(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) - Hello, I'm Jeff Hullinger at the Atlanta History Center.

So many of our notable citizens seem to come from Middle Georgia, be it politicians like Jimmy Carter, Sonny Perdue, or Sam Nunn, or musical titans like Little Richard, the Allman Brothers, or Otis Redding.

Maybe it's something in the water.

Chuck Leavell may have been born next door in Alabama, but moved to the middle of the state soon after high school.

This musical minstrel of Macon would become one of the giants of Southern rock, playing with the Allman Brothers, Wet Willie, Dr.

Hook, and a former Beatle, just to name a few.

He's currently a touring member of The Rolling Stones.

I sat down with the prominent pianist to talk about the musical journey of his life and why after touring the world, he still calls his farm southeast of Macon home.

You could be excused if you don't recognize the face, or even his name, but you would have had to have been living under a rock not to have heard Chuck Leavell's most noteworthy contribution to the pantheon of rock.

- Here's the one I'm known for, so let's do that.

("Jessica") ("Jessica" continues) ("Jessica" continues) ("Jessica" continues) - [Jeff] This boogie-woogie Macon maestro has put his indelible mark on some of the greatest rock and roll bands since the '70s, like the Allman Brothers and the Rolling Stones.

The first time you played "Jessica" as a young man, did you know that you had lightning?

I get the chance to reminisce with Leavell at Macon's iconic Capricorn Recording Studio, the room where this piano player's professional career took flight.

- And so I sat here, you know, while people were not around and worked on that, and came up with the entrance and just that... ("Jessica") And then the... ("Jessica") ("Jessica" continues) You know, just kind of a hello there, and then just took it from there, improvised.

- [Jeff] Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1952, Leavell's mother exposed Chuck to the music basics.

- Mom was not a teacher or professional, but she played for family enjoyment.

And she would get me up on the stool sometimes and just show me very simple things, you know, sometimes as a form of babysitting.

At the tender young age of seven, I was loving the piano and learning it, you know, and just really enjoying it.

And I had this epiphany, as you say, that this was gonna be my life's work.

- He played the tuba in middle school and joined his first rock band at 13.

At 16, he joined The Misfits in Tuscaloosa and quickly gained some local notoriety.

And you're starting to get noticed right away when you're in these bands, or are people, you know, I'm gonna use a sporting sort of metaphor in that when a kid can play quarterback or he can play running back, or he's a good tennis player, or he's a fine golfer, people see it right away.

They know there's something here that is not commonplace.

- Well, yeah, I guess to a degree, that was happening.

You know, Tuscaloosa, Alabama is where I grew up, and it was unbelievably a great area for musicians.

There were really good musicians were in Tuscaloosa.

So, you know, after my first band broke up, I had noticed some other musicians in the area, and, "Man, I'd love to play with that guy.

I'd love to play with that drummer," you know?

And those things came true.

And so, you know, as time went on, I found some nice fits.

- [Jeff] Even in those early years, he plied his trade as a studio musician, playing with a variety of artists around Alabama, tasting his first bit of success on Freddie North's top 10 R&B hit single, "She's All I Have Got", as an uncredited piano player.

♪ Please don't take her, she's all I've got ♪ - In 1969, he was coaxed to Macon to join Capricorn Studios as a studio player and producer.

He briefly joined a series of bands like Sundown and with James Taylor's older brother, Alex Taylor, and when that fell apart, he joined Dr.

John's band.

You mentioned Dr.

John, as you've always described that as your college education.

- Yeah, edumacation.

(laughs) I loved Mac so much.

And he was so sweet to me.

You know, it was a tough audition for him.

The first night that we auditioned, it was not all that encouraging.

It did not go that well.

And Mac was stern.

He was a task master, you know?

"Man, y'all, I don't think y'all got this second line thing down.

I don't know if it's gonna work, man.

You know, y'all got to jump up in this game."

(Jeff laughs) And so I wanted that gig so bad, you know, I wanted it so bad, so I told the guys, I said, "Listen, let's go back, listen to some records.

Let's really get down with this thing, and let's please this guy, 'cause that's the only way we're gonna get the gig."

And we did.

- [Jeff] Gregg Allman heard his playing.

It struck the right note for a solo album that he was putting together.

It was during this time that the Allman Brothers Band were looking to pick up the pieces after Duane Allman was killed in a Macon motorcycle accident in 1971.

- We had started to work on Gregg Allman's solo record, and then these jam sessions occurred that I mentioned, and then the meeting in Phil Walden's office where all the guys were there, and they asked me to join the band.

