<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We last visited Levon Helm in a two part<\/span> FTV<\/span><\/i> back in April of 2020 (<\/span>FTV<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0 Mark L. Helm – Part 1 (4-15-20) and Part 2 (4-22-20)).\u00a0 Based on his autobiography <\/span>This Wheel\u2019s on Fire – Levon Helm and the Story of the Band<\/span><\/i> (Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, updated 2013 for A Cappella Books), these two articles pretty well covered his early years from his Turkey Scratch, Arkansas beginnings to the end of his ride.\u00a0 Levon\u2019s life on the road with fellow Arkansas rock-a-billie pioneer Ronnie Hawkins and the various incarnations of his most widely known group, The Band, was a real rollercoaster ride.\u00a0 Helm made a name for himself as a musician but also forged a parallel career as an actor.\u00a0 I am pretty sure when he left Arkansas with Ronnie Hawkins, his only thoughts were the Canadian gigs that The Hawks would be playing.\u00a0 Harold Jenkins (better known as Conway Twitty when he became a hit-making rock-a-billy and country star) told Hawkins that Canada was clamoring for good bands.\u00a0 It was in this musical land of milk and honey that Hawkins collected the various pieces that would morph into The Hawks, Levon and the Hawks (after they booted Ronnie out of his own band), and eventually The Band.\u00a0 The fame that followed for The Band was built on hard work both in the studio and on tour.\u00a0 How Helm\u2019s acting career began was more like a happy accident.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of course, Helm had been in the movies before he tried his hand at acting.\u00a0 As a reluctant participant in their <\/span>The Last Waltz<\/span><\/i> concert documentary, he had certainly appeared on the silver screen (though he never received a dime of the royalties).\u00a0 This swan song event was orchestrated by Robbie Robertson and featured contributions by an A-list of famous musicians.\u00a0 It was filmed at Bill Graham\u2019s Winterland in San Francisco and released in 1978.\u00a0 Afterwards, The Band\u2019s members scattered to do their own things before reuniting some years later sans Robertson.\u00a0 <\/span>The Last Waltz <\/span><\/i>was Robertson\u2019s baby all the way and Helm never really forgave him for pulling the plug on the group.\u00a0 Levon was never shy about criticizing Robbie or his hand picked director, Martin Scorsese, who featured Robertson prominently in the documentary.\u00a0 Helm\u2019s feelings about <\/span>The Last Waltz <\/span><\/i>were summed up by two statements Hawkins made when he attended a screening with Levon before the premier.\u00a0 Half way through he whispered, \u201cWas Richard (Manuel) still in the group when we did this?\u201d and when the lights finally came up, he loudly exclaimed, \u201cHey, son, don\u2019t look so glum.\u00a0 The (expletive deleted) movie\u2019d be awright <\/span>if it only had a few more shots of Robbie.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Haw haw haw!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Levon\u2019s first true shot at an acting gig came in the Loretta Lynn biopic <\/span>The Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>An actor friend of Levon\u2019s named Brad Dourif (maybe best known for portraying a shifty character named Wormwood in the <\/span>Lord of the Rings <\/span><\/i>movies) had brought fellow actor Tommy Lee Jones to see The Band in concert years earlier.\u00a0 Tommy Lee Jones was a Harvard educated Texan who became good friends with Levon.\u00a0 When director Michael Apted was having trouble finding someone country enough to play the part of Ted Webb in the Loretta Lynn movie, Tommy Lee dropped Levon\u2019s name as a possible choice.\u00a0 Levon recalled, \u201cApted screened <\/span>The Last Waltz<\/span><\/i> and then had one of his people call me up.\u00a0 I think Conway Twitty might\u2019ve put in a word to Loretta for me.\u00a0 I figured that acting and singing were part of the same ball game and actually had the temerity to show up.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Levon went back home feeling like he had blown the audition but was pleasantly surprised when they called him back three days later and offered him the part.