An Inside Look At Outlaws and Lawmen: The West

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, as we learn the stories behind the stories about heroes and villains of the Wild West, told to us by… Sean Hannity? No, that’s not a typo. The widely known Fox News and syndicated talk-radio personality has taken a holiday from political commentary to serve as host and narrator for Outlaws and Lawmen: The West, a limited-run historical docudrama series now available from Fox Nation.

It’s a labor of love for Hannity, a guy who knows and loves Westerns movies — but is even more interested in the true-life people and events who inspired the legends. According to Fox Nation: “During the limited series, Hannity will utilize the true stories of the outlaws and lawmen of America’s past to track the evolution of law enforcement from the Wild West to today. From Butch Cassidy to Bass Reeves to Billy the Kid, Hannity details the men of both honor and infamy, bringing life to the myths, legends, and truths of the time. Each episode will feature a single character or duo’s story in a journey that re-imagines the volatile era, illustrating the West’s transition from lawless to law and order.”

“This was like a movie shoot for me,” Hannity says, describing his on-location filming at the storied Mescal Movie Set near Tucson, Arizona — and sounding very much like a kid who’d just been gifted with the greatest toy train set in the world.  “I’d never done that before,  and I learned a lot in the process. I was fortunate enough to have people around me who knew what they were doing.

“Look, there was a part of me initially was afraid to even look at it.  And then I said, ‘All right, send me the promo. Let me take a look at the promo.’ And then I said, ‘Yeah, I think I'll look a little bit at the first episode. Just send me a little bit of it.’ So they did. And I felt everyone had done such a great job of making me look better than I was. That’s how I felt, I was grateful.”

After previewing the premiere episode, which focuses on the fraught relationship between outlaw Billy the Kid and lawman Pat Garrett, I can testify that Hannity and his team strike an impressive balance between historical re-enactments and interviews with such experts as film historian Andrew Patrick Nelson and True West Magazine executive editor Bob Boze Bell, with Hannity on hand to tie it all together in fascinating fashion.

So, naturally, I requested an interview with the on- and off-camera storyteller. Here are some highlights from my conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.

Cowboys & Indians: If I were to go through a Hannity family album, would I see a picture of little Sean wearing a cowboy hat and brandishing a cap pistol?
Sean Hannity: [Laughs] Oh, 100 percent. That’s funny you're asking that. That is 100 percent true. My sisters are all older than me. But I mean, if you talk to them, they will swear I was a terror. I’d have the hat, I’d have the toy gun, I'd have the holster, I’d have the whole bit, all true, 100 percent true.

C&I: So that’s why you jumped at the chance to be part of Outlaws and  Lawmen: The West?
Hannity: At first, Fox asked me if I’d be interested and I said, “I'm interested.” But then I was a little… Well, fear’s not the word. I just wanted to make sure I was right for the role. But then as I really dug deep into what this was about — my passion, it just all came out of me. And it’s like, now I understand why I like Yellowstone so much. I mean, if I had five hours with Kevin Costner, I would be begging him by the end of the five hours to please continue, I don't want that show to end.

And then the more I learned about it — there were things that I knew, but then as I got deeper and deeper into it, there were things that I was learning. I mean, I have a passion for it, I couldn't stop reading it. And I spent a lot of hours on it when we taped it on the Mescal Movie Set, where Tombstone was shot. The history of that place was very, very cool and I loved being out there. And the people I was working with had worked on that set a number of times, so I learned a lot about the history of it, and it was pretty phenomenal. I’m sure you know the history really well.

C&I: It is quite impressive. I was there not long ago to do a location story for the movie Far Haven, and saw where they had filmed Tombstone and dozens of other movies and TV shows. But Outlaws and  Lawmen: The West aims to give us a look at the real-life figures often romanticized by Hollywood, right?
Hannity: And just think of the courage of the settlers. We often hear the phrase “Go West, young man.” But after so many people moved West, then the level of lawlessness is just out of control. And with the rise of outlaws comes the rise of the guys that take them on. I don’t care if we’re talking about Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid or whoever it happens to be. In a weird way, you kind of get the sense that there's a mutual respect, but there's a fierce competition between one vision of what the West is going to be and one vision of what the West is not going to be.

And I had the opportunity to tell that story with a really great team behind me. From the people that were involved in shooting it, the people involved in producing it, the people involved in writing it — it was really a collaborative effort of many, many people. And I don’t want to take the credit for things I don’t deserve to take the credit for. I just became the face of it, and I was kind of honored to be part of a much larger team of people that were putting that together.

C&I: What surprised you the most while you were doing your research? Did you ever say to yourself, “Oh, wait a minute — I thought this guy was like this, but he really was like that," or something like that?
Hannity: It’s a great question. I think I probably would answer it this way. I have a passion not only for Yellowstone, which I do, but I also have a passion for shows like Deadliest Catch and Life Below Zero. Shows about rugged individualists, people that can live off the grid, people that live unconventionally. People take on roles in life, they make choices in life. And at whatever point in history that they’re making them, be it an outlaw or a lawman, and they make these choices and they either pay the consequences. In most cases, they actually did pay consequences, on both sides, but they did it because they were true pioneers and people, I think, of amazing courage. And I love courage and people that will just put all caution to the wind, and they will head West and they’re going to try and establish lives for themselves. But then there are people that want to destroy those lives. And then there are people that will defend them and their right to pursue their dreams. So it's kind of like a dichotomy. Does that make sense?