And so we started that project in 1972.

I think it was around April or May.

And, you know, great memory for recording with the guys for the first time for me, and "Jessica" and "Ramblin' Man", "Come and Go Blues", all those were recorded here.

- [Jeff] What's it like to live with that kind of history?

- Well, you know, for me, everything happened so fast.

The invitation to work on Gregg's record, that was the first step in talking about the Allman Brothers Band.

That was the first step.

And then, as I mentioned, the jam sessions, and then all of a sudden, they were asking me to be in the band.

It was just, you know, all of that occurred within maybe two months time.

So, I was trying to keep my head screwed on.

Great opportunity.

"Don't blow it, Chuck."

(laughs) "Don't blow it," you know?

That was going through my head.

And also, contribute, you know?

Don't be a fly on the wall.

I mean, get involved and try to make suggestions with the arrangements and be yourself, you know, and have a good time.

- [Jeff] The new lineup started recording the "Brothers and Sisters" album in late 1972, spawning hits like "Ramblin' Man".

♪ Lord, I was born a ramblin' man ♪ - [Jeff] And of course, "Jessica".

("Jessica") The album eventually topped the charts for five weeks.

- So, you know, when the guys asked me to join, and the first step was gonna be the recording of "Brothers and Sisters", and Dickey presented that song to the band, and I thought, "Ah, here's a little something maybe I can jump in on."

And it was, as I said, it was just a beautiful vehicle for a piano player.

- [Jeff] For the next three years, Chuck Leavell would tour and record a second album with the band, "Win, Lose or Draw".

- The Brothers broke up, at least temporarily, in 1976.

We won't go into all the complicated reasons why.

So, Lamar Williams, who was playing bass with the band, with the Brothers, and of course, Jaimoe, who was one of the founding members, one of the drummers, and I had been playing together as a trio for fun, you know, mainly at Jaimoe's house.

So we had this little trio called We Three, played at people's parties, played at Jaimoe's house, listening to jazz, just trying to find our way.

And when the Brothers broke up, the three of us said, "Well, we can go on our merry way, or maybe we can make something out of this."

So I felt like we needed a fourth member.

And I called my friend, Jimmy Nalls, great guitar player, played with me with Dr.

John and with Alex Taylor, who was on Capricorn Records, and he fit in perfectly.

And so we did that first record as a quartet, and we were sort of on our way.

- [Jeff] Sea Level would go on and release five albums exploring jazz, funk, blues, and rock themes with a rotating cast of musicians.

They achieved moderate success with hits like "Living in a Dream" from their album, "On the Edge".

♪ Living in a dream ♪ ("Living in a Dream") - It was also during this period he would meet his lifelong partner, Rose Lane White.

She was a receptionist at Capricorn Studio.

The two fell in love, and she brought Leavell to the family farm in nearby Twiggs County.

So when was the first time you were on this property, walking?

Do you remember?

- Yes.

Rose Lane and I had started dating, and the time came, she said, "You gotta come see the family."

- What year are we talking about here?

About 50 years ago?

More than that?

- 53.

- 53.

- Yeah.

So, let's see.

We had decided to get married, and she said, "Meet the family."

I said, "You know, you never told me anything about your family."

She said, "You'll see."

And it turned out that they were all connected to the land.

So, come out, meet the family, and nervous, you know, hair down to here, hippie boy meets the farmer.

I'm gonna marry the farmer's daughter.

Gotta meet the farmer and the family.

Fortunately, it all worked out.

(laughs) And they welcomed me with open arms.

- [Jeff] When Rose Lane inherited the 111 acre property from her grandmother known as Charlane Plantation, Leavell would embark on a new journey, something that would go on to fill a different part of his soul.

- My interest in forestry was really sparked when we were trying to decide, you know, we had inherited this land, what do we do with it that would be smart, that would be good, that would be enjoyable and productive?

But then one day at the breakfast table, my brother-in-law said, "You know, there's a 50 acre field down here, we usually plant in a crop.

If you're not gonna do that, you might consider planting trees on it."

Trees?

Oh, well, that's kind of interesting, you know?

- The farm work would at times be a full-time job as Leavell would ride the ups and downs of the music business, waiting for the next gig or project.

That farm work would eventually be recognized in 1999.

You're a man who has garnered a lot of awards.

I mean, this long, at least, maybe a lot more than that.

But National Tree Farmer of the Year is a unique award and one I'm sure that has some emotional resonance for you too.

