[Birds squawking] [ Cheers and applause ] [ "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Echoing ] ♪ Yeow, yeow ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Please allow me to introduce myself ♪ ♪ I'm a man of wealth and taste ♪ ♪ I've been around ♪ Keith: I heard about... ♪ For a long, long year ♪ This is just about Chuck Leavell when he's working with the Allman Brothers.

John: The thing about Chuck is that he is always playing a melody.

He's always playing a lyrical idea.

And you really are hard-pressed to find a guy who can play with the honky-tonk, R&B, blues bass that he has, but also this incredibly melodic take on stuff.

You just don't find it.

[Calm music plays] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Exhales sharply ] Chuck: Morning, darling.

Rose: Good morning!

We slept a little late last night, must have been all that traveling we've been doing.

♪♪♪ [ Chuckles ] All right.

♪♪♪ Want some breakfast?

Yes.

All right.

Breakfast is good.

My very secret ingredient.

I don't like people to know about... it's bacon.

How about a frittata this morning, Miss Rose?

Rose: That would be great!

All right.

This kitchen used to end about right here.

It was teeny tiny, and it must have been about, oh, 15 years or so ago.

We just took this whole section of the house off, and we used our own wood, Charlane Plantation pine.

When I had the tour of the offices of Capricorn Records, the doors open and there's two gorgeous women.

This black woman named Carolyn Brown.

That was Phil's assistant.

And my future wife to be, Rose Lane, White at the time, who was working for Frank.

I was the first person you saw when you walked in the front door.

Phil and Frank were so wild, and you know, back then, there were a lot of drugs involved.

And they couldn't remember, you know, from hour to hour what was really going on sometimes.

Rose Lane had set up a -- the first, one of the very first, simulcasts in the country.

They had 11 radio stations that we got to hook up across the United States to do live in New Orleans with the Allman Brothers Band.

Some of the folks that knew Rose Lane said, "Listen, you got to come down, you were responsible for setting this up, you got to come to the show."

So some of the roadies drove her down in her car, and she arrives there and we had a dinner that night for the band.

I finally got up the courage to ask her out for a date, and bottom line is we've been together ever since.

Rose Lane says I have job security here, because on a place like this, there's chores to be done, there's unexpected things that might happen.

You get a weather event, and then you all of a sudden, you got to be picking up trees off the ground and sawing them up.

Billy: Everybody likes Chuck.

He's just a human being that you'd think doesn't exist anymore.

He's the kind of guy that makes you feel bad about yourself.

And you'd think it'd be the opposite, a guy like Chuck makes you feel great.

He makes me feel bad, because... a self-taught tree farmer, a beautiful musician, beautiful human being.

When you look at the list of what he's got going on at any given moment, it makes you think, "Well, I laid on my a** till noon, and then, went in and did a couple of scenes, and then, went home and watched sports and went to bed."

["Look Around" by Blues Traveler plays] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ You'll get no answer from me ♪ Chuck: I see the male goose out there, so that means a female is nesting somewhere.

Rose: There is no such thing as a day-to-day basis, because Chuck and I are all over the place all the time.

This is home base.

And so, I think, that whenever we get here, it's like, "[ Sighs ]."

[ Calm music plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Narrator: It's "The Late Show with David Letterman"!

[ Cheers and applause ] Sitting in with the band right over there, Chuck Leavell, ladies and gentlemen, Chuck, nice to see you.

Well, he's just this, uh, rootsy guy from the South who came up... in the relatively early days of rock and roll, '60s, and has been at the top of his game all these years, and he can play, you know, in a session in Memphis, Tennessee or Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and then, he can play in front of 40,000 people with the Rolling Stones.

And I have a feeling, to him it's all the same, it's all music.

Eric: One of my favorite musicians of all time is going to sit in and play with us tonight.

The guy's albums I listened to, uh, listen to him play on everything for many, many years.

Uh, he was, in a lot of ways, the soundtrack of my youth.

From everybody from The Allman Brothers to Rolling Stones, Mr. Chuck Leavell is here on keyboard.

[ Cheers and applause ] Kick us off, Chuck.

["Ain't Wastin' Time No More" by The Allman Brothers Band plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Last Sunday morning the sunshine felt like rain ♪ ♪ The week before, they all seemed the same ♪ ♪ With the help of God and true friends ♪ ♪ I've come to realize ♪ ♪ I still have two strong legs and wings to make me fly ♪ ♪ So, I ain't wastin' time no more ♪ ♪ 'Cause time goes by like hurricanes ♪ ♪ And faster things ♪ My band who's pretty, pretty, you know, confident bunch, and I did not exactly tell them for the first time he was going to sit in with us.

One of our main lead guitar players used to be in The Black Crowes, The Doors, The Stones, and so, it was funny to watch them fall all over their f******g selves at Chuck Leavell walking on the stage.

I mean, it was like the goddamn king had walked out.

♪ Much faster things ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ And you don't need no gypsy to tell you why ♪ ♪ You can't let one precious day slip by ♪ ♪ Well, you look inside yourself ♪ ♪ If you don't see what you want ♪ ♪ Maybe sometimes then you don't ♪ ♪ But you leave your mind alone ♪ ♪ And just get high ♪ [ Keyboard solo ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ In that world, it was kind of a funny story to see these professional musicians, seasoned, played the arenas, played for everybody, just lay down their swords, you know, in front of Chuck.

[ Crowd cheering ] Thank you!

Oh, that was fun.

That was fun.

[ Calm music plays ] ♪♪♪ Oh, man, good old H&H.

Let's go back and say hey to Drew.

Hey, man!

[Laughs] How you doing, bud?

Doing good, beautiful morning to make biscuits at 5:30 in the morning.

Is that what you were doing?

That's what we've been doing today.

We're rock and rolling here in the H&H.

Well, I'm ready for one of them biscuits.

Sounds good, we'll get y'all one real quick.

[ Laughter ] We'll go sit down.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Mama Louise, Louise Hudson used to feed us when we were hungry and didn't have no money.

And she'd say, "Well, honey, you just come on in, you can pay me when you can," or "If you ain't got no money, just don't worry about it.

We're going to feed you, ain't nobody going to go hungry."

We'd order, and there was five or six of us, and we'd order one plate of food, and we'd split it up with each, you know, we'd split it up and Mama H caught us doing it, and she, you know, I can't imitate her voice, but... "My goodness, you boys.

You can't be eating like this."

And she'd bring us all... she said, "You guys hit the big time, you can pay me back later."

And she'd bring us food.

[ Laughs ] And I love it, you know, she used to charge you according to whether she liked you or not, you know?

If somebody was aggressive, or she didn't like, it'd be, "Okay, $10."

And if it was some of us, it'd be, "Well, 2.50."

[ Laughs ] Same -- Same dish, it didn't matter.

Same dish.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Hey, Mama, it's Chuck.

[ Chuckles ] How you doing, darling?

I'm okay, baby.

How you doing?

Oh, I'm doing great.

It's so good to see you.

Good to see you.

Rose Lane.

So pretty, as always.

Yeah.

How you doing?

[ Chuck chuckles ] Good to see ya.

I'm so glad to catch you here.

That's wonderful.

Thank you.

You take care, now.

Okay.

[ Smooches ] Great to see y'all.

When I first started playing the piano, my mom played, she was not a professional or a teacher or anything, but she played for family enjoyment.

We had a little spinet piano in the house, and, uh, you see, I was the baby of the family.

My brother is 14 years my elder, and my sister is about 5 years older than me.

So often times, it would be me and Mom in the house.

She would say things like, "Well, Chuck, what do you think it would sound like if, uh, if there was a huge storm outside?"

You know, and I'd rumble down for the thunder, and then, do some lightning strikes up here.

"What do you think it would sound like if you hit a home run?"

She instilled that in me, and music has always been more about emotions and colors and feelings than it is about notes and chords.

[ "Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Well, I've got to run to keep from hidin' ♪ ♪ And I'm bound to keep on riding ♪ ♪ And I've got one more silver dollar ♪ ♪ But I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no ♪ ♪ Not gonna let them catch the midnight rider ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I don't own the clothes I'm wearing ♪ ♪ And the road goes on forever ♪ ♪ I've got one more silver dollar ♪ ♪ And I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no ♪ ♪ Not gonna let them catch the midnight rider ♪ Here we are at The Big House.