\u00a0 Helm began researching the Webb family and found, \u201cIn the end, it wasn\u2019t a big transition because I\u2019ve been around people like the Webbs all my life.\u00a0 Loretta\u2019s parents were a little like mine.\u00a0 I knew that families like ours made up in love for one another what they might have lacked in material things.\u00a0 That was the feeling I wanted to create.\u00a0 Add the basic formalility to people that makes life in the South a bit more pleasant, and that was the character.\u201d\u00a0 Helm also spent some days in a real coal mine (the mining scenes were filmed in a working mine) and came away with a new respect for those who toil underground.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0February of 1979 would find Helm in the back seat of a station wagon with Tommy Lee Jones behind the wheel.\u00a0 They were traveling from Nashville to the film location in Kentucky, the idea being Tommy Lee could spend the trip giving Levon some acting tips.\u00a0 Jones would be playing Loretta\u2019s husband Doolittle Lynn opposite Sissy Spacek\u2019s Lorretta while Levon would play the part of Ted Webb, her father.\u00a0 It is hard to say how many tips Helm picked up on the trip as his only companion in the back seat was a fifth of Wild Turkey.\u00a0 The jury is still out on how many acting tips he found in the bottom of that bottle, but Levon had already done some research on his own.\u00a0 He recalled, \u201cI was so scared of blowing it that I got real ambitious and researched the part until I felt I could <\/span>be<\/span><\/i> Ted Webb.\u00a0 I went up to Kentucky and met Loretta and her family.\u00a0 I talked to \u2018Moonie\u2019, Loretta\u2019s husband, about Ted, studied photographs, and spent time with his son Herman Webb, Loretta\u2019s brother, and tried to pick up on Herman\u2019s ways a little. \u00a0 My main concern was getting it so that it didn\u2019t irritate the family, that it would seem realistic to them.\u00a0 They were my most important audience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the road to Kentucky, Jones did offer Helm some useful advice during the \u2018Wild Turkey crash course in acting\u2019 drive:\u00a0 \u201cLevon, the most important thing you got to remember is, <\/span>never <\/span><\/i>look at the camera.\u00a0 It don\u2019t exist.\u00a0 <\/span>Forget <\/span><\/i>about it.\u00a0 Next, don\u2019t move too quickly.\u00a0 There\u2019s a rhythm, and you find it and plug into it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t talk too fast either.\u00a0 You have to exaggerate your emotions to get your points across, but not too much.\u00a0 Let the director coach, and then do it your own way, and you\u2019re gonna be great, man.\u00a0 By the time we pulled into the Suburban Motel in Whitesburg, Kentucky, Tommy Lee had managed to turn me into the beginnings of a movie actor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Levon\u2019s final scene in the film had him playing a deceased Ted Webb in a coffin as the mourners sang <\/span>Amazing Grace<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 He surprised the director when he sat bolt upright and said, \u201cIt\u2019s my funeral and if you\u2019re gonna sing <\/span>Amazing Grace, <\/span><\/i>it\u2019s gotta be the olde-fashioned, traditional way.\u00a0 And I taught \u2018em in my dead man\u2019s makeup how to do it shape-note style like they would\u2019ve back in the holler in those days.\u00a0 Some of the ladies they\u2019d hired as extras turned out to be church choir singers, so once we got it off the ground it didn\u2019t sound too bad.\u00a0 We rehearsed it a few times and then I got back in the coffin , and we shot the scene.\u201d\u00a0 The movie was a hit and although the talk about a possible Best Supporting Actor nomination remained just that, talk, Levon\u2019s \u2018modest acting skills\u2019 sent a few more offers his way:\u00a0 \u201cFor the next decade I took as many as seemed interesting.\u00a0 If there was a part for a country-type hick, I had a good shot at it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Among the parts Levon landed was (the CBS series) <\/span>Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The first movie I remember seeing him in was <\/span>The Right Stuff<\/span><\/i> (1983) where he portrayed General Chuck Yeager\u2019s sidekick (and the movie\u2019s narrator) Major Jack Ridley opposite Sam Shepared\u2019s Yeager.