Since the end of Rescue Me (a show we are pretty sure is actually over, though it could still surprise us), Denis Leary has made several attempts to get back on TV under various other uniformed guises—like producing the paramedic comedy Sirens, starring in the (rejected) FX detective comedy Bronx Warrants, etc. But now, like so many others, he’s abandoning the fly-by-night world of emergency services for a steadier gig in music, creating and starring in the new FX comedy pilot Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll.
Leary plays the lead character, Johnny Rock, a singer whose rock career doesn’t pan out the way he hopes, despite literally being named “Johnny Rock.” As he tries to reunite his old, cult favorite band—which fell apart 25 years earlier, just as it was about to take off—Johnny Rock finally confronts all the drug abuse and sleeping around with his bandmates’ girlfriends that got him into this mess in the first place. According to the FX statement, you can also expect the occasional cameo from actual rock stars—rock stars who will seethe that a great name like “Johnny Rock” just went to waste like that. “You could have had it all, Johnny Rock!” these other, boringly named, alleged “rock stars” will say.