- I just keep fooling them, Jeff.

(both laughing) No, it truly was a great honor, and of course, that included Rose Lane, you know?

We were National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year, I think it was 1999.

Boy, that's a while back now.

- [Jeff] But it was during one of those lulls in 1981 when Leavell's phone wasn't exactly ringing off the hook that his musical life would be transformed again.

- Bill Graham's office called, and there was this guy, Mick Double, and he said, "Was Chuck there?"

And I said, "No, he's not here for the moment," you know?

But he says, "Well, Bill wanted to have an audition for Chuck with the Rolling Stones."

- [Jeff] The Stones eventually decided to go with the piano player the band had used before.

Chuck was crushed at the news.

The next year, music promoter Bill Graham suggested Leavell's name again to the Stones.

This time it stuck, as he joined the band for their "Tattoo You" tour.

He would eventually become an official member of the touring band.

This relationship now has gone on 40 plus years.

When you entered it, did you think that it would have this sort of legs?

- Not at all, no.

And so, you know, when I came in, I thought, well, realistically, maybe five years of this thing, you know?

Maybe two to five.

- You're in your early 30s at this point, right?

- I was, I had just turned 30.

And here we are, 43 years later.

- What's that experience been like for you?

What has it meant for you as an artist?

- Well, I'm flattered.

It's a great opportunity.

The guys are so fun.

The music, I mean, come on, you know?

How many great songs have Mick and Keith written, and "Honky Tonk Women", and "Start Me Up", and "Can't Always Get What You Want", and it just goes on and on.

"Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Satisfaction".

The quality of the material is just so strong.

And that's number one.

That's what people keep coming back to.

- [Jeff] Dealing with them, what is that like?

- Well, it comes down, in my mind, to work ethic.

You know, when we go into rehearsals, we're not playing around, you know?

I mean, we're playing around musically, but we're not playing and goofing off.

We want to get it right, man, you know?

And I've been fortunate to kind of... I started taking notes back in '89 when we had the "Steel Wheels" tour, and the band decided to really go deep on the catalog.

You know, let's look at this body of work and let's play some, work up some songs that maybe are not necessarily known as hits, right?

And so I started taking notes when we would do something like "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", you know, which is a deep cut song, and others, and I would write out a chord chart and make notes.

Did we have horns on this song?

Do we have background vocals?

What were they?

Blah, blah, blah.

Did we change the arrangement for any reason from the record?

And sometimes we do that.

- So when you're playing with them, you have these notebooks with you, right?

- Well, here's the deal.

It's like, okay, you're talking hundreds of songs, and you can't just remember everything.

You know, "Hey, let's play this one."

"Oh, God, how does the bridge go?

Where's this solo come in?"

So, those notebooks are references for me.

And if somebody says, "Oh, I can't remember," you know, then I can say, "Well, hold on, last time we did it, this is how we did it."

- Wow, that's amazing.

- And then it gets everybody on track.

- [Jeff] That note taking and attention to detail was noticed.

- Which I kind of go, "Where's the book, where's the book?

Chuck, you must have this one.

I remember doing this with..." And he says, "That was eight years ago."

I said, "Yeah, but you must have got the notes.

Come on, we're gonna start from scratch."

So, Chuck and I go through the book of all the arrangements of how we did this song.

- [Jeff] Mick Jagger would name Leavell as the band's official director of music.

When not with the Stones, he continues to perform solo and produce and work with other artists like Widespread Panic.

And there's always work to do at the farm.

Is there anybody you have not played with that you'd like to play with at this point?

- Oh, man, yeah.

Van Morrison.

You know, on the more upcoming side, I love the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

You know, the joy of my career, Jeff, has been dancing with all these different partners.

You know, it would've been fantastic if I had success with one artist or one band, but man, you know, to play with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, the Allman Brothers, and, you know, David Gilmour, which was another fantastic phone call to get.

- Do you ever see yourself retiring?

Are you one of those retiring kind of guys?

- Well, you know, I love playing music.

I see no end to that right now.

But if there comes a time when it becomes impractical or uncomfortable for any reason, yeah, I'd be real happy to wake up here every day, go outdoors, walk in the woods, do some work, play with the dogs, you know, any of that.

So, it's not like I think about, hey, I'm gonna retire in three years, you know, or four years.

- Is it important to you that your name go on, or your work, or both?

Or do you not care?

- You know, I don't really think about that, Jeff.

I'll be long gone, you know?

I won't know who's listening to what and whatever that is.

I have no idea, you know?

