Denis Leary Talks ‘Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll’ & … ‘Hamilton’?

Denis Leary as Johnny Rock. (Photos: Patrick Harbron/FX)

Given the title of the show — Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll — you wouldn’t necessarily expect it to delve into either hip-hop or musicals, but that’s right where Season 2, which premieres June 30 on FX, is headed. We spoke with Denis Leary, star and creator of the show, about how the show’s riff on Hamilton came to be, as well as how the show’s female characters are claiming a more prominent role and what the future has in store for Johnny Rock.

“A couple people in the show went to see Hamilton early, when it was still sort of a workshop production,” Leary recalls. They pitched a story for Bam Bam (Robert Kelly) and Rehab (John Ales). Having already experienced a measure of success with house music last season, what if they branched off into hip-hop musicals? “If Hamilton’s going to be huge, then producers are going to be looking for other ideas, other historical periods,” they said.

The idea naturally dovetailed with Season 1’s recurring joke of Rehab’s awful 29-song cycle about the famine in Ireland. Leary wrote a role for his friend Campbell Scott that he describes as a “hyper-show business version” of the actor. “[He] buys the rights to the Irish potato famine story and turns it into the hip-hop musical Feast! with him in the starring role, because he’s convinced it’s going to win him his Tony award,” Leary says.

Leary knows Scott well enough to be able to push him. He remembers telling Scott in the recording session: “I want you — if possible — to improvise some hip-hop lyrics over this track.” The finished product is made up of both written and off-the-cuff lyrics. “He’s got a meaningful presence on stage,” Leary says. “But he’s also dressed up as a guy in 1847 Ireland during the famine singing a hip-hop song. It’s awesome, it really is!”

Elaine Hendrix as Ava.

This season also gives more focus to Ava (Elaine Hendrix) as she embarks on a solo career with the help of Gigi (Elizabeth Gillies). “That was the plan all along,” says Leary. “We always knew that if we went to Season 2, one of the flowers that was going to bloom was Ava.” Her move from backup singer to being in the spotlight not only gives Hendrix the chance to show off her singing and dancing — “As we’ve seen in Season 1, she can dance in roller skates, so we know she can dance,” Leary says — it also solidifies the relationship between Ava and Gigi.

“Johnny’s life is really run by these two women and always will be,” Leary says. “Having Gigi and Ava take over this year is always funny because Johnny knows, and the audience knows, that they do control everything. And, at the same time, he can’t give up the fight to try to think that he’s in charge.”

Not only does Leary have effusive praise for both Hendrix and Gillies — comparing Hendrix to Stan Laurel and Lucille Ball, and marveling at Gillies’ ability to be both sarcastic and endearing at the same time— he also gushes over the work of Julieanne Smolinski in the writers’ room. Smolinski, better known as @BoobsRadley on Twitter, is a former music journalist who Leary tried to get for Season 1, but she was writing for Netflix’s Grace and Frankie at the time. “She really opened up a lot of stories for Gigi and Ava this year because they related to some stuff that she’s lived through personally. It’s really rich stuff,” he says.

As for his own character, Leary says, “Johnny’s story is always going to be the same, no matter how long this series lasts. Ultimately, the lesson he’s going to have to learn is if he wants to make a living, he’s got to keep cutting his dream back, cutting his dream back. From being a rock-and-roll lead singer onstage to being behind the scenes.” First, it was Flash, then it was Gigi, and now with Ava, it’s a never-ending sequence of ego bruisings.

“The worst nightmare for Johnny is that [Gigi], in fact, does become famous,” Leary says. When he first pitched the show to FX, he had a scene in mind — which might not happen for many seasons yet — that highlights what the series is about for him: “It would be such a great moment to watch Johnny’s face if he was watching his daughter perform her hit single on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon because it would just be that horrible moment of pride and jealousy.” He laughs as he lays out the shot with Gigi in the foreground and Johnny far behind. “Her father backstage is brimming with pride but also ripping his f***ing hair out because it’s not him.”

Season 2 of Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll premieres June 30 at 10 p.m. on FX.