It's now a museum for The Allman Brothers Band.

Now when I first came to Macon, the guys were living here, uh, most of them anyway, we used to come visit and have jam sessions here.

And through all the years, it has become a museum, there's a lot of memorabilia here from the Allman Brothers.

So come on in, let's look.

Rose: On our first trip to London, we played at Knebworth Park.

Chuck: Yeah.

Rose: Outside of London.

It would have been '73, I think, right?

Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Yeah.

No one had been outside of the United States.

Yeah, that was our first trip.

Here's a great one from Winterland.

I love those Bill Graham posters, they were always so cool.

This is what we used to call "The get out of jail free concert."

It was a free concert for the quality of life in Macon, Georgia, and we gave money to the jail, gave money to several different charities throughout the city.

And if anybody got in trouble, we could just say, "Hey, don't forget we did this gig now."

[ Laughs ] I wanted to play with anybody that had anything to do with the Allman Brothers.

I don't care who says they're the biggest Allman Brothers fan, they're wrong, I was.

Chuck: After Duane had had his tragic motorcycle accident in 1971, band went out as a five-piece with no replacement, very gutsy thing to do.

Well, I think all of us were wondering what was going to happen after Duane passed.

You know, and it was just a revelation, it was just...

They picked up where, just went to a slightly different road and just as authentic and just as great.

Rose: So they called in Chuck, and all the Allman Brothers were sitting in Phil's office, and Chuck comes in, you know, sweet little boy and everything.

Carolyn and I are going, "Okay, he's fixing to get a big boost in life."

Being asked to join the Allman Brothers was like catapulting... 20 steps above where I was before, you know?

They were already popular.

They had already had gold and platinum records with Fillmore East.

Limousines, private planes, stadium shows, you know, 1973, we were playing RFK Stadium, JFK Stadium.

It was, you know, it was a big leap, a big leap.

And I tried to keep my head screwed on straight.

Dickey: Chuck came in and, man, it was a, I mean, it just lifted the band up, you know, it's just what we needed.

When "Brothers and Sisters" came out, and Chuck was featured prominently on it, all of a sudden, it was... a little more sophisticated.

They had dealt with the loss of Duane and Barry, and moved on in a way that was really amazing.

He was such an obvious choice after you hear him.

You would think, because they've been -- They've always been known for having two guitars playing harmony, getting that stuff in, you would think, "Well, why didn't he put another guitar player in?"

But Chuck filled the bill totally and completely.

He made up for anything that was missing by not having another guitar player.

Dickey: Unlike other bands, I would always write an instrumental for the album.

And I didn't have one for "Brothers and Sisters."

I said, "Well, we don't need to do this on every record."

And Walden then said, you know, you know, "You need to get -- write an instrumental."

Chuck: Well, the history of the song is Dickey was listening to Django Reinhardt -- gypsy guitar player from the '30s -- at his home, and he had a daughter at the time, a little toddler, Jessica, and he was watching her play.

And Django has these really bouncy rhythms, you know?

So, Dickey sort of, you know, puts that in the wheels and starts playing this rhythm guitar part.

He played like what Duane would normally play, you know, on the Rhodes piano.

"Jessica" is, I think, Dickey Betts's masterpiece, but without Chuck's contribution to it, uh, it wouldn't have the impact that it had on all of us.

You know, Chuck just outdid himself on that one.

That's -- That's one of his finest moments.

I love this blue piano, way cool.

And since we're here at The Big House, and the memories are flooding back, we'll do a little bit of this.

[ Playing piano solo to "Jessica" ] [ Humming ] ♪♪♪ Piano solo in "Jessica" is one of the greatest pieces of music I've ever heard in my life.

Because Chuck made... You have the song, "Jessica," and then, when it gets Chuck's turn, he plays another song within the song.

This guy in school grabbed me, and he said, and he was an older guy, and I don't know why, he didn't know me, but he grabbed me, and he said, "Hey, man, you need -- You listen to s****y music.

I need to play you something."

And he played me "Jessica."

And it changed my life.

Chuck: "Brothers and Sisters" is still to this day, the biggest selling record that the Allman Brothers have ever had.

And '73-'74 we're touring, playing these stadiums, it's fantastic.

Jimmy Carter is elected governor of Georgia.

He does very well for the state, and really cool guy, you know?

He's got a persona.

He's charismatic.

And then, one day, we get... We're recording Dickey Betts' solo record, "Highway Call," first solo record, and we get notified that Carter's going to come down.

And we expected, "Okay, he's going to come down and shake hands and take a picture, and he'll be here for 20 minutes, right?"

Well, he comes in, we're recording, and he listens intently, we meet him and, you know, he starts asking really great questions about the state of the music business and stays for, like, 2 and a half hours.

I was fascinated with it, not only the first time I've ever been in a recording studio and -- And the Allman Brothers were on the way up.

Chuck: He decides to run for president.

And the Brothers had been very successful.

And I think this was the first year they had the thing where the government would match the funds that were raised otherwise.

So what we did is we gave, we played these shows for him, and the thing was we'd raise $500,000, and then, the government would have to match it.

Lo and behold, he gets elected president, you know?

And, man, did he work for it?

I don't know if people remember this, but he was getting 2, 3 hours sleep a night, going from city to city campaigning, talking to people, listening to people.

And that's one thing about Carter, he's a great listener.

He's been here at Charlane.

We've hunted a couple of times together.

I visited Charlane Plantation, and met Rose Lane, his wife.

After we had lunch together before we went quail hunting, Chuck went in and played the piano and we all gathered around and listened to him play a good song and so forth.

So, we've been friends for a long time.

This meeting goes down during this turmoil with the Allmans, and the only people who showed up were me and J. and Lamar.

And we kind of -- We said, "We know what's happening.

The band's breaking up.

Uh, we can either go our separate ways, or maybe we can build on what we started."

So that's what we decided to do.

And that was the birth of Sea Level.

So, I think it was '76 or '77 the record came out.

It was just the name of the band, "Sea Level."

When we got the first Sea Level album, we thought it must be because, "Okay, we get it, 'Sea Level,' Chuck."

See, we didn't know how you said Chuck's name.

We just knew he was on the inside cover of "Brothers and Sisters."

My family has always pronounced my name "level."

You know, my cousins are all Leavell.

My sister is Judy Leavell.

My brother is Billy Leavell.

When I began to get a little bit of notoriety and do interviews with radio stations and such, it was always, "Oh, we have Chuck Leavell here."

Chuck Leavell, you know, and I finally...

I actually preferred that pronunciation anyway.

And then, we found out it was "Leavell," and we were real happy about that, because "Chuck Level" doesn't sound as cool as "Chuck Leavell."

The best opening gig was opening for Sea Level at a place in Virginia Beach called the Rogues Gallery.

When growing up here, playing the Rogues Gallery was sort of the Valhalla, it was the ideal.

So, we played the opening act thing and had to split right out and go play our gig, this is right down the road.

Just maybe ten blocks down the road.

We're playing away, and all of a sudden, I see Chuck Leavell walk in, who was a guy I'd admired for a while.

And he comes up to me and says, "You motherf****r." So that was, I mean, what a beautiful moment for me.

From that "motherf****r" moment, we became fast friends and exchanged numbers.

And I went to visit him, my future wife at the time, Kathy Hornsby and I went on a trip down south.

And we stopped in Dry Branch, Georgia, spent the night with Chuck and Rose Lane, and just had a great time.

Sea Level T-shirt from our third record, which is called "On The Edge."

There's my old buddy, Lamar Williams.

Here's a poster from a Sea Level show.

It was a great club in Atlanta called Moonshadow Saloon.

And you know, we had good success, I mean, we were selling 250-300,000 records per.

We did, I think five records over that many years.

And by the time 1980 came, the wheels were falling off of that one as well.

And we all realized it was time to move on and do different things.

Our producer George Drakoulias... came in one day near the end of the record and said, "We have Chuck Leavell."

[Laughs] Yeah.

I was like, "What do you mean?"

He's like, "No, we...

He's coming up to play on the session."

You know, and I was just like, "You have to be kidding."

You know, I mean, even back then, it was like having a royal presence in the studio.

Chuck: The energy was unmistakable.

It was like, "Wow, man, these -- These Cats are, they're there, you know, they're doing this from the heart.

