now I decided that if I ever found a spare moment, I’d head out to the range and hit a bucket of balls or try to sneak in nine holes between responsibilities. I even took lessons and worked with a pro for a while. Somehow the CBS execs found out.