Leslie Jordan on “Call Me Kat” & His Year in Review

Leslie Jordan

Actor, Recording Artist, Author, Radio Host, Instagram sensation, Saddlebred Enthusiast

What’s a song that changed your life?

It’s hard to choose just one, but when I first heard Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” I was really moved; then I heard Whitney Houston’s version, and I was blown away. It’s a great song. I also love “Jolene”—it was so novel to hear this woman directly pleading with another to not take her man. Last, the co-dependent anthem, as I like to call it, Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man.”

What would you tell your older self?

You need to calm down. Everything will happen the way it’s going to happen. Stay present and enjoy it.

Best gift you have given or received?

Laughter in both instances. I got the gift of it from above and I hope I am giving it back out to the world. I feel really encouraged when people tell me they were having a rough time, but I made them laugh—it’s the best feeling.

If you were told you wouldn’t gain a pound, what food would you eat everyday? 

Macaroni and Cheese—I will take it from the box right on through to my mother’s, which uses four eggs. All of it.

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Leslie Jordan: Back in the Saddle

Well sh*t. Has it really been a year since I was in the Verse? It’s been a crazy one. I just finished wrapping the first season of the sitcom “Call Me Kat.” I started the “Hunker Down Radio” show on Apple. My album “Company’s Comin’” is coming out April 2nd and my book comes out in April too. Last, I was honored to have a role in Lee Daniel’s “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” I’m tired just writing it all down.

It’s been exciting to work in so many different mediums because each is unique. When I do my radio show, it’s just me and my friend Travis Howard, no different from how we would normally talk. I sometimes forget we are doing a show because it feels so natural, but every once in a while the nice people from Apple will pipe in and ask us to repeat something—and I’ll remember we are supposed to be working. When you get in front of the camera, it’s a different thing and certainly you feel more self-conscious. “Call Me Kat” is what they call a multi-camera sitcom and lord, if people knew what went into two minutes of a television show like that. It’s a huge machine. And film—it just feels big—there is attention to everyone on the set and it is very hushed (clearly not my natural state).

My album has really been an amazing experience. Of course, I was brought up in the church so these are songs (Southern gospel hymns) I’ve been singing since I was a child, but I don’t think you need to be religious to enjoy them. It’s really just great music, and a genre that I think is uniquely American. There was so much joy in making this album and doing it with so many other performers from Brandi Carlile to Dolly Parton to Eddie Vedder—and I hope that comes through to everyone who hears it. Each artist brought their own connection to the music and their unique perspectives—it was just magical. I realize that for me, I have a lot of questions about the church, but my faith is really in the seeking. I just try to have an open heart. Who can argue with that?

You’ll remember that a year ago, it was my wish to work with Dolly Parton and it matched every expectation I had. She is exactly as you think she would be (though she is much tinier than I thought—like a doll!). She is smart and direct and my favorite thing is she is a little bit naughty. It was a dream come true.

While sometimes people think that I’ve had all this success overnight, this is really many years of work coming to fruition. In my mind, I am still a person who got off a bus in Los Angeles in 1982 with $1,200 hoping I could be an actor. A big part of sobriety and recovery is gratitude, and to be 65 and content with who and what I am is something to be truly thankful for. In case any of you worry about me getting a big head, my mother and twin sisters keep me grounded. Of course they are proud of my success, but they don’t give me any special treatment. I simply head home whenever I need a big dose of reality.

If I could manifest something next, it would be for “Call Me Kat” to run for a long time so I could get a farm outside of Nashville and get some ponies. I would also probably have to have some Saddlebred horses there as well. Though I have been riding horses all of my life, I just began riding Saddlebred this year and it is a whole different thing. It’s no surprise that I have fallen for a breed that they call ‘the ultimate show horse, high stepping and elegant”—just like me.

For anyone trying to begin something new—you’re never too old and you can’t let fear of failure stand in your way. A lot of people are afraid of making a fool of themselves, but for me it has been my superpower. Being funny kept the school bullies at bay. John Waters has a great quote where he says his mother told him not to make a spectacle of himself, and he says he’s made a career of it. (By the way, meeting John is also on my wish list, in case manifesting things in The Verse works more than once.)