Actor Jeremy Renner works with Reno teens to produce a song in 48 hours

Actor Jeremy Renner had no problem lending the line to six teenagers in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program of Northern Nevada.

“I feel the change coming,” Renner said of the line turned lyric he helped come up with after listening to the teens' thoughts.

And that lyric became part of a song written and recorded over the weekend by the teens in a project called "Imagine: A Musical Collaboration with Jeremy Renner." The teens had 48 hours to write a song -- with help from a movie star -- that will debut today during the opening of Artown, Reno's monthlong arts festival , which begins at 5:30 p.m. in Wingfield Park.

A video of the process will be shown tonight. The kids will be at the premiere of a documentary-style video of the process. Renner is hosting a camp for kids in foster care at Lake Tahoe this week and won't be in attendance.

Their work took place on the John Lennon Education Tour Bus, a mobile recording studio that gives future musicians, songwriters, engineers and producers hands-on experience in creating music.

“Melody is more important than the verse,” Renner told Douglas High School junior Maverick, who sang a few lines he wrote.

“I feel the city changing around me. There is always something new. Something unexpected,” Maverick sang. “I feel the change coming.”

Renner chimed in when the teen paused. “Sounds good, man.”

Renner's recovery

The line about a change coming is fitting for Renner, who has spent the past year recovering from a near-fatal accident. The "Avengers" actor was run over by a snowplow on Jan. 1, 2023, at his home outside Reno.

Renner, who broke more than 30 bones and had multiple surgeries, has made a remarkable recovery.

Renner played the guitar and walked from kid to kid in the program. There were no visible effects of the injury.

“I was trying to get a hook line for what she was saying,” Renner told the Reno Gazette Journal after working with the teens and engineers from the Lennon bus.

“I just kind of manipulated what she already had into a hook line. I manipulated three lines into one,” he said of songwriter and Damonte Ranch High junior Sileisa.

Besides being an accomplished actor, Renner also writes and records music, including most recently a seven-song album about his recovery.

The single "Wait" on the “Love and Titanium” album was written for his daughter, Ava. It begins:

I know that I'm complicatedI don't have a lot to say in the daylightMaybe I'm uncomfortableA little unpredictable, sometimes

For whatever it's worth, I know that it hurtsYou are the ocean and I am the earthHide in my head, leave things unsaidI am the needle and you are the thread

“Stuff like that is pretty easy, as far as lyrically,” he told RGJ about the song. “It’s not so easy emotionally. I could never perform it live.”

Lennon Bus shows what they can accomplish

Making music less intimidating and exposing more children to it is the goal of the Lennon Bus, according to Executive Director Brian Rothschild.

Rosthschild said this fast-paced experience gives aspiring artists a look at what they can accomplish in a short amount of time.

“Sometimes it is about engaging in the process,” Rothschild said of encouraging songwriters to write every day.

Renner said he’s always been a "music man" and it something he will always do.

“It’s a wonderful, shared experience,” he said of his own writing style and working with friends on “Love and Titanium.”

“When you aggregate for one common goal, you can move (expletive) mountains,” Renner said. “And there is something excellent about that.”

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Actor Jeremy Renner works with Reno teens to produce a song in 48 hours