The Righteous Gemstones once again unleashed its secret weapon: Letting Walton Goggins cut loose with an earworm of a country gospel song. Granted, it’s hard to top the magic of “Misbehavin” from Season 1, but Goggins returned in Season 3 with an extremely Gemstones-esque performance of “There Will Come a Payday” that gives his prior hit a run for its money, presumably with a pickle in its mouth.
While standing in front of a pool at the Gemstones new resort, Zion’s Landing, a clamshell-clad Goggins belts out the tune in a surreal music video that gives off weird Elvis vibes while also taking the audiences through a journey of how Baby Billy sees himself after all of his trials and tribulations.
As for what it’s like getting Goggins to tackle a musical number, you couldn’t ask for a better collaborator, according to The Righteous Gemstones composer Joseph Stevens.
Via IndieWire:
“We had him do a variety of takes. One that was maybe a little more reserved, one that kind of went for it a little more. What we ended up going with was the middle of that road,” Stephens said. “But Walton is a consummate professional with all this stuff. All the vocal demands that we put on him for the show, he always comes very prepared, and he’s at the ready to do it however we propose. He came in and knocked it out. It’s all great and we don’t really need much after we get a few.”
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Goggins also opened up about Billy Baby’s “Elvis” moment, and how it all came down to costume designer Christina Flannery. “She stepped right in and the day that we were filming that episode they brought this clamshell out and I put it on, it went to places that I had no idea it was going to go.”
“Danny (McBride) directed that episode,” Goggins revealed. “And he had ideas for this and turned it into a quasi-music video and the way that Baby Billy sees himself, it’s like a psychological montage, if you will. I just thought it was brilliant, man. I had no idea that it was going to go that way.”
The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 airs Sunday nights on HBO.
(Via IndieWire)