According to Kevin Costner, Modern West got its start when his wife encouraged him to reconnect musically with John Coinman. "I wasn't really sure after all these years how it might work. I wasn't really sure what to say. But if life has taught me anything it was not be stopped by the question or the unknown. I asked John to get some guys together starting with Blair Forward who was in the first and only band I was ever in. John would pick the rest."