Denis Leary says that when it comes to fame and groupies, comedians just aren't in the same league as rock stars.

"No comparison," says Leary, currently starring in "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll," which airs Thursday nights on FX Canada.

"That's a whole different level of groupie."

Leary points out that the latest wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood is 31 years his junior and that Mick Jagger is still romantically linked to women in their twenties.

"It's crazy," he says. "Unless you're a failed rock star. If you're a failed rock star, it sucks."

Leary plays a failed rock star on "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll," which premiered earlier this summer.

The 58-year-old actor and comedian, who starred for seven seasons on "Rescue Me," plays almost-famous lead singer Johnny Rock. He sang with The Heathens, a '90s band that broke up after lead guitar player Flash (John Corbett) found Rock in bed with his wife.

Broke and desperate, Rock and Flash and the other aging band members have reunited behind a talented young singer named Gigi (Elizabeth Gillies). She surprises Rock with the news that she just happens to be his daughter. Dad writes her some songs and The Heathens are re-born.

Speaking earlier this year in Los Angeles, the candid comedian says he's fascinated with the flip side of success.

"I'm very interested in why guys don't make it and how they blame other people for why they don't make it."

On this week's episode, written by Leary, Gigi meets her grandmother and Rock's high maintenance mom (played by "Gilmore Girls" scene stealer Kelly Bishop). The grandmother is still bitter about losing out on her own shot at fame way back when Julie Andrews beat her out for the lead in "Mary Poppins."

Leary says he flirted with his own rock 'n' roll dreams before following his yearnings to be an actor and a comedian. The first band he ever saw live was The Who at the Boston Garden in the mid-1970s.

"That night they destroyed the drum set," he recalls, still holding onto the moment.

Besides co-creating "Rescue Me," Leary has appeared in over 40 films, including the recent "Spider-Man" movies and "The Thomas Crown Affair." He's also heard on the animated "Ice Age" movies.

"I got to work with Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman (on 1997's "Wag the Dog") and Clint Eastwood (1999's "True Crime"), so my dreams at this point are I hope this show stays on the air because I'm having a really good time with these actors," he says.

Known originally for stand-up and comedy albums, Leary figures he's been famous for 25 years. What he's discovered through his children is "it doesn't matter how famous you think you are or what you're famous for, the next generation, and the generation right after that, they will find their own people who are famous to them."

His own children "barely know" about John Wayne or Cary Grant," he says. TV classics such as "I Love Lucy" or "The Honeymooners" are well off their radar.

"The one thing that carries through is the music," says Leary. "The Beatles, The Stones, Frank Sinatra, they know all the great music."

Musicians are the only ones who find lasting fame, says Leary, "'cause a three minute song, if it's great, will last forever."

— Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015