Country music star and part-time actor, Dwight Yoakam, had to do what many would consider unthinkable - turn down a cameo in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, according to The Examiner.

"And actually, there were a couple of different parts," Yoakam says. "There was a ne'er-do-well cop who's one of Gary Oldman's guys, but I really couldn't focus enough to deal with that. Then they came back to me and said 'We know you don't have time to do that one, but can you do this one instead?' And it was a banker who had dealings with the Joker, and I wanted so badly to go do that banker and mess around with [Joker portrayer] Heath Ledger. But I just couldn't do it."

What reason could possibly keep Yoakam from Gotham City? A tribute album to his late friend and mentor, Buck Owens.

"I just couldn't do [The Dark Knight] because I was so involved in Buck's album, or my album about Buck," the L.A. native says. "And it's an ironic twist on Buck and myself, and his always being cantankerous about me doing movies. He'd go 'Your music's going to suffer because you're ignoring it!' And I'd say 'No, I won't ignore it, Buck - I promise!'"