“I never really spent much time here, and during the show, when I came here for months, I just fell in love with it,” he said in a recent interview with Ravalli Republic. “And after a long time, I just decided that I was much happier here, and my wife and I decided that we wanted to live here and raise a family.”

When he first brought his wife to the Bitterroot while filming “Yellowstone,” Grimes said she, too, was immediately drawn to the valley.

“She immediately said she wanted to come here, and she hadn’t been here that much,” he said. “She just had a certain feel for it, and I really liked it here and worked here, so it made a lot of sense to me.”

While it may be easy to fall in love with the scenic vistas of Montana, there were still challenges that came with playing a cowboy in a neo-Western television drama. For one thing, he had never ridden a horse before filming the series.

“I never drove before the show,” he said. “I've ridden a lot for the show and my goal is to get so good that it looks like I'm that good on a horse, and I've definitely gotten a lot better over the years, but when it comes down to it Cowboying and the stuff that goes with it – especially sledding is really hard to learn… unless you start at a young age like a lot of these guys do. I wish I was that good at cowboying.”

He said that he had to use a stunt double in the first season because he was still fairly new, but by the time filming ended he could do pretty much anything that even had to do with riding. He admitted that many scenes are still shot by experienced stunt doubles.

“At some point I’ll like to rope a guy out of his truck. “I definitely don’t actually do it, but there was a stunt guy who actually did it,” Grimes said. “He literally chained the man who was driving a truck, which was unbelievable. And again, this stunt guy has been doing this since he was three years old. He’s incredible.”

Grimes described working with Kevin Costner, who stars as the patriarch of the Dutton clan in the Yellowstone series, as a milestone in his career.

“He’s an icon, an American film icon,” Grimes said. “And you know, films that I grew up on are some of my favorite films – actually standing next to this guy in real time and not just being with him, but working with him as his equal, was a huge moment in my career. “”

After devoting seven years of his life to “Yellowstone,” Grimes said it was “bittersweet” to leave the bonds he formed with the other cast members and that chapter of his career behind him.

“I think 'sweet' because we actually managed to get (the show) over the finish line despite all the odds,” Grimes said. “A lot happened because of COVID, and then there was a year of strikes, and it was just really difficult to get the show together. So I'm just happy that we were able to finish it reasonably well… But you know, it was also hard because it was seven years of my life and with this group of people that I got along very well with, I'm the character that I'm playing, and I've obviously become very close to the character that I'm playing, and it's been, you know, quite a difficult process to get to grips with that. I'll really miss it.

“To shoot these beautiful scenes on horseback in this beautiful location – it’s kind of a dream. I think one day, if I'm even able to put myself into the process over time, I'll be able to really draw from it and look back on it in a really, really loving way. ” he said.

While Yellowstone may be coming to an end, Grimes still has plenty to keep him busy. His self-titled debut country album was released in March 2024 and he will soon be embarking on his Playin' On The Tracks Tour with Carter Faith. He also has new music in the works and is looking to return to the studio soon.

“We’ll be going to about 10 different cities,” Grimes said. “And I’ll probably go into the studio early next year to record another album, which I’m excited about. I’ve been writing since the last song, so to speak, so there will definitely be more music in the future.”

Grimes said living in the Bitterroot Valley and immersing himself in the rural way of life has had a profound impact on his music.

“For example, living here, I'm much less distracted by what's going on in my heart and my head than I am in Los Angeles,” he said. “I have a lot more time to think about the things I want to say instead of constantly being distracted by my surroundings. I think for writing this is one of the best places you can be. And then it certainly helps to actually live in the country instead of living in a big city when writing country music.”

Grimes also recently partnered with Carhartt on a campaign highlighting “the hard work of preserving the land and the Western way of life.” Carhartt and Grimes collaborated earlier this week on a short film titled “Made in Montana,” featuring landscapes and scenes of rural life from the Bitterroot Valley, to support Carhartt's Montana clothing line — “a line created by the hard-working people of the USA.” The seven-minute short film, narrated by and starring Grimes, discusses the importance of preserving local farms and ranches and also includes Stevensville residents Drew and Kaci Lewis, owners of Skyline Angus, and Lauren Renneker of Bitter Root Land trust included.

The Bitter Root Land Trust is a Hamilton-based nonprofit organization that works with private landowners to implement voluntary conservation efforts on private lands to protect working farms and ranches, wildlife habitat, water resources and open space for future generations. The Lewis family preserved their 420-acre Burnt Fork ranch through a conservation easement with the help of the Bitter Root Land Trust in 2022, realizing their dream of passing their ranching operation to the next generation.

“It's easy to go through your day mindlessly and not think about the work it takes to put food on your plate, but when you live in a place like this, it's constantly in your face, you “sees how people work out there,” Grimes said. “Without these people and their hard work, none of us would be able to eat.”

As for his acting career, Grimes said it's “an open road right now” as he tries to figure out what's next. But one thing is certain: With the recent birth of his first child, his heart, home and roots are now anchored in the Bitterroot Valley.

“I've been here full-time for four years now and we go to a lot of the same places and now everyone in those places knows us, my wife and I, and they're our friends and they're our community,” he said. “I just love how simple this place is. It's so beautiful and so huge and it's just real life. People just live their lives here, there is no agenda… I feel really lucky to be able to live here.”

The fifth and second seasons of the final season of “Yellowstone” premiere November 10 on CBS and Paramount Network.