They want you on at least one, maybe two songs."

I said, "Oh, okay."

So this was right before I'm leaving for a Stones rehearsal, I think the next day.

Chris: It took everything we were doing that, you know, that we felt was strong and the best, and it elevated it to another... uh, to another thing.

And they said, "Oh, man.

It was great.

You know, can you put organ on it?"

"Sure, sure.

I'll put some organ on it."

"You know what?

We got another tune here.

It might sound good if you do that."

"Okay."

So do that... "And you put some organ on that too."

"Okay, I'll do it."

So this goes on, and the next thing I know, I'm on just about the whole record.

I think I'm on seven or eight songs.

Chris: I do also remember that it was a Saturday or Sunday, and the regular office staff of the studio at the time, no one was manning the desks in fact.

My father when he was on ABC-Paramount Records, he was a folk singer, and... his guitar, for all those years, was a 1953 Martin D-28.

And I just always remember we were so excited, we were in the control room, we were listening.

And I just happened to open the door to go in the hallway and this guy is, like, walking out of the front with that guitar and another guitar case, they were stealing them.

And Chuck is there the whole time, you know?

But -- But we instantly, like, you know, fight or flight, we jumped and chased the guy, he drops the guitars right outside the door where he's...

But that happened that day too, the only... Like, one of the only times anyone tried to steal from us was the day Chuck came to the studio.

[ Chuckling ] My mom and dad were there, and they were like, "What a glamorous life."

Somewhere around the age of 15, the desire to be on a record came into play.

Muscle Shoals, of course, was the big hot spot.

I mean, those, you know, this is where the pros were.

They were making records for Aretha Franklin, for Wilson Pickett.

You know, Rolling Stones went there, Bob Dylan.

Uh, you know, so many great artists started recording in Muscle Shoals.

Think I hear Clarence Carter in the background.

[ Chuckles ] Man, I'm telling you, this door, I used to come here, literally, when I was 15 and 16 years old.

It's such a small building, and there's just not a lot of room to hang out in there.

So, you know, there'll be a recording session going on and my friend Marlon Green engineered quite a lot here, and so Marlon would say, "Well, just come and hang out, you know, you can sit in the parking lot or walk around or whatever, and then, when we take a break, I'll see if I can get you in," you know?

And so here's where I would be, right here.

[ Laughs ] Waiting for that door to open.

And when it would, I was scared to death, but, you know, I wanted so badly to play on a record.

So, I would go inside that door, Marlon would say, "Hey, man, come on," and you know, and I'd see if I could sit at the piano or just meet somebody, or anything I could do to be heard and hopefully get a little action.

Let's see if it's open.

Oh!

[ Chuckles ] Oh, man.

At the time, this was like a spaceship.

[ Laughs ] And now it's quite antiquated, but it's still very functional, no doubt about that.

The first record I played on wasn't Muscle Shoals.

It wasn't at Muscle Shoals Sound.

It was a different studio.

And it was for a guy named Freddie North, R&B singer.

And I played organ on this song called, "Don't Take Her She's All I've Got."

And it became a hit, you know, and I was 15 at the time.

So that was cool.

Number one, "I'm on a record!"

That was fantastic.

You know, I could hold it in my hands and look at it.

And it didn't have my name on it, but I knew I was on it.

And it was played on the radio.

Fascinating, you know, fantastic.

So that just kind of set me off to say, "That's -- I need to be doing this."

And what I realized was in Muscle Shoals, number one, I'm 15 years old.

The older guys have the gigs, you know, there were some great players in Muscle Shoals.

Barry Beckett with The Swampers at the time.

Clayton Ivey, a great player.

Chuck to me is really, what I call, a really conscientious player, I mean, he's really...

He's really meticulous about what he's playing.

You know what I'm saying, a lot of people just...

I call them bangers.

That's not Chuck.

Chuck, I mean, Chuck knows what he's going to play 'fore he plays it.

Now... as I understand it, this is the original piano that Barry Beckett played so often, it's a Yamaha, but... they used to have it up against this wall with the lid facing the wall, and then, they would put blankets all over here so that you could isolate the piano.

It's been a long time since I had my hands on this.

Let's see.

[ "Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones plays ] Here's one that the Stones did right here in this room.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Childhood living ♪ ♪ Well, it's easy to do ♪ ♪ Those things that you wanted ♪ ♪ You know I bought them for you ♪ The truth is I didn't really record that much here.

I did a little bit, as a matter of fact, this was one of the records I did here.

There's a short story that goes along with this.

And the only time I had any kind of encounter with, uh, with Duane Allman was in this building.

He had come into work on this record, and he played slide, acoustic slide on "Please Be With Me," a Scott Boyer song.

And he had finished his session, and he had his guitar, and he was walking out the studio, I guess to go catch a plane, and I had just come in.

And so, it was literally passing in the hall like this, and it was like, "Hey, man, how you doing?"

And that was the extent of it.

[ Piano playing ] Bob: Chuck was selected as the "National Tree Farmer of the Year," and people just absolutely were attracted to Chuck.

Not because he was a Rolling Stone, or a rock star, but because you could tell, he was a forest landowner who really cared about his forest, his neighbor's forest, the forest throughout the state of Georgia.

And when you've got several million tree farmers that are active in the American Tree Farm System, to be selected one from all of those is quite an honor.

It's very, very competitive.

The first time Chuck was elected "Georgia Tree Farmer of the Year," he didn't make it all the way to the second round.

But, you know, he kept at it, the committee felt strongly that Chuck was a great candidate.

And so, when he and Rose were selected as the national winners, it was a culmination of several years of work by the state committee to promote Chuck as a candidate for "National Tree Farmer of the Year."

Chuck: I can't stand to see these trees that die on the stump, whether lightning strikes 'em, or they die naturally, or something happens to them.

I just can't stand to see them go to waste, you know, otherwise, they just sit there and die.

Now, hey, fair enough the woodpeckers need to get one every now and then, so I can't get every single one that dies on me, but I try to get the majority of them.

And have them sawn up in my brother-in-law Alton's mill.

We've renovated our own home using our own lumber.

We're about to build a cabin on a new piece of property that we're buying.

And so, it's going to great use, and there's a story behind it.

You know, this is our wood.

This is our lumber.

[ "Border Song" by Elton John playing ] ♪ Holy Moses, I have been removed ♪ ♪ I have seen the specter, he has been here too ♪ ♪ A distant cousin from down the line ♪ ♪ Brand of people who ain't my kind ♪ ♪ Holy Moses ♪ Rose: We built the pond.

There was a little -- a little bitty pond there, and that was something that we built out.

Yeah, riding around it, it's beautiful, innit?

The water's so clear.

♪ Holy Moses ♪ So, we pumped up out of the earth.

We pump it up, and so, it has a lot of chalk, because there's a lot of kaolin around here.

So that's why it's aqua blue like that.

[ "Right Place Wrong Time" by Dr. John plays ] ♪ But it must have been the wrong time ♪ ♪ I'd have said the right thing... ♪ And Mac, Mac Rebennack, Dr. John's real name, Mac had just recorded "In the Right Place," the LP.

And the hit was of course "Right Place Wrong Time."

And so, he needed a band, and he came to Macon, and it was suggested, "Well, you guys, you know, why don't y'all go audition for Dr.

John?"

What Dr. John does is smart.

He goes, "Yeah.

I'm gonna go be me," and put his character all over it.

And then, he can be sloppy as he wants, because he's got Chuck there to make it all solid and strong.

The first night, oh, man, Mac was all over us going, "Man, you Cats, y'all ain't got this second line thing down.

Man, y'all got a long ways to go.

I don't know if this is gonna work out or not, you know."

I guess Mac wouldn't mind me telling the story.

So, at the time, Mac was on the methadone program, and I think he was also probably copping on the streets.

Now, I didn't know this, okay?

I was totally unaware of the situation.

All I knew was that I wanted a gig.

After about the third day of rehearsal and audition, I went to his hotel room, I said, "I got to get to know this guy," we're sitting there for a while and eventually he says, "Hey, man, I'll be...

I'll be right back," and he goes to the bathroom.

Well, you know, he's gone, like, forever.

And I had no idea what he was doing, but that's what he was doing.

And I look over to a table, and I see what looks like a book, you know, a notebook kind of thing, and then, curiosity gets the best of me.

