friends. That happened with Gregg Alman too, when Gregg died I had never seen so many people who claimed that they were like close per- sonal friends with Gregg. You know, when someone shoves off this mortal coil, that immediately gives permission to everybody to say what they want to say. I did this, I did that. Rewrite his- tory, I hate revisionist history. I hate that. They make stuff up and they think it happens.
Yeah, if they tell it long enough it be- comes their reality Especially with writers.
Oh Gosh, Yes. Or anyone that dies.
As writers of nonfiction we try to get the facts, but when you write fiction you are given free reign to lie, which is one reason, as a kid, I wanted to write fiction, because I can just make every- thing up. Anything that you want to happen can happen. But I honestly could never tell a story that was not completely honest. I just could not do that, but there are those that could. I like to flip-flop too, I like to make stuff up and I like to report the facts.
I’ve got a few more questions I want several more people I got to touch on because you don't just James, God bless you, you don’t just interview bor- ing people. One of the characters and character is a good description for Jim Dickinson. Well, that was actually one of his last inter- views and the NY Times when he passed away the following year, used a blurb from that in- terview in their obituary. I was really familiar with Dickinson through Stanley Booth, in fact, Stanley and I saw Jim Dickinson and the
Hardly Can Playboys in 1990, and Cody Dick- inson was ten playing the drums and Luther was thirteen on the guitar. Luther had just cut the Replacements record and so, through Stanley I had pretty much all of Dickinson's work and I was able to track him down. Dick- inson was the real deal. It wasn’t an act, he was really funny. I guess another, the two immediate off
shoots I can think of interviewing were Steve Cropper and James Burton.
Talk about legendary guitar players. Trying to list the records that Cropper played on would be a kind to making a list of all the records that Chuck Leavell has played on. Well, yeah, and James Burton.
James Burton same way. He played with Herb Albert, Hoyt Axton Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Elvis, Waylon.
I know him best from Elvis, for sure, man. Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite Yeah. So yeah luckily they are still out there. Charlie Louvin was another interview that I’m proud of.
Doesn’t the title come from him, the book title? Yeah the title of the book comes from a Lou- vin Brothers song.
I thought so. That interview is like ten years old now and I
thought, that is what I called it then and I thought, you know, all these guys are insured beyond the grave. If they never did anything else it’s all there, even the filmmaker John Sayles, that was a buzz. Interviewing a great American independent filmmaker at a time when he was making a movie that was shot in Hank Williams home town, with Stacy Keach in the movie, Chad Lowe, Danny Glover, of course.
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