A few weeks ago I spoke to Wally Kurth and he talked to me about his character Justin Kiriakis on Days of our Lives and his music with Christian Taylor!
Wally Kurth’s Justin is one of the few soap characters to be together for 23 years, granted the reason why Adrienne and him might’ve last this long is that they haven’t been on the show together for 19 years. Well that is about to change because Justin has set his eyes on Hope, and word has gotten back to wife which means she is back on the show. Seeing his character go after Hope, I had to ask him what is like being half of the reason that one daytime’s couple (Bo & Hope) are not getting back together. And he responded to me about the amazing influence of daytime power couples, “That’s the greatest thing about soap operas, than other TV series, nighttime or even film, you don’t get that time, those moments to find an emotional connection to the evolution of that character, and the evolution of that character as in the relationship with your most significant other and you get that, you get to develop that. That is the bread and butter of soaps. And I love that, I am a relationship guy. I love relationships. I have been married three times. I love being married. I love being in a relationship. So being this genre is perfect for me.” I love the way he summarized why soap operas have such an impact us viewers. I never thought about it that way until he put it like that, and you know what he is so right.
Wally then told me what it is like have the old cast back together for Alice Horton’s memorial and then co-star Eric Martsolf (Brady Black) chimed in on our interview. I don’t know how but for some reason we went from talking about Days, to talking about Three Musketeers bars. After we all we were thoroughly craving a chocolate bar, Wally talked about the specialness of Days of our Lives celebrating its 45th year in November. What he said really impacted me and proves why we need to keep daytime dramas on television. “What I love about Days of our Lives is there always fans that say, this is the best part, ‘I used to watch the show with my grandmother. She died 5 years ago, but I watch it, I still (feel like) I’m spending time with my grandmother or my mother or my sister’ And that’s really really cool. It’s a tradition. It’s not just an emotional connection to the characters, but they have an emotional connection to that hour that they spend in front of the television. That’s pretty special. That’s pretty cool because they are a lot of people who need that. This is a real genuine relationship that they are having with the show and these characters.” I think what he said is pretty cool and the perfect way to describe why people spend 5 days a week watching their favorite shows. Hopefully network heads will hear what he said before they pull the plug on another daytime drama. BTW Eric Martsolf was able to somehow compare daytime dramas to a Three Musketeers bar, while I was not as you will see by watching the interview.
Wally also has something very cool on the side and that is the music that he does with Christian Taylor that was first heard when he was on General Hospital. Kurth and Taylor recorded a video for their song Let’s Get the Band Back Together, that was shown on Sweetwater.com. Sweetwater is the largest retail music gear and musical instrument outlet in America and the message behind the video is instead of buying a Harley or a Porsche during your midlife crisis, what about getting the band back together. Talking about getting the band back together, the two of them will be jamming this Sunday at Saint Rocke, 142 Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, California. Doors open at 1:30p and they start playing at 2:30p. Tickets are $45. Can’t make it to Hermosa Beach this weekend, then you can see on June 26th in Fort Wayne, In at Sweetwater’s GearFest! Seriously after you listen to their song below, you will totally want to see them live. Just like you want to watch him on Days of our Lives weekdays on NBC and weeknights on SOAPnet.
I have been watching Days of our Lives for my whole life and Justin has always been one of my favorite characters on the show. After interviewing him, I now know why I have been such a fan of his and it is more than those awesome dimples!