\u00a0 Levon tells readers in his book <\/span>This Wheel\u2019s on Fire, \u201c<\/span><\/i>One night at the film\u2019s desert location, I winked at Sam Shepard, who was playing General Yeager, and the two of us kind of drifted off into the shadows, where I lit a joint one of the crew had laid on me.\u00a0 Out of nowhere General Yeager himself walked over and said, \u201cWhat are you boys doing, smokin\u2019 pot?\u00a0 \u2018Well, General,\u2019 I said, eager to change the subject, \u2018I know you like to fish, but did you ever do any catfish doggin\u2019 down in Arkansas?\u2019\u00a0 Chuck Yeager just laughed at us and shook his head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The film opportunities kept rolling in:\u00a0 \u201cIf Hollywood needed a sheriff or a father figure, sometimes I got the call.\u00a0 In 1984, I played opposite Jane Fonda in an ABC movie called <\/span>The Dollmaker<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 We filmed a dope smuggler movie called <\/span>The Best Revenge<\/span><\/i> in southern Spain for a Canadian outfit;\u00a0 another project called <\/span>Smooth Talk<\/span><\/i>, with Laura Dern and Treat Williams.\u00a0 I played a southern sheriff in a chase picture, <\/span>The Man Outside, <\/span><\/i>which was shot in Arkansas and had other members of The Band in cameos.\u00a0 Things were going pretty good.\u00a0 Then in the spring of 1984 the agent called and said they wanted me to play a U.S. marshal in a western based on Willie Nelson\u2019s <\/span>Red Headed Stranger.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The script called for a couple of gun duels, so I went out back of my barn practicing quick-draw techniques with a .22 reproduction of a Colt .45 in a western-style holster.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At this point, practicing for the U.S. marshal part nearly cost Levon more than a little time.\u00a0 The gun got hung up in the holster and basically he shot himself in his hind quarter.\u00a0 The bullet lodged behind his kneecap and he recalled thinking, \u201cThat\u2019s the leg you hit the bass drum with! [then] Levon, you\u2019ve really done it this time.\u201d\u00a0 On route to the hospital, they bought a roll of gause to cover the hole in the back of his leg.\u00a0 After x-rays and a call to the state police (standard procedure in cases involving a gunshot wound), Levon described what came next as, \u201cThe start of about ten real rough-ass hours.\u00a0 The first doctor who saw me shook his head and told me the might be able to save my leg.\u201d\u00a0 After being shipped to a larger hospital in Albany, NY, the surgeon there told him, \u201cMr. Helm, I\u2019m going to try to save your leg.\u201d\u00a0 When asked if he wanted a local or to be put all the way out, Levon told them, \u201cAll the way out, because what you all don\u2019t understand is, this thing is on fire.\u00a0 It is on <\/span>fire!\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>They were able to repair his severed tibial nerve and told him to lay off playing the drums for a couple of years – if he could play at all.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The absence of his drumming outlet was filled by playing guitar in a septet called The Woodstock All-stars.\u00a0 A year later, he sat down at the drums for the first time and realized he could play the lick from <\/span>King Harvest<\/span><\/i> without too much pain.\u00a0 By the summer of 1985, they were touring with Crosby, Stills, and Nash.\u00a0 The Band, sans Robbie Robertson, were back on the road in February of 1986 when their manager Albert Grossman had a heart attack and died on a flight to London.\u00a0 Richard Manual took it especially hard as Grossman had been taking care of \u2018The Beak\u2019s\u2019 affairs.\u00a0 Manual had\u00a0 previous problems with alcohol and Albert\u2019s death accelerated his drinking.\u00a0 When Rick Danko and his wife tried to get him to slow down, he bristled at them to mind their own business.\u00a0 After playing a show in Winter Park, Florida in early March, Richard thanked Garth Hudson profusely for their twenty-five year collaboration.