Hm, "He's not here."

So, "Oh, there it is."

I turned it over.

Well, the first page, there's my name, the name of all the Cats in the band, and there's all these Voodoo symbols by our names.

[ Laughs ] I, go, "Oh, Lord, what is this?

What have I gotten myself into?"

♪ I been in the right place ♪ ♪ But it must have been the wrong time ♪ Chuck's a boogie guy, boogie-woogie player.

He's a rock and roll player and to do that like the crazy boogie-woogie masters, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, uh, those... the guys from the '30s and '40s who did that, uh, it's a serious split-brain thing.

You set up a pad on the left hand.

[ Piano plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ I'm playing very freely rhythmically in this -- in the right hand, while this hopefully is very solid.

What I just played for you is about 6 months of work.

To try at least... of hard work trying to develop that.

[ Piano plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ There's -- There's a restart.

See?

I messed it up.

And I got it right there.

It's just doing it and doing it and doing it until you get comfortable.

You have to learn how to crawl before you can walk, before you can run.

[ "Down the Road Apiece" by The Rolling Stones plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ It's that, you know... [humming] where he's playing a bassline like an octave, you know, bassline with one hand.

And all of this blues stuff with the other hand, it requires a pretty amazing amount of independence.

♪ Come on along, you can lose your lead ♪ ♪ Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece ♪ ♪ Come on along, you can lose your lead ♪ ♪ Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece ♪ ♪ Come on along, you can lose your lead ♪ ♪ Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Chuck: Thank y'all!

["Run-Around" by Blues Traveler plays ] ♪♪♪ It was time to do "Run-Around," and our producers wanted to add some keyboard and so did we.

And when they mentioned Chuck Leavell, we were very excited.

It's like, "Wow!

That guy?

Yeah!

I've listened to him growing up all my life.

Let's get him."

And he showed up, and it was exactly as we thought, you know, he just sailed right through it.

When you say Chuck Leavell, it's like, I don't know, being in 'Nam and hearing the choppers coming.

It's -- It's a reassuring feeling.

It's -- You know that it's going to be good.

We've never done the song as well since.

♪ Yeah, humor me and tell me lies ♪ Brendan O'Brien had become this mega producer for these grunge bands out of Seattle and Portland and that area, and he had engineered The Black Crowes record and gone on to be this famous producer.

And so, he had come across the band, Train, and he calls me up and he says, "Hey, man, are you in town?"

I said, "What are you?

Where in town?"

And he said, "Are you at home?"

I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "Well, I'm in Atlanta, and I've got this band Train that I'm producing, and they have a song that the record company believes is a big hit, and there's a significant piano part on it."

And Brendan's a great musician, he said, "You know, I could do it, but I'd feel more comfortable if I had somebody that I can depend on like you."

And I said, "Sure, yeah, I'll do that."

♪ Now that she's back in the atmosphere ♪ You know, I mean, you know, really just watching Chuck in that room behind glass playing the piano and just kind of looking around like, "That was easy," you know, and he just played it one time.

You know, we probably asked him to play it a couple more just for fun.

But he's like a guy who listens to it and it takes him one time.

Well, look at what he did with "Drops of Jupiter," which is a wonderful song, a wonderful record, but without that piano... Chuck: It turned out really, really well.

It's a lovely song, "Drops of Jupiter."

[ "Drops of Jupiter" by Train playing ] ♪ But tell me, did you sail across the sun?

♪ A player like Chuck can make or break a recording.

He could be the most important person in the room, but he makes everybody feel like they belong there with him.

Chuck's that kind of guy.

Rose: I think it shows in the kind of person that he is in the first 5 minutes you meet him.

I knew about his playing before I met him, and then, in all these decades since he's just shown himself to be an exemplary human being as well as a musician.

It doesn't surprise me that he would take the time to really nurture his relationships.

And thank goodness, as he says, he got lucky and picked the right person, and she picked the right guy, but it takes a lot of work in this business.

[ Guitar playing ] Billy: We did a little movie that nobody ever saw called "Jayne Mansfield's Car" down in Georgia.

And Chuck couldn't believe it, he kept thanking me.

"Oh, I can't believe you put me in a scene with Robert Duvall."

He had a couple of lines with Duvall, you know, in a barber shop.

Goddamn Tate Scott.

The whole damn bunch is Yankees, got nothing running through their veins but Cincinnati blood from Ohi-- They're from Ohio.

You ought to have to be from here to run for office, the way I see it.

[ Telephone ringing ] Well, they've been here some 40-odd years though, Jim.

I don't give a s**t!

Billy: He doesn't freeze up.

But he doesn't show off.

You know, he's a rare animal.

I-I think he's a...

He maybe -- If there's a rock and roll unicorn, it's probably Chuck.

[ Chuckles ] Chuck: '81, Rose Lane inherits... this thousand acres from her grandmother.

The phone's not really ringing for session work.

I'm a little despondent about that.

But at the same time, I'm interested in this land thing, you know, and I'm started on this journey learning about it and was really fascinated with it.

And I come home one day, kind of venting to Rose Lane saying, "You know, I'm always going to play music, but phones not really ringing that much, um, this trio I'm with is okay, but it's not really going anywhere."

Capricorn had pretty much folded by that time, so that went out the back door.

And Bill Graham's office called, and there's this guy, Mick Nubble, and he said, "Was Chuck there?"

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

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

So Chuck comes in, he's, you know, kind of downtrodden a little bit, because he's not... life isn't going the way he wanted it to.

He said, "I'm just going to not do my piano.

I'm just going to have a farm.

We're going to live out here on the farm.

Everything is going to be great."

And I'm like going, "Not... No, we're not really, it's not going to be like that."

At the end of all this, she looks at me and she says, "Well, that's really interesting, Chuck, but guess what?

The Rolling Stones called you today."

And he told me that wasn't funny, that was a joke I was playing on him just because he was depressed.

And I said, "No, there's the phone number, um, you might want to call Bill Graham's office and see."

So, the next morning, he was on a plane.

Chuck: And The Allmans were like his favorite band, you know.

And then, he came back home, and he... he was sat down in the chair, and he just started crying, you know, he really, he said, "I didn't get the job."

Stu calls me and he says, "Chuck, the guys love you, you know, you did great, but they're going to stay with Ian McLagan."

McLagan had done the previous tour.

Rose: And the summer of '82 tour, they hired Chuck to play.

That was a life-changer, yeah, it really was.

And I love Bill, you know, back in the day with The Allman Brothers Band, we had so many good times.

He was very helpful to me with Sea Level.

We did a lot of concerts for Bill.

And he was just this incredible personality -- charismatic, loved music, and a great businessman.

You know, he kind of forged the way for the music business, especially live music business.

[ Indistinct conversations ] All right, guys, I come bearing gifts.

Here.

Man #1: Thank you.

Man #2: Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, man.

[Chuckles] Thank you very, very much.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

You get a picture?

Sure.

Come on.

Thanks a lot.

See you guys.

Tomorrow, right?

Man: Yeah!

[ Upbeat music plays ] Let's go to, uh, let's try Trocadéro.

The first time I came to Paris was in 1982 with the Stones.

And we played the Stade De France, and Rose Lane couldn't be with me, because she was giving birth.

[ Both laugh ] It's hard to be here when you're giving birth somewhere else.

[ Indistinct conversations ] No, but it was '82, and then, came back in '83 to record the "Undercover" record.

And we're here for, gosh, 2 and a half, 3 months or something.

And then, again in '85, recording the "Dirty Work" record.

And then, I think there was a gap until we toured again in 1990 with the Steel Wheels Tour, and we came here.

It's not like he wasn't already in bands bigger than at that time.

It was just a lifetime statement.

The Rolling Stones were actually created by a keyboard player, by a piano player called Ian Stewart.

And he's the one that put us together.

To join this band, I mean, I had to, in 1960... you have to pass Stu's recommendation, and if Stu didn't like you, you wouldn't be in the band.

Well, Stu used to be a man of his own.

He was cut from his own cloth, and he very...

He wouldn't really accept any outsiders in.

You know, because he was the man who played piano his way.

He did respect Chuck.

Yeah.

The main thing about Chuck and the Stones and how this has all happened is that Chuck's history of where he came from, where he started, who he played with is quite amazing.

It's like the sudden royalty of musicianship.

