On a break from filming an upcoming movie called 'Mom's Night Out,' Trace Adkins admitted that he's working on improving his acting chops just in case his voice ever goes out. But acting doesn't come quite as easily to him as singing does just yet. Adkins says he does his best work on the set when he's acting like he can act.

“The best acting job I do is when I get to the set and the first couple days I’m on the set, convicing the director I know what I’m doing,” he he told AL.com on a break from filming a scene for the movie. “That’s the best acting job that I do. Once I pull that one off, the rest of it’s easy.”

Adkins added --jokingly, we think-- that he wants to beef up his acting career just in case his singing voice ever goes out.

'Mom's Night Out' (starring 'Grey's Anatomy' actress Sarah Drew and Sean Astin from 'Lord of the Rings') tells the story of a mom who just needs a night away from her energetic brood of kiddos. Things go awry when she ends up in the slammer...and her baby goes missing. Adkins plays the role of a tough but tender-hearted man named Bones, who steps in to help locate the missing child.

Dressed up like a tall, buff guy with lots of tattoos--who also happens to be compassionate enough to help a scared mother--Adkins gets to play a role that is very similar to who he is every day.

“I just like that dichotomy, the contrast between the tough guy and the sappy old drooling teddy bear,” he said. “It’s really not a stretch.”

During his stint filming in Birmingham, Adkins plans to keep his singing and songwriting skills as sharp as a tack. The 'Watch the World End' hitmaker has found that working on movies "stimulates songwriting." He wrote two songs while filming a western in Canada, and he brought his band to Alabama from Nashville to record one of them at Bates Brothers Recording in Hueytown.

“Singing is the way that I feed my family, so I have to keep that at the top of the priority list for now,” he said.

An upcoming Christmas album is one way that Adkins is keeping music at the top of his priority list. He also took time away from acting long enough to light up the stage at the 2013 Taste of Country Music Festival in early June.

 

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