Even though it appears that everyone in the world went to see “The Lion King” over the weekend, there were plenty of film fans that were embracing the new documentary “David Crosby: Remember My Name.” Debuting in limited release, the documentary, which includes the musician reflecting on his life and career while speaking to producer Cameron Crowe, is a rare rock doc that focuses completely on the artist’s thoughts and feelings. And according to Crowe, he thinks it’s a refreshing change of pace that he wishes he could have used a few years prior.
Speaking to Variety, Crowe talked about the structure of ‘Remember My Name,’ which ditches the idea of talking heads telling stories and relies on the honest, no-holds-barred truth coming from the artist. This sort of film requires a musician to be completely open and without hesitation, and Crowe said that he had the idea to do something similar with David Bowie before the icon’s death.
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“I tried for Bowie, like about five years ago, maybe four,” revealed Cameron. “With the documentaries that we’ve done, the ethic has been to cut out the middleman and to let the artist talk to you and not have a cavalcade of talking heads. And if you get the artist at the right time, when they’re ready to talk — which, as you know well, is everything … Sometimes when they’re putting out a really uncommercial project, they’re ready to talk, to explain it to you.”
He continued, “And I thought, ‘This is a great time for Bowie. He hasn’t come out with anything new yet. Maybe for the release of this next album, he’s ready to do that thing.’ Because similarly to Crosby, when I was ever around him, he was that honest. But he said no.”
Sadly, we’ll never know what could have happened if Crowe and Bowie teamed up for a tell-all documentary. Surely, the musician had plenty of stories and insights he could have provided. And the filmmaker comes from a music journalist background and would have been the perfect person to interview Bowie.
Now that this is an impossibility, we’re lucky enough to have at least one such documentary, focusing on the always-honest David Crosby to keep our attention.
“David Crosby: Remember My Name” is in theaters now.
