John C. Reilly has made us laugh as dopey Dale in Step Brothers, had us believing in the power of true friendship as Cal in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, cured absolutely nobody at all as the no-nothing doc in Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule and melted hearts as the sweet-natured cop hoping he can save his addict neighbor in Magnolia.
But the role he wanted so much he wrote it for himself, apparently, was of electrified, sanctified, possibly totally delusional “Archbishop Harold Holmes,” the hero of the song of the same name from Jack White‘s 2024 No Name album.
In the video for the hoot and holler blues rock track released on Tuesday (June 17) — directed by Gilbert Trejo from a concept written by Reilly — the versatile stage and screen actor slips into his Sunday best pin-striped blue suit for a fire-and-brimstone sermon in which Reilly mouths the lines, “If you’ve bot family trouble/ Man trouble, woman trouble/ No light through the tunnel/ If you’re lookin’ for a true friend, or a true lover/ Or if you’ve been livin’ undercover” in front of a glowing crucifix.
It quickly becomes apparent that this archdiocese bible thumper has more than the good lord’s words backing him up, as electrical sparks buzz from his fingers as he sings, “Well, I’m comin’ to your town/ I’ll break it all down/ And help you with all of this/ I’m lookin’ to help you find bliss/ One day, one way, can’t miss.”
With an old console radio pulpit seemingly powering his holy spirit, Reilly’s Holmes gets the handful of parishioners energized, inspiring them to leap from their seats and shuffle in a circle around him as he chicken struts and shoulder shimmies the good word into their their bodies via blue sparks.
Or, spoiler alert, maybe it was all a dream?
The possibly confused, wound-up Holmes is a world away from Mister Romantic, the long-running alter ego behind Reilly’s new album of romance ballads, What’s Not To Love. On the LP that dropped last week, Reilly melts hearts with covers of such lovelorn classics as “La Vie En Rose,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Falling in Love Again,” “Picture in a Frame,” “Moonlight Serenade” and more.
“I looked at our weary world a few years ago and tried to think of a way I could spread love and empathy,” Reilly wrote in a statement about the character. “I decided the most fun way to do that was through performing and singing and telling people I love them…so the emotional vaudeville show Mister Romantic was born, out of both hope and despair.” The Mister Romantic tour will hit Chicago’s Steppenwolf theater on Sept. 13-14.
Watch the “Archbishop Harold Holmes” video below.