\u00a0 He said good night to his wife, Arlie, and then sat up until 2:30 a.m. chatting with Levon.\u00a0 Manuel was neither angry or depressed, but he told his drummer, \u201cNothing hurts like self-doubt.\u00a0 When you put that whammy on yourself, it can be real bothersome.\u00a0 And playing these little joints after playing in Japan, you just feel you\u2019re slipping.\u201d\u00a0 Levon told him, \u201cWe\u2019re just musicians.\u00a0 We\u2019re just working for the crowd.\u00a0 It\u2019s the best we can do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Apparently, Richard Manuel didn\u2019t see it the same way as Levon.\u00a0 When his wife awoke in the morning, she found her husband dead in the bathroom.\u00a0 Levon figures he had just been worn down by the decline in The Band\u2019s fortunes:\u00a0 \u201cRichard had flirted, maybe halfheartedly, with the Reaper a few times before, and every time God threw him back to us.\u00a0 This time He decided to keep Richard Manuel for Himself.\u00a0 Wherever he is now, you can bet that Richard\u2019s got a hell of a good band.\u201d\u00a0 After the funeral in Canada, Blondie Chapman joined The Band to help them finish their commitments, something Helm said, \u201cWas an insane thing to do, but Blondie helped us carry on until we could carry on no longer.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After Manuel\u2019s passing, Levon said, \u201cI did a few more film roles and was lucky to get enough voice-over and commercial work as an actor to keep to keep the cash flow interesting.\u201d\u00a0 If the IMDb data source is correct, Helm is credited with at least sixteen films (not including concert films) in the years after his friend\u2019s death.\u00a0 His last role on the silver screen was his portrayal of Confederate General John Bell Hood in <\/span>The Electric Mist <\/span><\/i>(2009) alongside his old friend Tommy Lee Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though he lost the use of his voice due to throat cancer in 1998, Levon continued performing playing the drums, mandolin, and harmonica, often with his daughter Amy Helm.\u00a0 As his voice slowly returned, he decided to host a series of live performances at his own Levon Helm Studio in Woodstock, New York.\u00a0 These legendary Midnight Ramble Sessions (named after the traveling minstrel shows he attended as a youth back in Arkansas) began in January 2004.\u00a0 The list of performers who flocked to Woodstock to play at \u2018the Barn\u2019 is a veritable whose-who of the music industry.\u00a0 There are multiple examples of these outstanding performances available including a live CD\/DVD set called <\/span>Ramble at the Ryman<\/span><\/i> (2008) recorded when Levon took to the road to bring the show to the fabled auditorium in Nashville.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shortly after the <\/span>Ryman<\/span><\/i> set garnered Helm his third consecutive Grammy Award as the Best Album in the Americana category, his cancer returned.\u00a0 He passed away on April 19, 2012 and as one would expect, his funeral was both tearful and joyful.\u00a0 How could it not be a musical celebration of his life filled with accolades from his musical peers?\u00a0 Levon Helm may be gone, but he won\u2019t soon be forgotten.\u00a0 He never marveled how a country bumpkin like himself could become a recognized star in the field of music because it was in his blood from an early age.\u00a0 Earning acclaim as an actor, however, was one of those great mysteries he never quite understood, but he enjoyed his other career as an actor just the same.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Levon and friends doing the Ramble at the Ryman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We last visited Levon Helm in a two part FTV back in April of 2020 (FTV:\u00a0 Mark L. Helm – Part 1 (4-15-20) and Part 2 (4-22-20)).\u00a0 Based on his autobiography This Wheel\u2019s on Fire – Levon Helm and the Story of the Band (Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, updated 2013 for A Cappella […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2536"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536\/revisions\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}