Oscar winner Morgan Freeman makes shock career pivot at age 89

Oscar-winning star Morgan Freeman has taken a shock career pivot by releasing a new project in the music industry. 

The 89-year-old Hollywood actor, who is currently starring in Taylor Sheridan’s series Lioness, both narrated and produced the blues album тιтled Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience. 

The LP released on Friday, August 7 via the Decca Records website and will be available for streaming and digital download on August 14. 

The new album includes a 12-song collection which follows 100 years of blues history, and also features a number of musicians such as Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell as well as the Chineke! Orchestra. 

‘I heard the blues for the first time on my grandmother’s porch in the Mississippi Delta, and it has never left me,’ Freeman said in a statement, per Rolling Stone. 

‘Having Taj Mahal kick off this album with a cover of Son House’s classic Death Letter Blues strikes the perfect tone for the introduction of this album.’

Oscar-winning star Morgan Freeman, 89, has taken a shock career pivot by releasing a new project in the music industry; seen in 2025 in Hollywood 

The Hollywood actor both narrated and produced the blues album тιтled Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience

The cover Death Letter Blues from the new album was released on Juneteenth, and the actor expressed it ‘is not just symbolic – it is the truth of where this music comes from and who made it. I hope people listen and remember.’ 

The song was first released in 1965 and recorded by Delta blues musician Son House.

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Other tracks on the LP include Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground and Cadillac ᴀssembly Line.

A three-date tour in support of the album also kicked off on August 7 with a show in Houston. 

Additional stops include a performance in Memphis on September 26 as well as a concert in Gulfport, Mississippi on October 17. 

Daily Mail has reached out to reps for Freeman for comment, but has yet to hear back. 

‘The blues. It’s come from the most basic, visceral expression of humanity,’ Freeman said during an interview with CBS Mornings. ‘It comes from a field holler.

‘African Americans, those people whose closer connected to the origins in Africa, they have their own way of working and it’s a rhythm thing.’ 

‘I heard the blues for the first time on my grandmother’s porch in the Mississippi Delta, and it has never left me,’ Freeman said in a statement, per Rolling Stone; seen in 2025

‘The blues. It’s come from the most basic, visceral expression of humanity,’ Freeman said during an interview with CBS Mornings. ‘It comes from a field holler’; seen in 2025 in L.A. 

Freeman also pursues his pᴀssion for blues music as a co-owner of the blues club Ground Zero in Mississippi. 

‘I was raised primarily in Mississippi with a few excursions outside, but the best of my growing up was spent in Mississippi in the Delta – Greenwood, Mississippi, to be exact,’ he said last year at his Chautauqua Lecture Series, per the Chautauqua Daily.

‘My ᴀssociation with the blues is really not an ᴀssociation at all,’ the Million Dollar Baby star explained at the time. 

‘It’s just there in the air. You start hearing it at a very young age, because there are a lot of guys going around plucking on guitars and singing sad songs.’

He added, ‘The blues has this beginning with African Americans because working in the fields, they had a work holler, as it were.’

Along with the new album release, Freeman has been featured on other songs in the past. 

The actor previously appeared on the song Bombs Away by B.o.B. in 2012, and was a narrator on Metro Boomin and 21 Savage’s 2020 album тιтled Savage Mode II. 

Freeman has been keeping busy on the screen as well. 

Freeman also pursues his pᴀssion for blues music as a co-owner of the blues club Ground Zero in Mississippi; seen in 2025

Freeman expressed to The New York Times earlier this month that Sheridan’s writing ‘has to do more with the human experience, what people are actually going through, emotionally, in a lot of cases’; Sheridan seen in June in NYC 

He recently reprised his role of Edwin Mullins in the Paramount+ series Lioness. The third season recently premiered on August 2. 

The spy thriller was created by Taylor Sheridan and the cast also includes Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldana as well as Michael Kelly. 

Freeman recently opened about starring on the show and applauded Sheridan’s writing.

The actor expressed to The New York Times earlier this month that his writing ‘has to do more with the human experience, what people are actually going through, emotionally, in a lot of cases.’ 

Elsewhere during his conversation with the outlet, the star opened up about choosing which projects he takes on. 

Freeman is also known for his roles in The Shawshank Redemption (seen above), Driving Miss Daisy and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy

‘If somebody offers you a job, it’s very nice if they’re offering you also an exciting script, but in reality, two or three things come into play.’ 

He continued, ‘What are they going to pay you? If they’re going to pay you enough, then you overlook some of the glitches in the script that happen to be there.

‘Sometimes you can mention things that are in the script that don’t quite work out for you and by and large, that gets worked out.’ 

Freeman is also known for his roles in The Shawshank Redemption, Driving Miss Daisy and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.