Carter’s musical bonds fuel doc
America has Georgia on its mind politically in a way that it hasn’t since Jimmy Carter was president in the 1970s. So perhaps it’s fitting that Carter, 96, is also returning to the spotlight with the television debut of a director Mary Wharton’s documentary, “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” on CNN on Jan. 3.
The documentary, which won best picture at the Los Angeles Film Awards in August and streamed in Marin as part of Rafael@Home in September, recounts some of Carter’s biography and a bit of his political ups and downs in the White House, but its main focus is on his deep and abiding love of music and the role it played in his life and his presidency.
“Music was part of his life straight the way through and defined who he was,” says producer Chris Farrell, who hit upon the movie idea while researching a possible Allman Brothers documentary. That legendary Southern rock band performed benefit concerts that buoyed the finances of his presidential candidacy, but Farrell soon learned about Carter’s relationship with other icons like Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson ( both of whom were interviewed for the film).
“Garth Brooks puts it really well in the film when he says that it makes sense that President Carter loves music because music is the voice of the heart, the voice of the soul and Carter was very much in touch with his heart,” Wharton says, adding that music and the arts “are what brings us together as people.”
Still, Farrell and Wharton had to persuade Carter and Phil Wise, who is “the gatekeeper,” Wharton says, adding that “His nickname was Dr. No. He told us he’d get a proposal at least once a week and said no to all of them.”
Several things worked in the duo’s favor. One was Wharton’s track record: she has won Grammys for documentaries on Sam Cooke and Bruce Springsteen and has also worked on TV documentaries on artists including Joan Baez, George Clinton, Elton John, David Bowie and U2.
Additionally, they made clear, Farrell says, “that it’s a joyful documentary about music but that there are messages, too.”
Equally important, both are from Florida and Farrell says Wise latched onto the idea that their Southern sensibility would enable them to translate Carter’s story. Still, Wharton says, “Wise said he probably would have said no to us, but the president wanted to do it.”
Q: Mary, your father Bill “the Sauce Boss” is a slide guitarist in Florida — he even helped score the film. How much did he influence your musical tastes and your career?
Wharton: He had such a huge impact; he has a record collection that takes up an entire wall of his home. As a kid, I was listening to music all the time. I was obsessed with David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” album. I learned so much about musical history from him.
But also, my father and my grandfather are storytellers — my dad’s a songwriter, but also they were part of that grand Southern tradition of sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, telling the same stories over and over. As a kid I thought, “Not this story again,” but it was training for me to learn how to be a storyteller.
Q: Did you have certain discoveries about President Carter that you really loved?
Wharton: I didn’t expect to find a musical connection to the political parts of the story. I knew we were going to talk about the Camp David peace accords and the Iran hostage crisis. I never expected to find Rosalyn leaving Camp David to fly back to the White House for a Willie Nelson concert the president couldn’t attend.
And the story about President Carter listening to Willie Nelson’s gospel records as a way of getting through the Iran hostage crisis is something not even some people close to him knew, so that was super special to me. I guarded that story with my life ’till the movie was out.
Farrell: We had an embarrassment of riches. Two of my favorites were President Carter’s reaction to Gregg Allman getting busted for drugs, his compassion showed him as a true Christian. And people know about the jazz concerts on the White House lawn, but I loved learning about the president publicly calling out racism there. That was incredibly brave and I’d never heard that story before.
Q: What moments with the musicians surprised you?
W harton: My mind was blown when Bob Dylan wanted to quote “Simple Man,” a Lynyrd Skynyrd song. It was such an incredible moment that for a while I didn’t even know how to use it tried putting it in a couple of places but it was so out there that it didn’t fit. But when I was struggling with how to wind this whole film up, then boom, I knew it was the ending.
Q: I was surprised by how good President Carter’s poetry was, though it helped having it read by artists like Bono.
Wharton: Give credit to our writer Bill Flanagan. He said this poetry is the closest President Carter will ever get to writing a song and his idea of having songwriters read it was just genius. When we were shooting, I didn’t know if it would work or if would feel awkward in the moment but most worked.
Q: You mentioned that from the start, in 2017, you knew you wanted the film to have messaging. Was the emphasis on President Carter’s grace and human decency and bipartisanship a conscious commentary or was it just an inevitable part of telling his story?
Farrell: It’s a virtuous circle. You can’t tell his story without homing in on those themes — his compassion, hope, faith and moral courage. But these last few years certainly didn’t hurt in terms of providing a stark relief. We purposely do not mention any one individual but quite frankly it’s so glaringly obvious you don’t need to spell it out.
In the film, when he is talking to his church, he puts the challenge to them and to us as a country, about focusing on becoming a better person. If we can all do that a lot of the other stuff — the “all for me,” the greed — will go away and we can create a sustainable society. It just doesn’t feel that way right now
Wharton: We had an opportunity with him in office to make changes and it feels more and more like a missed opportunity — look at the environment and where we are now and then at President Carter putting solar panels on the White House and Reagan ripping them down.”