Chuck Leavell sort of melted into the band.

It wasn't so much a sort of joining or, you know, that obvious like, click, click, click.

Uh, suddenly there was Chuck.

[ Laughs ] Guys like Keith Richards, um, and the Rolling Stones, all of them as a band, show other artists what it's like to transcend your surroundings at all times.

And float through the universe, being on some other level, uh, which is really what you aspire to as a musician is some sort of... you want to get to the "Medicine Man" level.

And Keith Richards is like full-on "Medicine Man" level.

Keith Richards could smoke in a hospital, that's what I say.

And someone would say, "Oh, sorry, Mr. Richards, continue."

And Chuck is around that... knows that he has a place in that.

I don't know if I've ever heard anybody in a room, you know, with me, play the kind of boogie-woogie piano that he plays, man, he's amazing at that.

He's doing stuff with the bassline with one hand that, you know, I don't know if I can do with two.

[ Piano playing ] I think the whole thing with the Allman Brothers, they were about jamming in their -- in their playing, in their music.

They didn't write things down, and The Stones are exactly the same.

So, um, I think, this also was good for Chuck, because Chuck was used to that.

Mick: I mean, The Stones is a band that, okay, we do obviously play a lot of the same songs.

In rehearsal, and I said, "Guys, you know, last time I was with you on tour, same set every night, you got this incredible body of work.

You got new songs.

We got to dig, let's dig deep."

And I began, at that time, taking copious amounts of notes.

I had a notebook, and they're simple songs, basically, but I wanted to chart them out.

So, I made chord charts for them just to, you know, have in my mind where the bridge was, where the solos were, was there horns, was there background vocals, whatever.

Mick: Which I kind of go, "Where's the book?

Where's the book?

Chuck, you must have this one."

I remember doing this.

And then, he says, "That was 8 years ago."

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

Come on.

We'll have to start from scratch."

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

And he keeps amazing notes about what key we did each song in, in what city, what nights, it's like a -- It's like his Bible, you know.

He's like the gatekeeper.

I mean, I know that sounds like... nothing much maybe, but to me, it's really important, because I, otherwise, every time you do a song, you start from scratch about how you did it.

Chuck: Eventually, they'd given me the moniker of musical director.

I kind of scoff at that, because Mick and Keith are the musical directors, but, you know, they look to me from time to time to remind them what the arrangements might be.

Lisa: Chuck is maneuvering through all of that... giving them structure without them feeling tethered.

And that's a gift.

As musicians, we have the ability, in a way, to become family with people right away.

And Chuck has that also, you know, sort of very warm and welcoming feeling about him as a person.

I think, if you go through Chuck Leavell's discography, look at all the records that he's played on.

It would be difficult to match that accomplishment, to find any musician who... contributed more than Chuck Leavell.

Ronnie: He's indispensable, you know, he's an indispensable part of our setup.

What's always impressed me about Chuck is that he has this whole other life outside -- outside music with his -- with his forestry and his environmental issues, and... you know, it's extremely impressive that somebody who has come so far in this very specific world of music... has another... has another life and is contributing something to... to society and ecology and the environment and giving talks at the -- at the White House.

Mick: I think the trees is really a good thing he does.

He's obviously very sincere about it.

He goes all over the world and, you know, it's not just about the trees in Georgia.

I think it's a really, really good thing.

I try not to rib him, maybe I've ribbed him once, okay.

I'll give...[chuckles].

But I think it's really good work, and it's nice to have something outside of music as well.

Matt: Every plane trip we go on... people are asleep or having beers, and Chuck's there typing away.

Um, he's, you know, he's a good -- he's a good multitasker.

He's a great e-mailer.

And a great, um... campaigner for the forests... which can't be bad.

Bernard: He's not just good for, you know, for playing piano, Chuck is good for the environment.

You know, he's trying to -- he's trying to help save our planet.

No, I'm not bored by that at all.

We need more like him.

Lisa: It's about his heart.

It really comes through his fingers.

It really does.

And to make that connection is a -- is a blessed thing.

♪♪♪ Karl: They're just super cute, man.

They -- They are -- They're -- They're total -- They're just a total team.

They're so cool that you don't think of the time that they've been together.

They really seem like they, you know, they could -- they could easily have been together for 3 months, you know, they're just very steady and, um, really fun to hang out with.

Chuck: Trocadéro, honey.

How many times have we been here, like, 15 or 20 or something?

Many, many, many.

Absolutely.

Fantast-- We got to get a selfie, right?

Yeah.

Hold on.

All right, we got it.

♪♪♪ You want this one?

How much is it?

[ Laughs ] I don't know.

I don't know how much money I have.

Yeah.

Let's look at that.

See, it's multicolored.

Okay.

[ Both laughing ] Look at it change colors.

Clerk: Yeah, it change color.

All right.

No, no, we'll ta-- we'll take this.

It's a bonus.

I'm broke now, you know this.

[ Both chuckle ] Come on.

[ Soulful piano music plays ] ♪♪♪ Chuck: One of the very interesting things about Paris is that, while it's known as the City of Lights, uh, it's actually also the city of trees.

There's over 470,000 trees in Paris.

And they are all documented.

This looks like a piano stool.

[ Chuck laughing ] [ Crowd cheering ] And so, now...

I am le Capitan.

Toy: Toy Caldwell.

We're going to do a song for you.

[ "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna take a freight train ♪ ♪ Down at the station, Lord ♪ ♪ Don't care where it goes ♪ ♪ Gonna climb a mountain, the highest mountain, Lord ♪ ♪ Jump off, nobody gonna know ♪ ♪ Can't you see ♪ ♪ Can't you see ♪ ♪ What that woman ♪ ♪ Whoa, she been doin' to me ♪ ♪ Can't you see ♪ It's beautiful, isn't it?

Wow.

We had the lovely, little boat, and went up and down the Seine, and turned around, then come back, up and down.

It was a beautiful day.

[ Piano solo ] ♪♪♪ Toy: Chuck Leavell on the piano there!

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ We have a great show tonight, guys, give it up for The Roots!

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪ There's a big fat cat in a funny red hat ♪ ♪ Here he comes ♪ ♪ He got something in his bag ♪ ♪ Yeah, for everyone ♪ ♪ Well, up on the rooftop, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ And then, slide on down the chimney ♪ ♪ Hey, Santa, what's in your bag for me?

♪ [ Cheers and applause ] My man, that is Rolling Stones' keyboardist and music director Chuck Leavell, sitting in with The Roots tonight.

Chuck, we love you, buddy.

Welcome back.

Always good to see you, buddy.

Chuck is also the co-founder of the leading environmental website, Mother Nature Network.

Chuck: I believe in this stuff.

I believe in climate change.

I believe we've got to make these changes in our attitudes towards the environment.

And our staff and my partner, Joel, whom I love so much, um... Everyone at MNN just does a wonderful job, because they believe in it too.

You know, it's in their DNA.

It's in their blood.

They want to see these changes come about.

They want to offer the general public options to live better, to be kinder to the planet.

And I'm just as proud as I can be of all of our staff.

We at Mother Nature Network always went much broader than energy and recycling.

We always had travel and food and family.

You know, the site rapidly became and still is by far the most visited site in the world for profit in the environmental category.

We get people from 200 different countries, close to 7 million a month.

You know, they -- they just love what they do, and they believe in making a change and that works for me.

Joel: He is as knowledgeable on the topic as anybody, I mean, he can discuss the chemistry and, uh... and geology and all of the very academic aspects of the topic with experts, and in an expert way.

When you think about it.

Okay, trees and forests.

Well, they give us materials for books, magazines, newspapers, packaging products.

They give us materials to build our homes.

They provide clean air, clean water.

They provide home and shelter to all manner of wildlife.

And, you know, I love the saying... that Ralph Waldo Emerson has... His quote was -- "In the woods, we return to reason and faith."

Man: What does that mean to you?

Oh, man, it's so true, you know, um... it helps keep me balanced.

You know, when you live in the world, it can get pretty crazy from time to time.

And you take that walk in the woods and see some deer dancing through there, you know, see a wild turkey, a covey of quail, songbirds, uh, black bear.

We have black bear here.

And just, you know, hear the sound of the wind in the pines, that's a good thing.

[ Fire crackling ] Prescribed burning can be one of the best tools used in certain forests.

