Before Scott Patterson was playing Luke Danes on TV’s “Gilmore Girls” or preparing to tour with his band SmithRadio, he was growing up in Haddonfield, listening to WMMR and absorbing the folk-rock music of the late 1960s and ’70s. In early April, as Patterson prepared to return to the Philadelphia area for a series of performances, the actor and musician said the experience felt “very much full circle,” especially as he got ready to appear on the same radio station he grew up with.
“I’m pretty excited about that,” he says. “They played all the great stuff.”
Patterson describes himself as having grown up in a deeply creative household. His father worked as an advertising executive in Philadelphia, while both his mom and dad participated in community theater productions with the Haddonfield Plays & Players.
“My mom was really good,” he says with a laugh. “My dad, not so much. But he gave it a shot.”
Music, Patterson says, predates acting by decades. He recalls singing Beatles songs for his parents as a child before later gravitating toward poetry readings, jazz clubs, and the punk scene of 1970s New York City, where he spent summers as a teenager. It was there, he says, that artists like Patti Smith became less abstract influences and more tangible examples of what an artistic life could look like. During one summer in New York, Patterson says he approached Patti Smith at CBGB hoping to audition for her band.
“She said, ‘You’re a little young, don’t you think?’” he recalls with a laugh.
Patterson says Smith later ran out of the club, chased him down the street, and wished him luck after noticing how disappointed he was. “I felt like I got blessed a little bit,” he says. The experience, along with countless nights spent at downtown music venues, further cemented music as a constant presence in his life.
After moving to Los Angeles in the 1990s, Patterson began performing more seriously, playing open mic nights and coffeehouses while developing his songwriting voice. He spent Monday nights at the Kibitz Room at Canter’s Deli, where he found himself sharing the stage with seasoned musicians, including members of Pearl Jam.
“I kind of faked it until I got better,” he says.
Patterson says he had started gaining traction as a singer-songwriter when he landed the role of Luke on “Gilmore Girls,” the part that would define much of his public life for the next two decades.
He says that while on the show, he was stimulated every day by the great writing and the opportunities it afforded him as an actor, but that it “took over.” “The demands on your time are extraordinary,” he says.
Although acting became his primary focus for years, Patterson says music never fully disappeared from his life. Between projects, he continued writing songs, playing guitar, and revisiting ideas that had been sitting with him for decades.
Now, Patterson says music has once again become the priority. After recently stepping away from a television project that no longer felt creatively fulfilling, he began focusing seriously on SmithRadio, which played a spring slate of live performances.
“I need to do what I want to do now,” he says.
Patterson describes the current moment as both exciting and intimidating, particularly as he steps back into live performance after years spent primarily acting.
“It’s exciting, it’s a little scary, and that’s kind of how it should be,” he says.
Patterson says returning to the Philadelphia area has also made him reflect on his upbringing in Haddonfield, which he describes as intensely competitive, both academically and athletically.
“It shaped every standard I have and every idea I have about discipline and work ethic,” he says.
Patterson last returned to Haddonfield in 2019, when then-mayor Neal Rochford declared August 24 “Scott Patterson Day” and hundreds gathered near the gazebo on Kings Highway to hear him talk and welcome him home.
“It was quite something,” he says, adding that his high-schools buddies came and he went to a nice dinner across the street afterwards.
SmithRadio’s live set featured a mix of original material and reworked covers spanning rock music from the 1960s through the 1990s. Ahead of the performances, he declined to reveal specific artists, saying the band focuses on putting its own spin on familiar songs rather than simply recreating them.
“You don’t want to do a cover of a cover,” he says. “You’ve got to put your own spin on it.”
Patterson says his shows lean toward lively rather than introspective.
“We want them to get up and dance and sing along,” he says. “It’s going to be a very energetic, fun, lively set.”
Still, Patterson understands that many audience members arrive as longtime “Gilmore Girls” fans, curious to see another side of the actor they still associate with Luke Danes. When asked whether SmithRadio is the kind of band Luke himself might have fronted, Patterson laughs.
“That’s a great question,” he says.
After a pause, he decides the answer is probably yes — though, he adds, Luke “wouldn’t do it unless the band was A+.”
THE TAO OF SCOTT
“Find out what you’re good at, what you love. Don’t do it for money or fame, do it to be the best. Go for greatness, and if you miss, you’re still going to be really, really good. Maybe you can be top 10, top 100. That’s not bad. You can make a living that way. If you can make a living doing what you love and you’re not obsessed with fame or money, you’re gonna have a good life.”
