Gary Sinise’s philanthropic music project is Taylor-made

Gary Sinise has made something of a name for himself as an actor and musician and philanthropist.

That name would be “Taylor.”

Sinise earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lt. Dan Taylor in “Forrest Gump” and currently plays Detective Mac Taylor in “CSI: N.Y.”

Any inside story as to why “Taylor” keeps surfacing as a Sinise surname?

The actor chuckles.

“It’s just the cards,” Sinise said in a phone interview this week as he was prepping for an appearance at 2 p.m. Saturday with his band -- the aptly named Lt. Dan Band -- at Mandalay Bay Beach. The event is a benefit for military veterans; tickets are $20 and available at the Mandalay Bay box office or Ticketmaster outlets. “('CSI' creator) Anthony Zuiker picked the name. He asked me for suggestions, so I gave him a list of first names and last names, and he settled on Mac Taylor. My brother-in-law, his name was Mac and he served in the military, and that aspect of him was pretty interesting. So I listed that as a potential first name, and I named my son after him.

“Taylor was just a name I threw down there because I thought it sounded good. Anthony Zuiker looked at the list of first names and last names, and he decided it.”

Formed by the bass-playing Sinise and his friend and Vietnam veteran Kimo Williams, the Lt. Dan Band has toured war zones and military bases for nearly a decade, entertaining troops and their families as part of dozens of USO Tours. Money raised will be delivered to the Gary Sinise Foundation, an organization that assists wounded vets and their families. His visit to Las Vegas also was to fold in a stop at "CSI: The Experience" at MGM Grand from 2 to 4 p.m. today.

The wrap of my interview with Sinise, conducted as he was hooked into a blue tooth while driving in L.A.:

The Kats Report: You had been playing informally for a while, but what was the catalyst to actually forming a band that would play live?

Gary Sinise: I had done several USO tours as an actor and was just visiting troops and shaking hands and that kind of thing. My first overseas tours were with Wayne (Newton) in support of what he was doing (as chairman of the USO Celebrity Circle). I just thought it would be more fun for them if I could have the opportunity to entertain them in some way. It would mean more to them if I could take the musicians with me that I played with. I’d seen other tours where I’d seen bands playing, they're some big-name bands and some unknown bands playing for the troops. I thought, well, I’ve got a music background, and I’ve got people I play with, maybe this would be fun.”

TKR: “When did this all start?”

G.S.: “After five or six handshake tours, the USO said that they would set up a band tour for me. That was 2004, in February, over in Korea, in Singapore and down in Diego Garcia. That was the first tour, it went well, the troops enjoyed it, and as soon as that stopped, they asked if I would do a domestic tour. We went on a bus and truck tour about two or three months later, through bases in the South, and I just kept saying, ‘Give me more. I’ll do more.’ ”

TKR: “The Lt. Dan Band is a pretty extensive music project. It’s almost like a big band. How often are you able to get together to rehearse?”

G.S.: “There are 12 members, including me, and another singer who joins us occasionally. But we play so often that we’re a very well-oiled machine. We’ve played hundreds of shows now. Every month, sometimes every other weekend, sometimes three to four weekends in a row. … We’ve played so much that learning new songs is something we can do almost on the day we can play. If there is a block of new songs I want to learn, I’ll schedule a daylong rehearsal and put it all together.”

TKR: “In talking about music, as a bass player, who have you been inspired by?”

G.S.: “When I started playing bass, I was listening to the Who and, gosh, Cream -- this kind of dates me, I know (laughs). I listened to a lot of Jack Bruce when I was a kid, and (Who bassist John) Entwistle. Playing a lot of that kind of stuff. Chris Squire from Yes. Those were the guys I was listening to way back when. Then I got into jazz and was listening to Stanley Clarke and Ron Carter and Joco Pastorius. These were the guys I was listening to when I was playing bass as a kid.”

TKR: “Can you express what does it feel like to entertain these troops, and you’ve entertained hundreds of thousands, and serve in that way?”

G.S. “I’ve visited war zones and visited bases in the States, and you know whenever you’re playing for the troops and their families, it’s an important thing. We can be over in a war zone playing in Afghanistan for troops who don’t get a lot of entertainment, or at a base playing for families who are experiencing very long deployments with their loved ones overseas, worrying about whether or not they are going to get bad news.

“We show up and play for the kids, play for the spouses and give them a good time. We show up overseas and play for the soldiers and the Marines and the people who are serving in a war zone, and every time it’s special. I’ve played in the hospitals, we’ve done concerts at Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center, or Guantanamo Bay and Kandahar, Afghanistan. Every time, it’s meaningful to me. It’s an important thing, and it’s hard to single out one special moment. It’s all special to me.”

TKR: “What do you think of President Obama’s announcement of a complete pullout of the troops in Iraq by the end of the year?”

G.S.: “You know, I was on the very first USO Tour over in Iraq and Kuwait back in June of 2003, and we have a concert scheduled in Kuwait at the end of January, which is supposedly going to be one of the last, if not the last, concert for troops who have been redeploying back from Iraq. It’s been a long conflict, there have been people who have been deployed multiple times. I hope it’s the right move. Regardless, there are a lot of troops who have served over there who deserve our thanks and our praise and our support and our gratitude.

“It’s kind of poignant for me to have been on the first USO Tour over there, and I’ll be on one of the last concerts for the troops in Kuwait and Iraq.”

TKR: “The band is named, obviously, for your character in ‘Forrest Gump.’ Is there a particular character you’ve portrayed in your career that most reminds you of you?

G.S.: “Well, in some ways, I think I am like Mac Taylor. I didn’t serve in the military the way he did, but I am very dedicated to military service and public service, and he is, as well. He’s got to be a good leader, and in my past, I’ve been the leader of different things throughout my career, whether it’s been in the theater or with the band. There are certain things about him I can identify with. But there are aspects of him that are not like me at all, and that’s the fun of it, to play people who aren’t like you -- you kind of sink into the skin of someone whose point of view is very different from yours, and that’s very interesting to play.”

TKR: “Your name seems to come up every so often as somebody who could run for public office, someone with the leadership qualities required to be an elected official. Have you ever seriously considered that, or would you?”

G.S. “No, I wouldn’t. I don’t know why people think that. That’s not my game, you know? I’m an actor, and I don’t have any of those types of ambitions. I do enjoy public service and have my own foundation -- the Gary Sinise Foundation -- which some of the funds from Saturday at Mandalay Bay will support military charities I’m involved in. But serving politically is not something I’m interested in (laughs). I don’t think you have to worry about that with me.”

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