That doesn't bother me.

I mean, I'm here now.

You know, I'm gonna enjoy each and every day and live it one at a time.

Whatever happens after Chuck's, you know, got daisies growing on top of him- - Those damn Beatles.

- [Chuck] It don't really matter to me.

- Chuck Leavell is a piano player, an Allman Brother, a Rolling Stone, a rock and roll icon, always aware of his Southern roots, grounded in the red clay and dirt, like one of his beloved Georgia Pines.

Do you think this passion of the forests and trees and the environment ties, sort of dovetails nicely into music?

There's that sort of cerebral sort of mix that would energize you or spark you.

Do you think they're all tied together?

- Absolutely.

You know, when I'm out here, you know, you can hear the sound of birds.

The wind is not with us today, but you hear the sound of the wind through the pines, and that's a beautiful sound.

And so that, I don't know, it's a balance thing.

You know, you go out and you rock and roll and tour in big cities, big crowds, electric atmosphere.

I get to come here, and this is what I have.

And it's just like, "Ah, yes."

- [Jeff] Southern boys are different.

- [Chuck] Yeah, there you go.

I'll go with that.

♪ Keeps Georgia rolling, rolling ♪ ♪ Rolling on my mind ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Leavell will continue to tour with the Rolling Stones this year, as well as tickle the ivories for himself, headlining his own shows.

Up next, Eddie Owens Martin, better known as St.

EOM, is another creative, if not a bit of a tortured soul from the area.

The eccentric Marion County native spent much of his youth in New York City becoming a self-taught artist before returning home and bringing his unique vision, art, and spirituality to the unsuspecting town of Buena Vista in the form of the wildly eccentric Pasaquan.

Located in the middle of the state, nestled among the pines near the tiny town of Buena Vista, sits a colorful other worldly cluster of buildings called Pasaquan.

- And so when people call me and they're like, "What is Pasaquan?"

I say that.

I'm like, "Look, close your eyes.

Dream about that.

Think about being out in the rural South.

And then all of a sudden, you come upon this mock pre-Columbia and psychedelic wonderland."

- Welcome to a spiritual and artistic world situated on eight acres of farmland in the middle of, well, nowhere, really, all created by a flamboyant, gender bending little known artist at the time named Eddie Owens Martin.

Michael, this is a sort of Alice in Wonderland of the rural South.

I keep looking for, you know, places where I could fall into the ground.

It is a crazy imagination and like a crazy dream.

My tour guide through the Looking Glass is Columbus State University art professor Michael McFalls.

He's also the curator of Pasaquan.

- Often when we talk about these places, Eddie is a world builder.

He's kind of creating his own religion, his own place where he can celebrate in his own way, because he knows he's different from everybody else.

♪ When the world was lonely ♪ ♪ And nobody seemed to know ♪ ♪ Someone came along who seemed to care ♪ ♪ Someone had a love they wished to share ♪ ♪ Oh, the love ♪ ♪ Of the world and the love of all the land ♪ ♪ We wanna have it in our hearts ♪ ♪ To understand ♪ - Martin followed an artistic tradition in the South of finding a unique voice, often challenging what it means to be a Southerner.

But the South is, it seems as though these great creative centric sort of men and women seem to come from this land.

- Yeah.

I mean, there's probably so many reasons we could talk about this, I mean, but, you know, there's this great history of storytelling.

But I think in the South, it's particularly interesting because I think there's a lot of repression that happens in the South, and these are responses to that.

These are creative responses to that repression.

You know, Eddie's a queer man, growing up in the South.

- [Jeff] There are six buildings on the property, including a 19th century farmhouse.

The interior and exterior walls are painted in vibrant colors with bold patterns, lots of androgynous humans, surrounded by lush scenes of nature.

The buildings are connected by painted concrete and mythic sculptures, a mashup of primitive images from a variety of cultures.

Inside, more than 2,000 pieces of artwork created by Martin.

- And then this is kind of one of the more famous, you know, rooms.

We called it the Music Room.

Often, Eddie was playing music in here.

At one time, Fred Fussel told me Eddie had a La-Z-Boy that sat right here.

None of this was here at the time, he said.

And then he just had a stereo, and he'd just sit here and stare and play music.

- Wow, wow.

- You know, and he often talks about that this is the vibration, right?

Like, when you look at these walls- - [Jeff] It's like a sound.

- Yeah, it's like pulsating.

And he often talked about the vibrations.

It's not vibrations, and it's not, you know, it's not like... He's saying it's this pulse within that you start to feel, like a beat.