You have to know what you're doing.

You have to do it right.

You have to do it at the right time.

You have to understand all the dynamics involved.

But it can be such a positive outcome.

Uh, what does it do?

You're reducing competition against those mature trees so that the sunlight, the water goes more to the trees that you want on that landscape, rather than scrubby Oaks and undesirable growth that is in the understory of the forest.

It also helps reduce the incident of wildfire.

You're getting rid of the fuel that might build up over years.

And then, when that wildfire hits, boom, you lose everything.

[ Crackling continues ] Ashley: One early memory on the farm I have of my dad, he loves his burns, and he just loves burning, and he said he definitely set a couple things on fire in a bad way learning how to do that.

But I remember he would set his burns, and we would go out and ride at dusk and check out, you know, how everything was looking.

Just the beauty of seeing those little fires, they're low, you know, less than a foot.

And then, growing into becoming really an expert, winning "Tree Farmer of the Year," you know, nationally.

And starting to speak about conservation and becoming extremely knowledgeable to the point that he can, you know, school other people on that, has been interesting to watch over the last 35 years.

[ Fire crackling ] Chuck: You know, we're seeing what's happened out in California and the West with all of these fires, and if they had the opportunity to do an occasional, prescribed burn, I don't think you'd be seeing nearly the devastation that you are seeing these days.

The most important thing you're going to do when you're going to initiate a prescribed burn, is to cut a fire break all the way around the area that you want to burn.

So, you know, in Charlane Plantation, I have what's called an Offset Harrow.

Uh, it's basically kind of a plow.

And you go around the area with this to make the dirt pop up and to get rid of any grasses or, you know, items, sticks, whatever that might cause a fire to get out.

And you make a nice, wide firebreak.

Um, and that's the first thing you do to keep the fire where you want it to be and not let it jump out.

When you make a little country album, when you have Frank Liddell, and he calls Chuck Leavell, and you get a taste of that absolute rock and roll royalty on your record.

It's -- It's a treat.

And definitely also for Pistol Annies.

I mean, he's played on almost every one of my records and Annies' records, and... you know, it's funny that all -- a lot of the music that we listen to on a day-to-day basis that we love, that inspires us so much, he was on that, and now he's on our own records.

I have this fantastic picture of us in '89, Steel Wheels tour, we played Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

I sent a car down for Mom and her friend.

I took her to the concert, and I have this fabulous picture just before we walked on stage with Mom and her friend and the whole band.

And, you know, mom's sitting on her purse looking up at me.

[ Laughing ] It was fantastic.

[ Cheers and applause ] Hello, everyone, how fantastic that you are inducting Chuck into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Sorry he couldn't be with you tonight.

And it's our fault, really.

We want to say that Chuck is just the most amazing keyboard player, and he's really worthy of this great honor you've given him.

Yes, and diamond tiaras.

And Chuck will know what I mean.

Greetings from South America, he's here with us now.

Sends his love.

Congratulations, Chuck!

[ "Footlose" by Kenny Loggins plays ] ♪ Kick off your Sunday shoes ♪ Yeah.

♪ Please, Louise ♪ ♪ Pull me off of my knees ♪ [ Gentle piano music plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Here you go, darling.

Thank you.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Life is good.

Life is good.

Aren't we blessed?

Yes, very blessed.

All right.

[ Piano plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ It's nice to have this quiet time before we go.

True, with the birds chirping.

Mm.

And the dogs.

And the puppies.

[ Chuckles ] Well, I can tell you this, that at the present time, uh, I'm seeing the third severe drought... on Charlane Plantation.

You know, there's really nothing you can do to, um, prevent this.

This is nature at work.

You know, these bugs have always been here throughout the eons of time.

They're usually kept in check by cold and wet weather, but with climate change as it is, you're seeing more and more, uh, hot weather, we set records every year now here in Georgia.

This year, we set a record of the most days above 90 degrees, and when you're getting that much heat throughout the summer time and throughout even the fall, it just creates a situation where these bugs can thrive.

And if you hit that drought like we've had here, this is what happens.

I mean, there's no way to come in here and spray anything.

There's nothing to spray, no chemical you would want to use to spray this anyway.

So, there's basically three insects that you worry about here in the South.

There's the Ips beetle, I-P-S, Ips.

There's black gum turpentine beetle.

And then, the worst guy is the southern pine beetle, the speed of these bugs kind of depends on the exact, uh, bug we're talking about.

A southern pine beetle... in the proper conditions, you know, they can eat up probably an acre a day or better, um, the Ips and the black gum turpentine are going to be a little slower.

And you can tell that by these little, small things that look like popcorn, these little white specks on the tree, which is crumbling now, but it was full of sap at one time.

And so, what are we going to do?

[ Chuckles ] Well... you try to make lemonade out of lemons is what you try to do.

First of all, you need to arrest this, you want it to stop.

I've walked around this a good bit, and we had a lot of wind during that period of time as well.

And what happens is, these bugs literally get blown from one area to another.

My best guess is that I've got about 12 acres here that's going to have to be wiped out.

If there's good news about it, the lemonade is that a lot of these trees are perfect size to make fence posts.

And that's a pretty desirable product.

So, I've already talked to my forester and my logger, and we're going to take all of this and get as many fis-- fence posts out of it as we can.

The rest of it might go a little bit for pulpwood.

And some of it just has to be chipped up for energy.

This is real.

It's happening.

We need to do something about it.

You see what's happening at the Amazon basin with the forest fires there in recent times.

There have been thousands of fires.

That is the lungs of the planet.

We lose that, you know, it's like contracting cancer.

[ "Out of Tears" by The Rolling Stones plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I can't feel ♪ Rose: He's just, you know, a great guy.

♪ Feel a thing ♪ ♪ I can't shout ♪ ♪ I can't scream ♪ ♪ Breathe it out ♪ ♪ Breathe it in ♪ ♪ All this love ♪ ♪ From within ♪ For me, it's really a love story.

♪ I won't cry when you say good-bye ♪ ♪ I'm out of tears ♪ And, uh, excuse me.

[ Clears throat ] ♪ I won't die when you wave good-bye ♪ Yeah, uh, 40 -- 46 years, now we've been together, and, uh, whoo, that girl's been mighty good to me.

[ Chuckles ] We have a very special thing.

Farming and just all that just brought him to be who he is, really the Chuck Leavell, not the musician, just the Chuck Leavell the man.

♪ I can't hear ♪ Eric: It's amazing to me... that he can live that kind of life and be in that kind of place.

And then, go play for the Rolling Stones and play for a million people, you know, in South America.

I mean, it's nuts.

Mom and Dad both were great at old sayings, you know, Mom would say, "Stitch in time saves nine."

Dad would say, "Well, you make your own luck."

You know, that one always stuck with me.

You make your own luck.

What does that mean?

It means learning how to be in the right place at the right time.

The story of my career has been very fortunate to one thing leads to another.

And so, in 1989, we're on tour with The Stones, Steel Wheels... the band decides to have a special guest.

Well, they called Eric Clapton, and he did several shows with us.

Being Eric Clapton, the band said, "Well, let's do a blues song."

So we did "Little Red Rooster," Howlin' Wolf.

[ Singing ] I am the little red rooster.

You know, Mick sings it so great.

And so, we have a nice musical conversation.

You know, I'm being careful.

I don't want to step on anybody's toes.

This is Eric Clapton over here, right?

It was that playing -- playing with Chuck at that point that made me realize that... that it was the real thing.

I actually needed something credible to play with.

I get home, and on my cassette there's this unbelievable message.

"Hello.

This is Eric Clapton calling from Hong Kong... wondering if Chuck Leavell might be interested in doing some dates at the Royal Albert Hall."

Yes, I would, I would be very interested in that.

I would be extremely interested in that.

And so, you know, I answered the call, and we had long been finished with the Steel Wheels tour, and I think it was '91.

We did 24 nights at the Albert Hall.

I played 18 of those 24 nights with him.

One of the most soulful white musicians I ever came across.

Partly because, I guess, he was steeped in it from where he came from, but he was kind of like Mr. Natural and... And he was very -- He was always positive.

He was always positive and very supportive.

The tragedy is that Eric was going to take a year off after the Albert Hall shows and after doing this work.

[ Clears throat ] And he wanted to spend time with his son, Conor.

