There are few times in life where you get to hang out with people who have made an imprint in music history. My dad and I are filming a documentary on Studio One, a recording studio that once stood in Doraville, Georgia, where numerous legendary hits were recorded and engineered by unsung hero Rodney Mills (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, .38 Special, Atlanta Rhythm Section, The Doobie Brothers, Gregg Allman and more). For part of the documentary, we made a stop in Macon, Ga., home of Capricorn Records (Marshall Tucker Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie, and more). After filming a few interviews with PR man Mark Pucci, and Bobby Golden, guitarist for Stillwater, we pushed our way through over a thousand fans cramed into The Crazy Bull music venue. While we were there, my dad leaned over and said, "That's Jimmy Hall from Wet Willie." He began to sing they lyrics to "Keep on Smilin," which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Charts in 1974. When Hall took the stage with Stillwater, you knew why he was a rock star.
You may remember the movie "Almost Famous" where a young aspiring journalist followed a band called "Stillwater" who were touring and trying to become famous. Though the movie had no direct relation to the real Stillwater, they really did become almost famous. They had a song called "Mind bender" that charted in the Billboard Top 100 when they were signed to the famed Capricorn Records. During the show Jimmy Hall and guitarist Peter Stroud, guitarist for Sheryl Crow, took the stage and performed with Stillwater.