Exclusive: ‘Yellowstone’ Star Luke Grimes Is Working With Carhartt To Celebrate Montana’s Bitterroot Valley Community

America knows him as Kayce Dutton on the neo-Western series Yellowstone or a budding country music phenomenon. But sometimes, Luke Grimes is just a Montana resident, shedding his TV star image and focusing on what’s affecting people in his community. Working with Carhartt on a short film, community initiative, and workwear line, Grimes is using his platform meaningfully.

The History in the Making campaign through Carhartt highlights and uplifts workers and the generational impact Carhartt’s workwear has had. It blends the brand’s “heritage, history, and enduring value” with new initiatives to benefit workers and the land. The main focus is on workers in Bitterroot Valley in southwestern Montana—Carhartt is donating $350,000 to The Nature Conservancy and working with a local non-profit organization, Bitter Root Land Trust, to make sure the community and the land benefit from their efforts.

So where does Luke Grimes come in? Grimes worked with Carhartt to narrate a short film called Made in Montana. This film brings attention to rural workers in Bitterroot Valley—farmers, ranchers, and people who work the land. Grimes is working in his own backyard to highlight these people and professions that are essentially the backbone of our nation.

Luke Grimes is Working with Carhartt to Shine a Spotlight on Agricultural Workers in Bitterroot Valley

Luke Grimes and his wife, Bianca, have been living in Montana full-time for four years. After going back and forth between L.A. and Montana for years to film Yellowstone, Grimes made the permanent move, and hasn’t looked back since.

“It’s a beautiful place, and it’s a really profound place,” Grimes tells American Songwriter, speaking about Montana. “I think, beyond just the picturesque mountains and everything, you can find that in other states. But there’s just something about the spirit here that’s very different. I’ve never felt or been around anything like that.”

For Grimes, the community he’s found himself in has come to the forefront of his mind. “The agricultural community [in Montana] becomes top of mind not only because [I’ve] been doing Yellowstone for seven years and learned a lot about the cattle ranching community, cowboy community, all that stuff,” he says. “But [I’ve] learned a lot about what goes into making our food and the fact that these people are sort of unappreciated and not talked about enough.”

In a similar vein, Grimes’ music works to bring light to the unsung heroes of Nashville—songwriters. “The songwriters are sort of the bedrock of the whole town,” he says. “Over the past couple years I’ve been able to write songs with people who wrote some of my favorite songs and that has been a really special part of the experience.”

[RELATED: ‘Yellowstone’ Star Luke Grimes To Make Grand Ole Opry Debut: “Beyond a Dream Come True”]

How Community in Music Translates to Community in Agriculture

There’s a similar thread that runs through Luke Grimes’ work with Carhartt and his work on music in Nashville. There’s a sense of community, he says, among songwriters and artists. That mimics the community in places like Bitterroot Valley.

“I feel like the difference in the [music] industry is very apparent to me,” he says, “where the film world’s very cutthroat, they’re all competing for the same job. Where I feel like in Nashville, when one person wins, then everybody wins and the town wins and the genre wins. It’s just much more of a community that helps each other out which [was] very surprising and also refreshing for me.”

Community, coming together, supporting each other—the essence at the heart of rural places, but also in the music industry. Everybody wants to see everybody win. The stakes are higher in places like Bitterroot Valley, but the communal thread that weaves through each is similar.

Grimes continues, telling us that he wanted to collaborate with Nashville songwriters more than other artists. “Why would I not want to learn from some of the greatest songwriters out there?” he says. “And be part of that community? I think if everything else all goes to hell and I can’t act anymore and no one wants to put me on a stage anymore, I would love to be able to still write songs. I think that has sort of been one of the most creatively fulfilling things I’ve ever done.”

Carhartt’s New Montana Line of Workwear is About “The People That Have Always Lived Here”

Not only is there a campaign, a donation, a short film, and conservation support from Carhartt, there’s also a new workwear line. Luke Grimes worked with the brand to create the line, which celebrates workers in the agricultural field.

“When [Carhartt] and I were talking about what we should do for their Montana line, they knew that I lived here,” says Grimes. “I was like, I don’t know if we should make it so much about me living here.”

He added, “It’s about the people that have always lived here and what this place is all about.”

Grimes relates this back to Nashville songwriters, explaining that it’s “the same” in the agricultural community. “Without them, the whole town would go away,” he says, speaking of both agricultural workers and songwriters. “And it’s called the Montana line, but it’s about the people who go out and work really hard and work the land and do the things they need to do so that we can get food on our plates. And I think Carhartt really stepped up and we made a really cool piece about that.”

Featured Image via Carhartt