And we all know what happened, you know, it was a horrible, tragic accident where Conor falls out of the high-rise building in New York.

Well, I'll tell you something, when...

I've been sober for about 4 years when my son died, and there was a lot of talk about whether I would... That would be, um... That's what I was going to -- I was going to pick up.

You know, I was going to pick up.

So... after the obvious period of grief and trying to figure that out, he decided, "Hey.

I need to work.

I don't need to take any time off."

And so he had challenged George Harrison kind of to a tour, you know... "Hey, man, you make a record every 5 years or so, but you don't get in the trenches like we do."

You know?

"But I don't have a band, I don't have a band."

Eric says, "Well, I got a band, and you can have it, and you can have me."

So, there we go, you know, we work up this tour with George.

Last tour that he did, the tour of Japan.

Eric Clapton and band backing him up, man.

Wow.

What an opportunity.

When I was hanging out with him early on and found out that he had played with George Harrison.

That was kind of the topper for me.

Like, that was the one where I was like, "Okay, you got to tell me everything about that gig."

You know, so, we spent -- we spent a couple of nights... um, recounting George Harrison stories.

Some of us in the band tried so hard to get George to take it to the US.

And, you know, Eric was doing George a favor, obviously, and I don't think Eric was interested in continuing that.

And the next thing we did, was the "Unplugged" record.

It had been going for a while, "Unplugged," uh, on a few people who'd, um...

I'd use that format in a fairly successful way.

But to... What I'd seen up till almost that point, uh, was people just doing their recorded material in an acoustic setting.

And I thought, "Well, that's interesting and all well and good."

But then, I saw Hall & Oates do it.

And they did a Beatles song called "Don't Let Me Down."

I think it's a Lennon song.

And I twigged, I finally thought, I mean, I realize what you could do.

And I thought, "Well, okay, I can do renditions."

This has got nothing to do with me playing my own material.

I can do -- I can do other things, and "Alberta" was one of them, because it was one of my favorite songs.

And it's always been a challenge to me to take a solo performance and turn it into a band arrangement.

I think, it's the most challenging and interesting and satisfying thing about making music.

♪ Where you been so long?

♪ [ "Alberta" by Eric Clapton playing ] ♪ Alberta, Alberta ♪ ♪ Where you been so long?

♪ Chuck: And so, that was my first show... Eric: Chuck Leavell!

...as the only keyboard player with Eric.

Chuck is a very sentimental guy.

And I think he -- he likes things with emotion.

[ "Tears In Heaven" by Eric Clapton plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪ Would you know my name ♪ ♪ If I saw you in heaven?

♪ He can combine a rhythm section feel with... with delicacy.

You know, that was an incredible, um... incredible way of being almost not there, you know.

But just shift the thing on, because he swings like crazy.

You know, that's -- that's not easy.

You know, that's -- that's a gift, really.

Chuck: We had rehearsed the song "Old Love," right?

And I thought it sounded great.

But Eric said, "No."

I think maybe he felt like it was, you know, one ballad too many or he, for whatever reason, he decided he didn't want it in the set, I was disappointed.

But okay, so we go through the set, the whole show.

We play the encore, I think it was a couple of -- couple of encores.

Audience wanted more, the band's feeling great.

Everything's going, and I don't know why he turned to me, but he did and he said, "What can we do?"

I said, "Do 'Old Love,' man."

[ Applause ] And -- And that was one of the greatest moments of the night.

[ "Old Love" by Eric Clapton plays ] [ Crowd cheering ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I can feel your body ♪ ♪ When I'm lying in my bed ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪ Old love ♪ Any time you needed to know whether or not it was going well, I could look at Chuck, and I knew we were doing all right, you know.

He would feed that thing to you.

To contribute to that... and stand out, but not in a -- an aggressive way.

If you want to -- If you want to focus on Chuck, you're going to have a lot of reward.

But if he's playing with other famous musicians, then, you can certainly focus on them, and Chuck will only be adding to what they're doing.

So, it's a gift that he has that -- that he could -- he could -- he could stand out even more if he wanted to, he's a great solo artist in his own right, but he can play with almost anyone and make them better, and that's not easy.

[ Projector rolling ] [ "Tumbling Dice" by The Rolling Stones plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪ Yeah, women think I'm tasty, always tryin' to waste me ♪ ♪ Make me burn the candle right down ♪ You can look at being a keyboard player as two things.

You can look at it as accompaniment, or you can look at it as co-creation, co-composition, and he is one of those players, you know, Chick Corea's like that too, you know.

I mean, I can't think of many players outside of those two where... they're listening to what you're doing, and they're interacting in real time, and they are almost producing their part.

They're not just hammering away.

They're consciously listening to what the lyric is in your song, what you're going for, whether or not you've hit it yet.

And they kind of sit next to you on the trip to find what's there.

And... listening back to these, even jams, quote, unquote, you know, that we were writing stuff, coming up with stuff, you listen back to it, and you end up humming the Chuck Leavell parts, you know.

You give Chuck Leavell 100 solos on the same song and all 100 of them are hummable.

On the "Born and Raised" sessions that we did with Don Was... Don brought Chuck in... and those were writing sessions a lot of that time, some of it was stuff I already had.

But a lot of that was free form, like, writing in the studio.

Just to watch the process that he has, um, it's kind of an on-the-fly deal.

He'll come up with a riff, and it sound -- it's sounding great, and then, he'll start mumbling or, you know, coming up with nothing and then something, and before you know it, this guy has this great song written.

It's just a fantastic process to watch.

He's a genius.

[ "Queen of California" by John Mayer plays ] ♪♪♪ Well, "Queen of California" was on the "Born and Raised" record.

And, uh, John wanted to do a video for it.

We thought, "Well, that's a generous thing, yeah, sure, yeah, we'd love to be in your video, man."

So, he flies us out to California.

♪ Good-bye sorrow ♪ Huge, huge, uh, studio, one of the biggest indoor facilities I've ever seen.

And there's this incredible set up.

They're going to do a long shoot all the way through the song.

Starts with John in a bedroom playing his guitar.

Uh, he walks out of the bedroom into another set... into another set.

He eventually comes into a room where us musicians are stationed and, you know, plays with the musicians.

Was one of the most fascinating videos I've ever done in my life.

John: He is the rarest combination of honky-tonk, southern rollicking R&B.

He will sip wine, but play like he's drunk on Whiskey.

[ Laughs ] Thinking about coming out with like a "Gimme Shelter," or something, like, second half?

Chuck: Yeah.

I'm just leaving you in.

Yeah.

Just come out, stay out.

"Jack Daniels" is in that set, "Mixed Drinks" is in that set.

We'll do "Honky Tonk Women" or something with Joe.

Uh, and just stay all the way through the end.

We'll do "Load Out."

Okay.

You're going to do "The Load Out"?

Let's do "Load Out" 'cause I know you got a little customized version of it.

Yeah, I just kind of do it for me.

Do you want me to play on the intro with you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

Let me -- Let me try that one.

[ "The Load Out" by Jackson Browne plays ] ♪ When it comes to lovin' me ♪ ♪ Oh, you guys are the champs ♪ ♪ When that last guitar's been packed away ♪ ♪ You know that I still wanna play ♪ ♪ So just make sure you got it all set to go ♪ ♪ Before you come for my piano ♪ I messed up that very last section where it hangs on the G to C. That 1, 4, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, could you just do that part?

Yeah.

[ Rehearsing "The Load Out" ] [ Keyboard playing ] [ Singing ] Chuck: Go again.

[ Singing ] ♪♪♪ [ Humming ] Just take it from there.

Take it from there one more time.

One more time from that section, 3, 4, and... [ Playing keyboard ] [ Eric singing ] ♪♪♪ ♪ When it comes to moving me ♪ ♪ You know you guys are the champs ♪ ♪ When that last guitar's been packed away ♪ ♪ You know that I still wanna play ♪ ♪ So just make sure you got it all set to go ♪ ♪ Before you come for my piano ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Amy: My brother-in-law, he said my dad is like the Forrest Gump of classic rock.

And it is, it's like, if you look at, like, every seminal moment in classic rock history, Chuck Leavell was there.

My dad was being awarded the highest honor for the Captain Planet Foundation.

It was also Ted Turner's last public appearance, and he was performing with Julian Lennon.

