The Walking Dead’s Emily Kinney Releases New Single

Musician and actress Emily Kinney, best known for her role as Beth Greene in the early seasons of AMC’s The Walking Dead, has released a new single, titled “Fifteen Minutes.” If the song carries with it an implicit allusion to the Andy Warhol (possibly apocryphal) quote that in the future, “everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes,” the title of the upcoming album on which the song appears — The Supporting Character — might give a sense for some of the thematic ground Kinney is exploring. Kinney, who also appeared on episodes of The Flash as Brie Larvan (the Bug-Eyed Bandit), announced that The Supporting Character will be released on Jullian Records on April 9.

Kinney debuted “Fifteen Minutes” over at Entertainment Weekly, and shared the story of its genesis. According to Kinney, it’s a love song that kind of hilariously backfired.

“‘Fifteen Minutes’ is a love song I wrote for my boyfriend at the time explaining that I would trade time I’ve spent being successful or famous for more time with a person I really love, him,” Kinney told EW. “He said he didn’t get it. We broke up.”

You can see the video here:

Kinney’s last record, Oh Jonathan, was released in 2018 and followed by a tour. This time around, obviously, an immediate tour will be a lot harder to do as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kinney’s musical talent played a part on The Walking Dead, with Beth singing occasionally.

“[The singing scenes are] a good way to give a glimpse into Beth’s life, in a way,” Kinney said at the time. “With the kind of music a person listens to, you feel like you really know somebody. When I first meet people, I send some songs to them. So I think having Beth sing on the show is a good way to let people feel like they know a bit of her inner life. This season I sing another Tom Waits song to Judith, ‘I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.’ Beth is definitely a Tom Waits fan.” She added, “I’m sure she’s aware of Top 40 music because she’s a teenager, but I’m sure she goes off and searches for something else, too. I’ve definitely thought that since she’s from Georgia, there’s some music from there in her collection. But I think her taste is a little more indie, too. I think she’s influenced by whatever her mom was into — and that’s why there’s that ‘Parting Glass’ style of song.”