Flailing musicians take heart at this tale: Chuck Leavell, a keyboardist of no small accomplishment, hit a rough patch at the turn of the 1980s. As he neared the age of 30, the best option in his life seemed to be … farming? Granted, he loved the tree farm near Macon, Georgia, that he’d settled on. But, as his wife Rose Lane notes in The Tree Man, a documentary on Leavell’s life, “Chuck comes in; he’s kind of downtrodden a little bit because his life isn’t going the way he wanted it to. He said, ‘I’m just gonna not do my piano. I’m just gonna have a farm; We’re gonna live out here on the farm, everything’s gonna be great.’ And I’m going, ‘No, it’s not going to be like that.’” Rose Lane knew something Leavell didn’t: She’d received a phone call earlier, arranging to have Leavell audition for the Rolling Stones.
Now Leavell has been with the band 40 years, and his penchant for organization has paid off. “I began taking copious amounts of notes,” he says in the film of his early days with the Stones. “Eventually they gave me the moniker of musical director. I kinda scoff at that because Mick and Keith are the musical directors.”
And yet, as the Stones’ Ronnie Wood himself admits on camera, “He’s indispensable — an indispensable part of our setup.”
Nevertheless, the Rolling Stones are but one chapter in the storied life’s journey that Leavell has pursued. Most listeners know his work, if not his name, via recordings by the Allman Brothers Band at their peak, namely the piano-laden instrumental, “Jessica.” But there has been so much more. That’s the point of a special event at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) on Thursday, September 29th: to explore every angle of a very multifaceted life.
Reached by phone at his tree farm, Leavell describes the unique experience in store that night. “I have a recent documentary out called The Tree Man, and we’re going to show about a 30-minute version of it, to get people warmed up to who I am, what I do, and see some of the comments that some of my fellow artists have been kind enough to make about me,” Leavell says. “After that, I’ll come onstage with a moderator, Matt Ross-Spang, and Matt will cue me with some questions. We’ll discuss some specific parts of the career and the fact that I’ve worked with the Stones for 40 years and had the pleasure of working with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and other artists. So, we’ll tell some stories along the way, and that segment will probably be an hour. The audience is welcome to ask any questions. Then we’ll wrap it up with a song. I think it’s going to make for a really fun night.”
Lest readers think he will be speaking more than playing, note that Leavell will have a piano nearby for the proceedings. “For instance,” he says, “when we talk about Eric Clapton, I’ll do a song from when I worked with him. When we talk about the Stones, I’ll do a song or two I did with them. I’ll even play some Allman Brothers and Sea Level. I’ll play at least one song for every period of my life represented, and tell some stories along the way.”
While Leavell first cut his teeth in the Muscle Shoals area as a teenager, he says Memphis has always had a special place in his heart. “I just love being in Memphis,” he says. “The history speaks for itself. The music is all over the place. During the inaugural Mempho Festival five years ago, we did a presentation called Stone’s Throw, which is some of the side men from the Rolling Stones — Bernard Fowler, Lisa Fischer, myself, and Tim Ries on sax. We did an all-Stones set at the first Mempho. I’ve had a lot of great experiences in Memphis.”
Speaking of the Mempho Music Festival (running from September 30th through October 2nd), Leavell lets it be known that he won’t be leaving Memphis right away after his GPAC appearance. “I’ll be hanging out the next couple of days because Mempho is going on,” he says. “And I’ll be making some surprise appearances on Friday and Saturday with some bands. I’ll be looking forward to that as well.”