Obviously, I've seen The Stones a few times over the years.

But it was such a pleasure.

I mean, he and I clicked immediately.

A great deal of respect for each other.

[ Indistinct conversations ] And, uh... but you know, it was actually fun on stage.

'Cause one thing I found, I learned about Chuck when we were on tour, is that if you're in a hotel which has a piano in the bar, if you get a few drinks inside him, he basically becomes Little Richard.

So, uh, other than mixing and editing, what have we been doing?

Living life to the fullest, I hope.

Yeah, just been lounging on the fob.

Yeah.

Doing a bit of woodwork.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll show you.

[ Indistinct conversations continue ] David: This is, um...

This is made out of a tree... out of my woods that died.

If I can find it.

[ Loud indistinct conversations ] Oh, wow.

That is beautiful.

It's a cherry -- a cherry wood bench.

[ Chuckles ] Not bad, is it?

No, that's beautiful, man.

That is really beautiful.

[ Soulful country music plays, cheers and applause ] I think there's about 7,000 trees we planted here.

When we planted them, they were about as thick as my little finger and about maybe 18 inches tall, just little twigs stabbed into the ground.

And here, 20 years later... some of them are sort of 25, 30 feet high, some trunks, you know, 14 inches, 15 inches thick.

But it's amazing to see the way trees just... take off after they've been in the ground 3 or 4 years, they suddenly feel their strength, and they really start growing.

When I was 16, 17, my folks took me to London, to, um... to try and work out what I should do as a career.

And I saw a guy for about an hour, and he, um... At the end of an hour, of me waffling and saying nothing very much, he, uh, told me that he thought that what I should go into was forestry.

And here I am years and years later planting trees.

Seems nuts, doesn't it?

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Playing keyboard ] Sometimes, you just know with someone that you're going to get on with that person.

And that he's going to share some attitudes and things and...

I mean, I already knew about his playing.

I don't like to be too, um... prescriptive on how people want -- are going to play things.

So, I want to get them to express themselves, to have their take on what they do first, particularly, in the rehearsal sort of situation, and then, see what from that is going to really work live.

[ Crowd cheering ] [ "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd plays ] ♪♪♪ [ Echoing ] ♪ Hello ♪ ♪ Is there anybody in there?

♪ ♪ Just nod if you can hear me ♪ ♪ Is there anyone at home?

♪ The who you get to sing the other part in "Comfortably Numb" is always a problem.

In the past, I've often had guests in to do one night when I can get, um, interesting people, you know, David Bowie did the part unto the Albert Hall.

♪ Get you on your feet again ♪ ♪ Relax, I need some information ♪ Turned to me and he said, "Hey, man, you want to sing on this?"

And I thought, "Sing in unison or harmony or something, sure."

He said, "Okay.

Well, you do the -- you do the counterpart."

When Chuck rehearsed "Comfortably Numb," in rehearsals, we were aware of his, like, his, um, his playing.

We were aware of his musicianship.

But then suddenly... No clue about his vocal.

When he started singing, we were like... What?

I'm sorry, what?

Right.

What?

David: It's, um... a completely different type of version to the way Roger did it originally on the record and to the way other people have done it.

And he said, uh... "Let me give you a tip, curl your lip a little bit when you sing your part," you know, meaning, snarl, snarl it out a little bit, you know, make it with attitude.

And that was good advice.

♪ Just a little pinprick ♪ ♪ They'll be no more, ah!

♪ ♪ But you may feel a little sick ♪ [ Echoing ] ♪ Can you stand up?

♪ ♪ I do believe it's working good ♪ ♪ That'll keep you going through the show ♪ ♪ Come on, it's time to go ♪ I'd say he was... he's done it about the best of anyone I've had do it.

I would want to impress on somebody that you've got... You've got the real thing there.

And... something... so special that you'd probably miss it if you met him in passing.

Bruce: You know, one of the top five guys doing that sort of thing that he's been doing, wearing all these different hats, uh, in the history of the music, which I guess you could say starts arguably in the early-mid '50s.

So, that's a long time.

That's 60 something years.

And he's, uh, like I say, in the Pantheon.

[ Playing violin ] Chuck.

Oh, Southern buddy.

You done it.

You're the best.

[ Smacks lips ] He's a great piano player and a great, you know, collaborator, and a really good friend.

So, I feel, I'm very proud to work with him.

And I don't know many other keyboard players that's done what Chuck's done, and that says a lot for Chuck to me.

[ Harmonica playing ] ♪♪♪ I'm so proud of you.

Uh, honored to have worked with you.

Um, I love you, and I will see you at the next one.

It would be lovely to play with you again, man.

Whenever we get the opportunity and, uh -- and I missed you, I've missed you, so...

I'm sending you lots of love and look forward to the next time.

Chuck is more rock and roll than trashing a hotel room will ever be because... it comes from love.

It comes from appreciation.

It comes from respect, and it also comes from when it's time to play.

It's like, "Look out.

I got this."

Um, he's a very special human being.

He really is.

[ Playing piano ] ♪♪♪ All right, Chuck, I'm giving you a run for your money.

[ Piano flourish ] Chuck Leavell, Georgia loves you, the world loves you, because you're so authentic, a genuine Southern gentleman who loves the land, loves its people, and I have been honored to know you and be in your presence, and you help me keep Georgia on my mind.

[ "Georgia on My Mind" by Ray Charles plays ] ♪ Georgia ♪ ♪ Oh, Georgia ♪ ♪ The whole day through ♪ ♪ It's just an old, sweet song ♪ Chuck: We have a great partnership, Rosie and I, you know, we look after each other very much.

So, 46 years, and we're stronger than we've ever been.

♪♪♪ ♪ Georgia ♪ ♪ Mm, Georgia ♪ ♪ It's just a song of you ♪ ♪ Comes as sweet and clear ♪ ♪ As moonlight through the pines ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Other arms reach out to me ♪ ♪ Other eyes smile tenderly ♪ ♪ Still, in peaceful dreams ♪ ♪ I see ♪ ♪ I see the road leads back to you ♪ ♪ Oh, Georgia ♪ ♪ My sweet Georgia ♪ ♪ No peace I find ♪ ♪ It's just an old, sweet song ♪ ♪ Keeps you rolling on my mind ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Yeah, other arms ♪ ♪ Reach out to me sometime ♪ ♪ Other eyes smile tenderly ♪ ♪ Still in peaceful dreams, you know I see ♪ ♪ Hey, I see the road!

♪ ♪ It leads right back to you ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey, Georgia ♪ ♪ Oh, my sweet, sweet Georgia ♪ ♪ Nooooo, no peace I find ♪ ♪ It's just an old, sweet song ♪ ♪ But it keeps Georgia ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Keeps Georgia rolling ♪ ♪ Rolling, rolling on my mind ♪ ♪ Hey!

♪ ♪ Whoo!

♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ The man's a gentleman.

The man's a real man.

You know, and I don't think I can say anything better about any guy in the world.

You get me?

[ "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones plays ] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ "Tumbling Dice" by The Rolling Stones plays ] ♪ Oooh, ooh ♪ ♪ People think I'm crazy, always tryin' to waste me ♪ ♪ Make me burn the candle right down ♪ ♪ Baby, I can't stay ♪ ♪ I don't need no jewels in my crown ♪ ♪ 'Cause all you ladies, you low-down gamblers ♪ ♪ Cheatin' like I don't know how ♪ ♪ Baby, I can't stay ♪ ♪ Because there's fever in the funk house now ♪ ♪ This low down bitchin' got my poor feet itchin' ♪ ♪ Don't you know the deuce is still wild?

♪ ♪ Baby, I can't stay, you got to roll me ♪ ♪ Call me the tumblin' di-i-i-ce ♪ ♪ Always in a hurry, I never stop to worry ♪ ♪ Don't you see the time flashin' by ♪ ♪ Honey, I got no money ♪ ♪ Hold on, I'm sixes, sevens, and nines ♪ ♪ See now, baby, I'm the lone crap shooter ♪ ♪ Playing the fields every night ♪ ♪ Baby, I can't stay ♪ ♪ You got to roll me, call me the tumblin' ♪ ♪ Roll, roll, roll me ♪ ♪ Call me the tumblin' di-i-i-ce ♪ ♪ Whoo, yeah ♪ ♪♪♪