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Page 2 July 13 - 19, 2015 Denis Leary ready to rock FX again By Jay Bobbin © Zap2it Over its seven-season run, "Rescue Me" became one of FX's signature shows. Can Denis Leary do it again for the network? He's ready to try. The ever-frank actor-comedian moves far away from the earlier series' firefighter theme to play a literal rock star in the seriocomic "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll," premiering Thursday, July 16. His alter ego Johnny Rock is a hard-living burn - out of the music business, his group the Heathens having been dismembered 25 years ago over personal conflicts ... very specifically, the discovery of Johnny's intimate encounter with the wife of lead guitarist Flash (John Corbett). The daughter (Elizabeth Gillies, "Victorious") Johnny didn't know he had is an aspiring singer who wants to reunite the band, but Johnny would have to take a backseat since she'd be fronting the band. New con - flicts threaten to open old wounds, with the other re- gathered Heathens played by John Ales, Bobby Kelly and Elaine Hendrix. Adding authenticity, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl ap- pears in the first episode. Also the writer and di- rector and an executive producer of the new show, as well as a composer for it, Leary admits he's "not really a singer. I can belt. I can scream, you know. So I knew I could handle what I had to handle, but the character of the daughter was going to have to really sing some songs with a lot of real emotion, rock 'n' roll, kick-ass songs and some balance. And I wanted to have everything available, right? So that means I had to have a girl who could really sing and would be willing to sing live on set, because I wanted the vo- cals to be recorded live." Enter co-star Gillies, who has partnered tunefully with Ariana Grande several times and has a YouTube account on which she performs cover versions of known songs. She's not the only cast member with actual music experience, since "Sex and the City" and "Northern Exposure" alum Corbett also has it. "I kind of have a coun- try-rock band," he says, "put a couple records out. We've gone around the country for 10 years now and play 500-, 600-seaters. Some people were trying to get me on that show 'Nash- ville' a couple years ago, and I just said, 'No, thanks. I'm not interested in it.' This just happens to be ... I mean, we could be astro- nauts. It just happens to be in the rock-and-roll world, which is a world I love." While going for hu- mor that's true to the characters, Leary also has aimed to make "Sex- &Drugs&Rock&Roll" re- alistic about the ups and downs faced by those in the music world. "I think there's a couple of things in the show," he reflects, "the funny parts especially, that will reso- nate in terms of making fun of what it's like to be a working, struggling mu- sician and come up with a bad song idea. Everybody thinks when you write a song, you think it's the greatest f—-ing thing in the world, you know. You should usually wait a cou- ple of days and play it for a few people. Sometimes, if your ego is big enough, you think the biggest piece of s—- is the greatest thing ever written. So I hope we pull that off." The movie world has its iconic, enduring characters such as James Bond, Spider-Man, Indiana Jones and ... Joe Dirt. It's taken 14 years, but David Spade's mullet-sporting ne'er-do-well returns in "Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser," which the streaming service Crackle premieres Thursday, July 16. Made by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions in Louisiana, where the first "Dirt" largely was set, the new tale transports Joe back to his past via a tornado and challenges him to get back to his future. "Sometimes, it's a timing thing and getting everyone together," Spade says of the sequel. "I remember they did a 'Deuce Bigalow' and 'Deuce Bigalow 2' – and then they sort of relaxed on sequels for a little bit. And then we sort of relaxed with them, but we had a script. We always wanted to do it, we just didn't know what to do about that. It was either, 'They're going to come to us' or 'We're going to go to them.' " Sony Pictures Television president Steve Mosko jump-started the project by proposing it for the Sony-owned Crackle, according to Spade: "He thought it would be a perfect place for it. And Fred and I were excited to do it, to be a part of the future and get the sequel that goes straight on, where people can see it right away." "Fred" is Fred Wolf, who co-wrote the first "Joe Dirt" with Spade and has done the same for the sequel, which he also directed. Christopher Walken, Brittany Daniel, Dennis Miller and Adam Beach also reprise their original roles – with Mark McGrath and Spade's "Rules of Engagement" co-star Patrick Warburton as new characters. "I know we're talking about 'Joe Dirt,' we're not talking 'Citizen Kane,' " Wolf reflects, "but we did want there to be some emotional drive to it. And it took us a few years to think about what could be as powerful a drive as the first one had (which had Joe seeking the parents who abandoned him at the Grand Canyon). In this one, one of the things that kind of makes it exciting is the idea that he wants to find out why he feels so unlovable." Conversely, Spade knows how much the original "Joe Dirt" is loved by those who appreciate it. "I like it because it's sort of lived on," he says, though he allows that "it wasn't really a huge moneymaker for me. It's a nice feeling to have this as the business I'm in. I'm in comedy, and people remember certain things." BY JAY BOBBIN After 14 years, David Spade is 'Joe Dirt' again John Corbett stars in "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll," premiering Thursday on FX.

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