production

Crowe used a composite of the bands he knew to create Stillwater, the emerging group that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. ‘Stillwater’ was the name of a real band signed to Capricorn Records label, which required the film’s producers to obtain permission to use the name. In an interview, real Stillwater guitarist Bobby Golden said, ‘They could have probably done it without permission but they probably would have had a bunch of different lawsuits. Our lawyer got in touch with them. They wanted us to do it for free and I said, “No we’re not doing it for free.” So we got a little bit of change out of it.” 5 Seventies rocker Peter Frampton served as a technical consultant on the film. Crowe and his then-wife, musician Nancy Wilson of Heart, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film and Frampton wrote the other two. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam played lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs.

Crowe based the character of Penny Lane on the real-life Pennie Lane Trumbull and her group of female promoters who called themselves the “Flying Garter Girls Group”. 6 Various other women have been described as Crowe’s inspiration, for instance Pamela Des Barres 7 and Bebe Buell. 8 The character of William Miller’s mother, played by Frances McDormand, was based on Crowe’s own mother, who even showed up on the set to keep an eye on him while he worked. Crowe asked his mother not to bother McDormand, but the two women ended up getting along. 9

Alice in Chains’ guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell was Crowe’s first

choice for the role of Stillwater bass player Larry Fellows. Cantrell is friends with Crowe and had previously appeared in two of his films, Singles and Jerry Maguire. Cantrell was busy writing the songs for his solo album Degradation Trip and had to turn the role down. Mark Kozelek was cast instead. 10

Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use five of their songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to “Stairway to Heaven” for an intended scene.

In his 2012 memoir, My Cross to Bear, Gregg Allman confirms several aspects of the movie are directly based on Crowe’s time spent with the Allman Brothers Band. The scene in which Russell jumps from the top of the Topeka party house into a pool was based on something Duane Allman did: ‘the jumping off the roof into the pool, that was Duane —from the third floor of a place called the Travelodge in San Francisco. My brother wanted to do it again, but the cat who owned the place came out shaking his fist, yelling at him. We told that story all the time and I have no doubt that Cameron was around for it.’ He also confirms that he and Dickey Betts played a joke on Crowe by claiming contract clauses in their contract did not allow his story to be published just before he was to deliver it to Rolling Stone. 11

The airplane malfunction near Tupelo, Mississippi that occurred in the film is a thinly veiled reference to the Lynyrd Skynyrd airplane crash on October 20, 1977.