C&I: Definitely. And also, there was no television or radio back then, so what we got to “know” about these people was gleaned from dime novels and, after that, movies and TV. But I remember talking to Casey Affleck after he did The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and he didn’t see Robert Ford as a villain at all. In fact, he used the term “serial killer” in reference to Jesse James, and he was glad that Ford was brave enough to “assassinate” him. Would there be less smudging of the line between hero and villain if there had been modern technology then, or even more, I don’t know, sophisticated news coverage?
Hannity: Again, I think the answer to your question is 100 percent yes. We have an episode about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who were some of the frontier's most notorious bandits, and all these outlaw gangs that show up. And then you tie it to the taming of the West, if you will, and how that came about, and how many judges and how many lawmen rose to the occasion to bring law and order to the West. And it kind of comes full circle a little bit towards the end, and you could begin to see, “Okay, this era is coming to an end.” And it’s coming to an end because a lot of people from day one were willing to risk their lives and fight these bad guys that just decided that laws don’t apply to them and, in many cases, were willing to rob, kill and steal and do whatever they had to do.

C&I: What are some of your favorite Westerns?
Hannity: [Laughs] Boy, I knew you were going to ask me that question. And I guess because I got involved in this, it became almost inevitable that I would go back and watch Tombstone. And when I saw it, after having been [at the Mescal Movie Set], I will tell you — I can't really explain it, but it just sort of took over me. But you can also go back and look at some of Charles Bronson’s movies. And Henry Fonda or John Wayne, obviously.  Whose else do I like? Well, I like Sam Elliott. I mean, he has a whole collection of them, if I'm not mistaken.

I've actually started watching more Westerns because my interest was piqued so greatly by this entire experience. I don’t really want to say I have favorites because I like them all. If that's a cop-out answer, then that's a cop-out answer. But I even went back and watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I mean, I went to the ones that I knew the best, and I’m kind of working my way back. And hey, can anybody argue that Clint Eastwood is one of the greatest actors of all time when you watch him in a Western? You just can’t.

C&I: Do you ride horses in your spare time?
Hannity: I did as a kid. But I tore my meniscus about two years ago — I do mixed martial arts, and I tore it — and when I tried to ride with a friend of mine, and I realized that if I’m going to ride again or ski again or play ice hockey again, I'm going to have to have that knee worked on. But I did ride when I was young, yes. And by the way, horses are the most majestic animals on earth, I love them.

C&I: It’s been said that part of the enduring appeal of Westerns — silent movies, ‘40s black-and-white movies, even contemporary movies — is that they offer a look at a bygone era where if things weren’t working out for you, you could just put your belongings in your saddlebag, ride off over the horizon, and reinvent yourself somewhere else. You actually touch upon that idea briefly in the Billy the Kid episode.
Hannity: Just think for a second all those people that would move West. There they are, they’re going to an unknown land — and they have no idea who they’re going to face, these settlers of the West. They try to build a life for themselves, but it’s not like they have any modern-day conveniences. They’ve got to dig their own wells, they've got to get their own water, they don’t have electricity, and they’re completely off the grid. And they get to a little town with a little general store, and that’s where they’re getting all of whatever it is that they need. But then everything else, they’ve got to produce on their own. And at any point in a day or night, somebody can come riding in. You don’t know anything about them, maybe they just want a hot meal, maybe they just want to feed and water their horses. Or maybe they want to kill you and take everything you got, right? I mean, think of the courage of those settlers.

That's why I said I was kind of drawn to the modern-day version of those pioneers with Life Below Zero or Deadliest Catch. I mean, in Deadliest Catch a lot of those crabbers have died over the years. A lot. And I just sit there and I'm like — I don’t know, for me, it embodies the American spirit. My grandparents, they embodied that American spirit, too. They came here from Ireland with nothing. How do you leave your home country, give up everything you've got, go to another country, not knowing a soul there. Or maybe have a relative or two, a distant one that you can maybe try to find — good luck with that — and then build a life for yourself and your family, and you scratch out a living? And I always say when I give a speech, I always mention my grandparents. And my parents. I always say my mom was a prison guard who worked 16-hour shifts most of her adult life. She died very young. She smoked like a fiend — they didn't know any better back in the day, right? But I know I stand on their shoulders. My father died about six months after I started at Fox. I started in October ‘96, he died in March of ‘97. And at least he got to see that little bit:  “Wow, my son's on television.”

C&I: I’m sure you realize how lucky you were in that regard. I have talked to quite a few actors, singers and directors — Michael Caine particularly — who will always regret that their fathers died before they achieved any sort of success.
Hannity: He also got to hear my radio show locally because I had been traveling to different states pursuing this crazy radio dream, either working for no money or next to no money. And I know that that was only possible because of the work ethic my parents instilled in me. And that’s why I delivered papers at eight, that's why they allowed me to wash dishes at a very busy restaurant every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, and come home at three in the morning. All those years in restaurants, almost a decade, a little less than a decade in construction — that defines who I am and hopefully the voice and my experience that I speak to when I'm on radio and TV.

And what I see in my parents and grandparents, I see in the pioneers in Outlaws and Lawmen. I see the people that tamed the West, the people that took the leap of faith and risked it all, including their own lives, to pursue a life for themselves and their family and pursue a dream. I don’t know, maybe Moses bringing slaves out of Egypt to the Promised Land is about the closest thing that I can think of historically that would equal that. I mean, the amount of courage those people would have — I call it rugged individualism. You could use whatever term you want, but history is full of these people. And then there were those people that, for whatever reason, didn’t have a moral compass. They had no problem stealing those people’s money from a bank. They had no problem turning around and shooting somebody in cold blood, and going right back to eating their meal.

Those were very, very interesting times and people. That’s why I think people will enjoy Outlaws and Lawmen. And I’m honored to be a part of a very large team that put this together.

Watch Sean Hannity in Outlaws and Lawmen: The West on Fox Nation.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Fox Nation