Modified from story written by William J. Purpura and originally appeared in AAA's Home & Away magazine.

One of America’s memorable entertainers has his heart pinned on the Wolverine State. It is a chilly night and Ann Arbor is wrapped tightly in a bone-drilling early-winter blanket of cold. Inside the Blind Pig, though, upstate New Yorker Julia Nunes has the heat cranked up as she delivers husky-voiced sets of rock vocals to an adoring college-age crowd.

As good and edgy as Nunes is, she’s no Ann Arbor anomaly. The city’s bars, theaters, art studios and restaurant kitchens are teeming with her kind of explosive talent, which explains why southeast Michigan is such a draw for those in search of all things artful.

Could that explain why celebrated actor and entertainer Jeff Daniels chose to make the nearby one-main-drag town of Chelsea his unexpected home? That would make for a nice, tidy conclusion. But as it turns out, Daniels’ story runs much deeper and is far more entertaining.

Small-town Charm

Born in Athens, Ga., Daniels was bundled up as a baby and whisked off to Chelsea, where his father founded the Chelsea Lumber Co. Daniels’ memories of growing up there are poignant and everlasting.

“As I look back on it,” he recalled, “it was one of those Norman Rockwell small-town experiences. The whole world existed in this little small town. It was a different time even for the adults back then, when we weren’t so instantly global like we are right now. But for a kid, Ann Arbor just 15 miles away was like Europe. Chicago was something near the Pacific Ocean.”

Daniels mused of his memories of Schwinn bikes, pickup basketball games in the high school parking lot and home-run derby contests played out on a tennis court enveloped in a 10-foot-tall fence that ultimately determined the difference between victory and defeat.

When pressed on the issue of his fondest boyhood memories, Daniels returned to the Chelsea Community Fair, a weeklong celebration that continues to this day. As Daniels described it, the start of the fair was akin to the circus coming to town a week before the start of another school year. The event always opened with a Tuesday parade, which Daniels marched in as a member of the Boy Scouts.

Recalling those days, he quickly lit a match to any hint that he grew up squeaky clean.

“I got my merit badge in Boone’s Farm wine,” he said. “It wasn’t all making fires and sharpening knives.”

Daniels eventually did manage to grow up and move on, but little Chelsea kept calling, and the entertainer came home to a place that never lost its appeal.

Back home, Daniels once found himself at a Friday-night high school football game, marveling at how the field, players, lights, cheerleaders, concessions and all the kids on the hill sneaking a smoke seemed to rise from a movie set.

“This isn’t a movie,” Daniels recalled a friend saying. “It’s real life. Some things never change. It’s nice to know that something like this hasn’t lost its charm. It’s like a little treasure.”

Stars of the State

So what are some of Daniels’ favorite Michigan haunts?

When it comes to dining, the Common Grill in Chelsea is a hands-down favorite. Daniels recommends the Superior whitefish, firecracker shrimp and tortilla soup. In Ann Arbor, it’s Zingerman’s.

“I can get hurt there because the sandwiches are Carnegie Deli-esque,” Daniels said. “You’re in sandwich heaven.”

In Detroit, Daniels makes a beeline to Fishbones and to the Lafayette Coney Island. Back in Chelsea, he also raves about the double cheeseburger at Seitz’s Tavern.

“The grease on the grill is from 1958, and it adds to the flavor,” he said. He also craves the tavern’s roast beef plate. “That will stay with you for a day or two— in a good way.”

Asked about shopping experiences, Daniels said, “I think my wife is a stockholder in T.J. Maxx. I like to go to Getz’s in Marquette. It’s just flannel shirts and fleece-lined jeans. It’s all that Michigan winter stuff.”

Daniels said Vogel’s & Fosters in Chelsea sells much of that as well, including one of his favorite brands, Stormy Kromer.

Among Daniels’ long list of must-see Michigan sites are the Ann Arbor Folk Festival; the Waterloo Recreation Area, Chelsea District Library (voted best small-town library in the country in 2008 by the Library Journal) and the Jiffy Mix factory in Chelsea; Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn; and, of course, a University of Michigan football game.

Aside from his family, Daniels’ true love is the Purple Rose Theatre Company, which he opened in 1991 on Chelsea’s Park Street. It is as cutting-edge and intimate as they come. While Daniels doesn’t act there, he has written more than a dozen plays for the company.

“I just didn’t think that New York knew everything,” Daniels said. “I said, ‘Let’s write about the people sitting in our seats.’ So that’s what we did.”

Considering its size, it seems remarkable that 40,000 tickets to the Purple Rose are sold each year.

“The magic of theater is that what we are doing tonight is just for you, the people in this room,” Daniels explained. “It’s not a movie that’s being seen on a screen and on 2,000 screens everywhere else. We’re here just for you, just for tonight.”

Closing in on his 10th year in New York, Daniels turned to one of his acting buddies and declared he was going to move back home to Michigan.

“You never left,” his friend responded.

“What he said was true,” Daniels said. “I never left.”

And then he quipped, “But I know where the airport is.”