All About Yellowstone Star Luke Grimes’ Mom Angie and Late Father Randy Grimes — and How They Inspired His Country Music Career

Luke Grimes started performing at a young age, thanks to his dad’s work as a pastor.

The Yellowstone star was born in 1984 to parents Randy and Angie Grimes. The youngest of four kids, he grew up in a religious household in Dayton, Ohio, and Luke often sang and played drums in church.

After graduating from Dayton Christian High School, Luke moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. “My initial plan was to move to LA, but once my family understood how serious I was about acting, they did what they could to send me to acting school in New York,” he told As If magazine in 2018. “My parents sacrificed a lot to send me there, and I think that changed my trajectory.”

Randy died at 70 years old in February 2022 and that loss had a profound impact on his son. “Not having him here anymore made me really go back and hold on so dear to some of those memories,” Luke told Mr. Feelgood that July. “He taught me that you can be strong without having an ego, and you can be a leader and still be humble and still be kind.”

His father’s death also prompted the actor to pursue a music career. Luke released his first country song, “No Horse To Ride” in December 2022 and his self-titled debut album in March 2024. On Nov. 15, 2024, Luke performed at the Grand Ole Opry and his family was there to cheer him on.

Here’s everything to know about Luke Grimes’ parents, Angie and Randy Grimes.

They married as teenagers

Randy and Angie wed in June 1968, per an Instagram post their son Jacob shared. According to his obituary, the couple met as teenagers and married when Randy was 17 years old and Angie was 14.

They celebrated 53 years together before Randy’s death in 2022.

Randy and Angie shared four children

Randy and Angie welcomed four children together: Lisa, Joshua, Jacob and Luke.

While his siblings haven’t shared their birthdays, Luke has spoken about the fact that they’re all much older than him.

“I [have] a huge immediate family,” the actor told PEOPLE in November 2024. “I was the youngest of four. They all got married when I was still very young. So by the time I had nieces and nephews, starting at 2 years old, there was family everywhere all over the place.”

They raised their kids in Ohio

Although Luke’s parents both grew up in Virginia, they moved to Dayton, Ohio shortly after getting married and raised their kids there.

“I grew up very, very Christian. My dad was a pastor. So I went to Christian school, I went to Christian camp, I was very, very religious growing up,” Luke told Mr. Feelgood. “I grew up around some really awesome, kind people, and in a really nice, comfortable place.”

Luke was always the outdoorsy type and spent plenty of time in his childhood hunting and fishing with his dad. After high school, he moved to New York to study acting and then lived in Los Angeles for several years before eventually putting down roots in Montana. Still, Luke has a lot of love for his hometown — his self-titled album even features a song titled “Oh Ohio.”

“There’s parts of where I grew up that I love, but, obviously, I left. So there was something that I didn’t feel that I was supposed to be there forever,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2024. “But I wouldn’t change a thing. I loved growing up there. I think it’s an amazing place to grow up.”

Randy and Angie supported Luke’s acting dreams

Growing up the son of a pastor, Luke was a long way from a career in front of the camera, but his parents were supportive of his acting dream.

Following high school, Luke went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. To help foot the bill, his parents re-mortgaged their house in Ohio.

In 2013, Randy opened up to Dayton Daily News about his youngest son’s career in Hollywood. While he admitted that Luke’s role on True Blood wasn’t exactly his “cup of tea,” he was more than happy to watch his son on-screen.

“We are very proud of him,” Randy said. “We always knew that Luke was different, special and gifted. This has been his passion for life.”

Randy was a fan of Yellowstone  

While True Blood wasn’t exactly Randy’s type of show, he was a “big-time fan” of Yellowstone.

“This was his favorite thing I’ve done, by far,” Luke told the New York Post in October 2022 about his late father’s love of the Western drama. “I took him to the set a couple of times, him and my mom, and they got to meet Kevin [Costner] and [the show’s co-creator] Taylor [Sheridan].”

He continued, “It was really special to do something he was so proud of. I’m so glad he got to see me realize a dream in that way.”

Luke’s father inspired his country music career

Music has been a big part of Luke’s life since he was a child, but professionally, he was always more focused on acting. When he first moved to L.A., he was the drummer and songwriter for a country band, but when his film and television career took off, music became more of a hobby. Still, being a musician was always a dream of his, even though it was something he “was terrified to do,” as he told PEOPLE.

Ultimately, it was the death of his father in February 2022 that gave him the motivation to push past his own fear.

“That’s when I was like, you know what, I realized my own mortality and like I’m going to look back one day and be like, ‘Why didn’t you do that, you had this really great opportunity to do something that you know you wanted to do but you were too afraid to do it because of what people thought,’ ” he said in a March 2024 interview with American Songwriter. “That whole experience just kind of sealed the deal for me.”

Randy and Angie shared many grandchildren and great-grandchildren

Prior to his death in 2022, Randy and Angie shared a large family, complete with four children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

In October 2024, Angie became a grandmother once again when Luke and his wife, Bianca Rodrigues Grimes, welcomed their first child together.

“Man, having my baby has changed everything in every way possible,” he told PEOPLE in November. “It’s like there’s a love growing inside of me that I didn’t know I was capable of, and it’s incredible and it’s scary because you have so much more skin in the game.”

Luke went on to say that his second album “will be very heavily influenced” by fatherhood, noting that his son is “the biggest influence in my life right now.”