Legendary actor Dennis Quaid ditched Hollywood for Nashville… and he couldn’t be happier.
The 72-year-old is one of the latest California transplants in Tennessee, and he recently talked to Fox News Digital about his move, and told them that after living in Los Angles for decades, he became tired of the city and how it was being managed. Quaid insists that the cracks were really starting to show in the past five years or so, and the problems were only exacerbated when the wild fires hit in early 2025:
“It used to be such a great town and the ’90s was nice. And then it’s been kind of going downhill and I feel like people pay these taxes for no services is what it gets down to. And then fire happens and it kind of exposes all those things that go on that should be taken care of. So people are… people are angry and half angry, and they’re half kind of feel like giving up, to tell you the truth.”
Quaid and his wife, Lauren Savoie, actually moved to Nashville in 2020. He has kept his house in the Los Angeles area, but is now is primary residence is in Music City.
And he’s not the only one that has exited the once “fantastic” town that he says has been on a downward spiral for quite some time. The actor hopes that Los Angeles finds its way again at some point, but he says the Hollywood area that he used to know no longer exists:
“I’m just one of thousands who have left, and I don’t know, I hope the town comes back. I really do. It used to be such a fantastic town. It was. It was a great community, too. And something’s happened. People need to be inspired there.”
Now, Quaid finds himself comfortably settled into Nashville, and he’s truly happy with the decision.
That’s partly because of his love for country music. It’s very widely known that he and country music legend, Tanya Tucker, are great friends. They’ve even worked together on a handful of projects, and for Quaid, he says it all stems from being raised on country music:
“That’s the way country music has always been, and it’s grown. I grew up on country music, really, with Hank Williams. And my dad would listen to it in the car, the truck on his way to work, because it appealed to working people back then. And it was outside of rock and roll, but it influenced everything. I can’t think of a genre that’s bigger. Everybody loves it.”
And speaking of something everybody loves… surely you’ve heard about the NASCAR TV series that Dennis Quad is set to star in called “Thunder Road.”
Racing fans will soon be able to take in the fictional story of Duane Whitlock and the Whitlock family, and Quad is set to play the starring role. He’ll be driver known by the nickname “The Wrecking Ball,” who is apparently a legend that’s famous for stock car racing and running moonshine in hill country.
It’ll air on AMC, and I don’t know about you, but I’m quite excited about that. There for a while, they producing some of the best shows on television. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead… the network couldn’t miss there for a while. Thunder Road is shaping up to be the next big hit for AMC, and though there’s no premiere date as of yet, it’s believed to start production this summer
