New Skynyrd documentary on Showtime

Yes - the music at times was way too loud and did drown out the dialogue when someone was talking. My wife and I had the same experience as you mentioned.

 

Yes. My wife and I wondered why the music was so loud in spots that it drowned out the people speaking.

 

I didn't think the doc was very good. It seemed to go all over the place while repeating the same information over and over.

 

Loved it. Great stuff. An ocean of previously unseen (to me) photos and footage. Only
complaint I can muster is that I would have liked to have seen current interview footage
with Alan Walden and Peter Rudge. I had tickets to the November 1977 Detroit show at
Cobo Hall which obviously never happened.

 

Yep, same conversation on our couch

 

I don't know about that. It did not have theatrical distribution, just played at a couple of film festivals (SXSW, Montana, Cleveland, Nashville) and one-off situations (Tampa, Jax). It's barely a CMT production. They lost interest after Brian Philips - a big Skynyrd fan - exited. It was apparently quite a dispiriting process for all concerned. I note the director has not been on social media recently to discuss the Showtime release.

 

Showtime is the distributor, they bought the film.

CMT and Passion Pictures were co-executive producers, meaning they shared expenses.
Passion Pictures is an independent production outfit that also did Jaco and EC's 12 Bar documentaries.
Film was shown at various film festivals in the spring of this year before eventually being sold to Showtime.

But for sure Brian Phillips wanted this done before he left CMT, and he got them to fund it.
Well done.

 

Exactly. Thank you. I was shocked when, a couple of years ago, Brian tapped me to be a Facebook Friend. Why me ? He liked my posts, literally. So I feel protective of this project, as a Skynyrd fan since 1974, and for Brian.

 

I just finished watching the documentary. I agree that some of the interviews are hard to understand with the background music- I might watch it next time with the closed-caption on.

Also, it was sad to learn that Ed King passed away a couple days ago. He did have some good stories about his time with the band. Rest well, Ed.

 

Really well done and some great detail s I was unaware of. Gonna share it with lots of my fellow fans

 

Great documentary, well worth watching.
I learned a lot that I did not know. Ronnie's level of violence when drinking was quite a surprise (as it relates to G.Rossington & Ed King). It comes as no surprise (at least to me) why Ed King left.
I do hope it gets released on DVD. It's well worth owning a copy for future viewing.

 

My favorite part was the story about opening up for the Stones at Knebworth and pi$$ing off Mick with their use of the band’s extended stage.

 

Gary did a good job on this documentary, and Knebworth is a fun story told many different ways over the years. Guess we'll never know if it's true.

 

It was an enjoyable doc. My only complaint is how often they went to the well playing Freebird clips or using the song for some other purpose. You would think Skynyrd's only hit was Freebird.

 

This reminds me of Bobcat Goldthwaits anecdote on Colbert a few weeks ago. Back in the 80's he was doing standup and it was somewhere 'southern', anyway the crowd for reasons best known to them at the time kept shouting "Skynyrd" and "Freebird" all through his set.

He gets pissed and just unloads with "Look Skynyrd are dead!! They are ALL DEAD!! Got that?!?" or words to that effect.

Anyway the club goes quiet and three dudes walk up to the stage and go "Listen...we're the surviving members of Skynyrd and we're having a drink here!"

Oops!

Exit very quickly stage left!

 

Thought it was well done and glad Al Kooper (The Yankee Slicker) was interviewed as he is often not mentioned in Skynyrd lore.

 

Lots of great pictures never before seen by the public. Great stories. Yes, the music made some of the interviews hard to hear. Must of been the 5:1 surround. I just saw today that Ed King died on August 22. Sad!!! RIP. All of them are gone now except Gary Rossington. They all died very young. What a great band. Of course, I'm speaking of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band prior to the plane crash. As far as I'm concerned, that's when the band ended.

 

Artimus Pyle is still alive.

 

I've been looking forward to this for some time! No access to Showtime from these shores unfortunately.

I hope that the film soon makes it's way to UK cinemas (accepting that it will probably be an art house 'one night only' event) and of course, then to DVD/BD.

 

I've asked on your behalf, when our friends in the UK will be able to see this. I'll post as soon as I receive an answer.

 

I tend to agree with this. I’ve read and seen enough documentaries on the band that little was new to me. I thought the interviews were well done and seeing the actual site of the crash was pretty sobering. That was some rough country the plane had to crash land in. I’m surprised more of the people on it didn’t die.

 

He is. So is Ricky Medlocke and Larry Junstrom.

Sad with a lot of these southern rock bands. The mortality rate is quite high with most of them. Look at Molly Hatchet for instance. Hard living bunch.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time, I'm sure I speak for all UK based Skynyrd fans when I say that it is more than appreciated!

 

I had the opportunity to watch the documentary with my daughter over the weekend; we both thoroughly enjoyed it and thought that it was very well presented. It was also interesting to see some live footage that I've not seen previously. As all Skynyrd fans will know, good quality live footage of the 'classic' line-up is relatively limited and although it's probably wishful thinking on my part, I wondered whether the making of the documentary might prompt some thoughts of an official live release. If indeed there is sufficient in the archives. One can live in hope!

 

Me neither