- Like a heartbeat.

- Yeah, like a heartbeat or a visual beat.

- [Jeff] So, who was this creative force from rural Georgia?

A man not easily understood almost 40 years after his death.

I mean, it's easy to classify him in at least the genre or the zip code of Dial and Finster, but not really.

- Yeah, he's a little different.

His spirituality is a bit different than Howard Finster.

But, you know, Howard Finster is a world builder as well.

You know, he's making artist built environment as well, and Paradise Garden.

But at the same time, I think Eddie's world is just... Like I said, we're just now kind of accepting his world.

- [Jeff] Eddie Owens Martin exited Georgia as a teenager when an abusive father became too much.

As an unabashed gay man moving to New York City in the 1920s, Eddie became aware of a new world, very different from his home in Georgia, working as a waiter, a hustler, and in a variety of other ways to support himself.

During this period, he began to self-study in New York City.

The museums, the libraries, a lifelong influence on his artistic vision.

- [Michael] When I talk about Pasaquan is so influenced by his time in New York, and everything you see here is really a response to that.

And you can see it in the drawings that he was doing while he was living in New York.

He kept 'em all, he put 'em in these steamer trunks that were up in the attic, and then we were able to get... There were 700 or 800 drawings.

- Wow.

- That he had done while he was in New York.

- [Jeff] Incredible.

- [Michael] Which is, to me, quite fascinating.

- [Jeff] After a decade, his health began flickering.

He was beset by high fevers and what he called visions.

In these fever dreams, three people of the future from a place called Pasaquan selected him to depict, through art, a peaceful future for human beings.

Afterward, Martin began to call himself by his new Pasaquan-named St.

EOM.

According to St.

EOM, the Pasaquan messengers instructed him to return to Georgia and do something.

His response was the establishment of a new paradigm, a visionary art site that he began building around 1955.

- I think Eddie, you know, I personally think Eddie's philosophies were way ahead of his time.

I mean, he's thinking about these ideas of gender fluid beings from the future.

The idea of gender fluidity was, you know, it's just now maybe an acceptable kind of idea.

And so, but can you imagine in '56, being in the Deep South, talking about gender fluid beings, dressing like he did in his full regalia, going into town in Buena Vista, I mean, he must have had something, some kind of... I'll often say he had some kind of mojo, something that protected him in some way.

But, you know, that to me is pretty impressive, that he was able to kind of survive.

But he was way ahead of his time.

- [Jeff] This newly created world was shared by his mother who lived in the front of the house for decades before her death.

Martin eventually inherited the property, making each room a reflection of his new religion.

In 2014, the Pasaquan Preservation Society, Columbus State University, and the Wisconsin-based Kohler Foundation partnered to refurbish and preserve the site.

After two years of work, the site reopened on October 22nd, 2016.

How much more is there to do?

Is it ongoing?

Do you look at this right now and go, "Well, here's an area we need to do restoration of"?

- So there's a couple of spots that we need to touch up.

There's, like, a couple of cracked walls, and we just have to just patch it up before we repaint it.

So you may notice as you walk around, it's like just much more faded spots.

But for the most part, we're almost done with this phase.

- [Jeff] With his health failing, St.

EOM committed suicide in April of 1986.

He bequeathed Pasaquan to the Marion County Historical Society, which later formed the Pasaquan Preservation Society.

Originally ignored and discounted, that is now changing.

- Yeah, I think Eddie's just now being accepted by the art world.

He was really kind of overlooked.

A few people had his work in their collections, but not many.

Most of the work that's now placed in collections were placed through Columbus State.

So one of our missions was to kind of build that legacy for him, right, because he was this, you know, this overlooked artist for generations.

And now we're placing works in major museums across the country.

- [Jeff] Like the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as here in Georgia at the Albany Museum of Art and the High Museum here in Atlanta.

His influence also self-rising as an artist, with a steady pilgrimage of admirers, from Gregg Allman to Michael Stipe and R.E.M., to President Carter and his family.

The brilliance of Eddie Owens Martin is as surprising and as unexpected as the roots of his raisin.

His spirit still hangs in here.

You can feel it.

- Yeah, you can feel it, can't you?

- Like a shining star newly found in Georgia's sky, growing brighter with the passage of time.

(atmospheric music) Pasaquan currently hosts artist residencies that allow new generations of artists to be inspired and influenced by the work of St.

EOM.

For "Georgia Legends", I'm Jeff Hullinger.

Thanks for watching.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues)