Jeff Bridges is an ordinary guy who just so happens to be extraordinarily talented.

When Jeff Bridges is asked how he’d like to be remembered, he doesn’t take much time to ponder an answer.


“I guess as a human being just like all the rest of us,” he says matter-of-factly. “Nothing too special.”


Bridges may indeed be human, but unlike the rest of us, he happens to be very good at a few very prominent things – any one of which would be sufficient for Bridges to be remembered by.


Actor would be at the top: Bridges was born into showbiz royalty, the son of the late actor Lloyd Bridges and late actress Dorothy Dean Bridges. He’s made more than 250 television and film appearances since 1951 (an uncredited role as “infant at the train station” in the film The Company She Keeps being the first) including the iconic role of The Dude in the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski, Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers’ 2010 remake of True Grit and Duane Jackson in Peter Bogdanovich’s intensely understated 1971 The Last Picture Show. Bridges has racked up six Academy Award nods, snagging the Best Actor statue for his mesmerizing performance as Otis “Bad” Blake, a tortured soul with a guitar and a taste for booze in Scott Cooper’s 2009 acclaimed underdog, Crazy Heart. Even in his less-stellar films – there haven’t been many, but The Vanishing comes to mind – Bridges’ performances are worth the price of admission.


If his career as an actor (which is far from over) isn’t enough for a lifetime or two, Bridges also could be remembered as a singer-songwriter/musician. Though he didn’t release his debut Be Here Soon until 2000, Bridges has been writing and performing music for most of his life. And he’s not another actor who thinks he can rock because he’s a Hollywood star; Bridges displays true aptitude as a musician. Take away the star status and he’d still be able to sell records and fill seats at his shows. 


Nearly a decade following his country/rock/R&B hodgepodge Be Here Soon, Crazy Heart was released, and Bridges really performs in the film and on many of the songs on the deluxe edition sound track, which features tunes penned by Stephen Bruton, Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett. 


“Hold On You,” one of the six songs credited to Bridges, opens the record hauntingly; his voice conjures a bygone-era cowboy’s five o’clock shadow and dust settling through the midday sun outside a saloon.


Bridges brings that tactile flavor he employs in the music of Crazy Heart to his self-titled sophomore record, released on the legendary Blue Note Records in 2011. Maybe being on the famed label or teaming up again with sought-after producer Burnett sparked something deep inside Bridges, who wrote about half the tracks. The album’s a rich, country-western-Americana tapestry loaded with unapologetic flavoring, profound sentiment and a touch of Lyle Lovett panache.


Bridges’ self-analytical “Falling Short” could fit on Tom Waits’ whimsically eclectic Rain Dogs. The descending guitar riff and insinuation of otherworldly elements – like a foreboding fog rolling in – adds to the character and appeal of his vocals.


Another one of the record’s highlights, “Tumbling Vine,” could be mistaken for the theme to a David Lynch amusement park coated in reverberated guitar. Bridges’ prose sticks with you long after the song ends: “Here is the freedom I have been sent/ I’m delighted, I’m Buddhistly bent/ Wonderful newness, the past is a dream/ The future is hiding, ice and steam.”


On Wednesday, Bridges and his band The Abiders – a group of Montecito-based musicians Bridges calls his “homeboys” – will be bringing all the aforementioned songs to the Sunset Center along with a couple covers (possibly a Tom Waits tune) and some new material.


The Weekly caught up with Bridges shortly after he arrived in New York City – the day after the Academy Awards – to help promote a new documentary he’s featured in called A Place at the Table. The film delves into America’s hunger problem and the proposed solutions to the longtime dilemma. Bridges has been a longtime advocate for the cause and one of the founders of the End Hunger Network. He also works with the group Zen Peacemakers, which operates a “non-traditional soup kitchen.” 


In other worlds, Bridges could also be remembered as a humanitarian. 


He’s become an author, too: The Dude and the Zen Master, which he co-wrote with Bernie Glassman, came out earlier this year to favorable reviews. And some will remember him as a photographer: Bridges has been an amateur photographer for more than 50 years and, in 2003, published Pictures: Photographs by Jeff Bridges.


His conversation with the Weekly touches on many of the accomplishments that form his legacy. More than anything, though, the talk echoes the easy humility and openness that allow us to believe, if just for a little while, that Bridges really is just like the rest of us.


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The Weekly: What did you think of the Oscars this year? Any movies you were particularly excited about?


Jeff Bridges: It was pretty good. A lot of great movies got touted and I certainly watched. I dug [Life of] Pi very much. I thought it was great. I thought Silver Linings Playbook was a good one. Those are a couple of my faves.


What was your first thought when they called your name for Best Actor for Crazy Heart?


You ever use one of those magic slates when you were a kid? You used to write things on it and pull up the plastic and what you wrote disappeared? It was kind of like that. I had a lot of things prepared and a lot of things I was thinking about and my name got called out and it was just like pulling up that plastic sheet. All of my thoughts disappeared. It kind of cleaned my slate.


Are you shooting anything now?


I’m currently in New York to help publicize a documentary that I was a part of called Room at the Table, all about hunger here in America. It comes out this month and I think it’s a wonderful documentary telling about the terrible situation of hunger here in our country. So many people in a wealthy country can’t get food on a regular basis. There are some good things that are being done. I’m hoping the documentary will encourage all Americans to get behind and participate in an organization that I’m the national spokesperson for called Share our Strength. There’s a campaign called No Kid Hungry where we’re going from state to state working with governors and mayors, making sure that schools offer breakfast programs and summer-meal programs and we’re teaching families how to make the best use of food that’s available, more accessible.


Tell me about the campaign to make sure every kid in the country is fed by 2015.


That was something President Obama said in his campaign speech. He wanted to end childhood hunger by 2015. When he said that, it set all of the hunger organizations in motion to figure out how we were going to do that. They started working with each other and they came up with some wonderful ideas and No Kid Hungry is very much a part of that.


Your book The Dude and the Zen Master recently came out. Do you study Zen?


One of my dear friends, Bernie Glassman, is a Zen master. He told me a few years ago that in many Buddhist circles The Dude is considered a Zen Master. 


I said, “What are you talking about?” It never occurred to us when we were making the film. We never talked Buddhism or any other spiritual ideas or religion. 


He went on to talk about how they have co-ops, which is a term they use for questions or themes that really can’t be answered intellectually. You have to actually experience something. There are many of those. And a modern day version of this is The Big Lebowski. It’s basically a book recording a conversation that we had over the period of five days, just rapping about things. We sat down and talked about life.


How does Zen impact your life?


Zen is a reminder to me to be as present as possible in my life.


How do you separate the actor Jeff Bridges from the musician Jeff Bridges?


I don’t really do that. I look at all of my creative adventures in the same light.


When you perform with The Abiders, do you approach it similarly to the way you approach acting?


There are things that are similar but the skill sets are a little different. The commonality would be getting out of the way and letting the dream come true and not be so set on how you want it to work out. Leave room for life to have its way with you.


You can hear so many different influences in your music, especially your self-titled second album. Who are some of your musical heroes?


Bob Dylan would be up on the top of the list. I’m a kid of the ’60s so I guess it would be The Beatles and The Stones and all those guys. My brother Beau, he’s eight years older than I am, so my entry into music was listening to his 45s and he came up during the birth of rock and roll, so Chuck Berry, Little Richard, those guys. I think the first record I ever bought was Wake Up Little Susie by the Everly Brothers.


Is it daunting to be on the Blue Note Records label?


It’s wonderful. You think of them as a jazz label but I think Norah Jones helped them go into other genres. They’re a wonderful company to be affiliated with.


What were the studio sessions like with T-Bone Burnett?


He’s got all the good guys – such a wonderful group of musicians. We laid out the tracks really quick. It was a matter of just coming in and Bone and I would pick the songs out and bring them to the other guys and record all the basic tracks in probably a week. Those guys are so on it. You play the tune once for them and then you start recording. It’s not like you rehearse or practice. You get the passion with all the freshness of how they first perceive the song.


“Tumbling Vine” was one of the tunes that really hit me. It’s like Tom Waits meets Lyle Lovett in a weird way. What inspired it?


That’s a song of mine I wrote quite a while ago – maybe 10 or 15 years ago. “Tumbling Vine” kind of crept onto the album and T-Bone responded to it. You mention Tom Waits; he’s a wonderful singer/songwriter that I admire. I think I’ll be doing a Tom Waits tune in Carmel. One that he let us use for a movie I produced called American Heart.


Lyrically, “Falling Short” is a really touching tune. It seems like you open your soul up for all to see. Is the song about your relationship with your father [Lloyd]?


I think it’s more about my relationship with myself. That’s interesting that you say my father, but my father was always so supportive of me and always rooting for me. The song has more to do with self-judgment.


Why did it take you until 2000 to make your first record, Be Here Soon?


I guess I was making movies. I was certainly making music all that time but it took a while to get it all together and make an album. For that album, I put together a great group of Santa Barbara musicians that will be playing in Carmel. I call them my “homeboys.” They’re the guys who I play with all the time.


Do you have another album in the works?


Yes. We’re just starting to gear up and have a meeting with some guys in New York and go over some material and brush up on the other stuff that we’ve done in the past. There will be some new songs on the set list [in Carmel] – also some songs from the first album, some from the second, some from Crazy Heart.


You and your wife have been married for 35 years. What’s your secret to a lasting Hollywood marriage?


Don’t get a divorce. Curiosity. Be interested in the things that come up.


Marriage is a wonderful thing. I enjoy it so much and find it valuable. It’s the main relationship in your life. It’s how you relate to other people. You have a person that you sleep with right there every day. Shit will come up and you just get to deal with it. 


The secret is to get into it. With us, there’s an ancient battle that always occurs when you don’t get “it.” You don’t get what it is that they mean. We can’t be in each other’s shoes completely. When we were younger it was terrible news when it showed its head. Now it’s an opportunity to get closer and get to know each other in a more intimate way. It’s pretty cool. [A lasting marriage] gives you hope for humanity.


You’re going to be performing in Carmel and this area was home to authors Henry Miller and John Steinbeck. Whose work do you prefer more?


I love both of those guys. But the person that comes to mind is another fella that lived in Carmel named John Goodwin. 


He’s one of my oldest friends. We go back to the fourth grade and we’ve been making art and music together for all these years. 


A lot of his songs are on my latest album and he wrote that song “Hold On You” in Crazy Heart. When I go to Carmel, I’m in John Goodwin country.


You’re an actor, musician, author, artist and humanitarian. What’s one thing you haven’t done but hope to in your lifetime?


I’m pretty content in my acting career. I’m not one of those guys who has to play George Washington. I just take it as it comes. 


I’m more of a counterpuncher as life presents things and life has presented me with some wonderful paths and I’ll just keep walking down those paths. 


I think, musically, I have fantasies of getting out and seeing the world with my music and taking the band to different places. I imagine doing some more movies. I’m a grandfather now so I plan on spending time with my granddaughter Gracie and watching her experience that whole thing. 


I turned her on to edamame the other day. She loves that. Seeing the little things pop out. When you turn your daughter or granddaughter onto something new, you get to experience it again for the first time. Like watching that little bean pop out.


Your friend Bernie the Zen Master has said, “When you get upset with something someone says, imagine him or her with a clown nose on.” Has Gracie been introduced to the clown nose?


I don’t think she has. I should break out that nose for her. That’s a good idea. I think she’d like that. 


JEFF BRIDGES and THE ABIDERS perform at 8pm Wednesday, April 3, at the Sunset Center, San Carlos Street at Ninth Ave., Carmel. $55; $75. 620-2048.