‘Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man’ talks music, forestry, love
Jon Siembieda: During the pandemic, I’ve had the extra time to catch up on music documentaries and have combed through a lot. I have to say, your film is absolutely one of the very best I’ve seen.
Chuck Leavell: Well, thank you. We really had a good time doing it. It took three and a half years of work to get all of the footage together.
Jon: Out of all the documentaries with a star-studded cast of legit interviews, I’d say of recent times the three that blew me away with legend after legend going deep on the music would be yours, Jeff Beck’s, and Bobby Keys’. You guys got everybody to talk. That’s a testament to you.
Chuck: I was hoping maybe we’d get 50 percent to agree, and much to my surprise, it was a lot more than that.
Jon: The movie really has a cool concept, marrying three aspects of your life – obviously, the music, but also your marriage, and your life as an award-winning tree farmer. You really seem like you’ve made all of it work.
Chuck: I really appreciate that. When Allen (Farst, the filmmaker) and I initially got together, that was the theme. Three parts: My career in music, my environmental work and the love story. When we first discussed this project, he asked why I wanted to do this. My motivation was to have a document for future family members (such as) our grandchildren. I wanted something for the family to see, and to get a snapshot of the era of my work in music, from the Allmans (and before) to the present. There were a couple of folks I wish I could have gotten: Mac (Rebennack, aka Dr. John), but he was really, really ill when we were inquiring, and of course Gregg (Allman), but the same story – he was just too ill. But I’m very grateful for who we did get, and I really have to credit Allen. We had all this footage, and I said, “How the hell are you going to stitch this together?” But he did it over about six weeks, 8-10 hours a day. I have to give credit where credit is due. Allen did a fabulous job.