Director Morgan Neville interviewed the likes of Mick Jagger, Sting and Bruce Springsteen for his new documentary, asking them questions few other journalists quizzed them on before. Neville asked these rock legends about the other women in their professional lives.
20 Feet from Stardom, Neville’s new film chronicling the singers who support the biggest stars in the world, lets the iconic rockers praise their talents in a most overdue fashion.
Stardom doesn’t let the likes of Jagger and co. hog the limelight. It’s time for these talented stars to shine, and the film’s gaudy Rottentomatoes.com rating and solid earnings are helping them glow.
Neville says he wasn’t sure he had a film subject initially when he started interviewing backup singers for background research. One of his first subjects was veteran crooner Darlene Love, who flirted with fame playing Danny Glover’s wife in the Lethal Weapon series.
“After we finished the Darlene interview, we said, ‘we could always do a Darlene documentary,'” he recalls. “She’s such a great personality.”
Neville’s film team soon discovered many other great stories buried behind the scenes, like those typified by the talents of Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Cindy Mizelle and Jo Lawry. He also learned the integral role faith played in these singers’ roads to stages nationwide.
“The idea of music coming from the Church is not new,” he says. What Neville did find compelling was how being a church singer shapes a performer in subtle but profound ways.
“Church singing is a great training ground. There’s a certain mentality of being a choir member, serving a power greater than yourself [with] altruism and humility. You need that to be a backup singer,” he says.
The film also explore how different churches imprinted specific styles on the singers featured, almost like a musical school leaves a sonic legacy on its students. Consider the Church of God and Christ which helped shape such superstars as Al Green and Billy Preston.
“It’s a sense of freedom, people moving around and finding their parts in a very free flowing, natural way,” says Neville, a veteran music documentary filmmaker.
20 Feet from Stardom also explores the delicate issue of fame and talent. It’s clear the singers profiled have the latter, but it’s the former that proved so elusive.
“Success and singing is not synonymous,” he says, ticking off factors like timing, luck and, most importantly, ambition being key reasons why some singers soar to greater heights.
Being a backup singer also gives one a view of the darker side of the business, the crush of fans, the invasion of privacy, and some backup singers simply said, “no thanks.”
“It’s not for everybody,” he says.
For some of the film’s stars, they may get a second chance at fame all the same. Neville confirms talk of a tour connected to the film, a project which will find the backup singers taking center stage.
“When you come out of the film you just want to hear them sing,” he says.
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