When HBO aired a special screening of Jason Isbell: Run with your eyes closed at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, the intimate documentary about the singer-songwriter’s personal and creative journey in the making of his 2020 album reunions apparently unanimous. But as applause and clapping swept over the credits, one person sitting in the middle of the theater mused, “I don’t think I’ll want to see this again in ten years.”
That person was Jason Isbell.
Three days later, the film was screened again – this time in Nashville, his hometown. True to his word, the five-time Grammy winner and his wife, fellow musician Amanda Shires, showed up for the Q&A, but skipped the film itself.
“There are two different types of music documentaries,” says Isbell meeting from his home in Tennessee. “There is the kind that the artist is comfortable with, and then there is the kind that is not boring. A good documentary should be something that makes you squirm a little, because we are all fallible people.”
Director/producer Sam Jones shows the same dexterity as in his 2002 film I’m Trying To Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilcooffers Isbell a safe space to talk about the defining moments in his life: the insecurities of being raised by teenage parents in Alabama, early success with alternative country rock group Drive-By Truckers, and then this prolific six-year-old Having run off the rails due to a crushing hunger for Jack Daniels and drugs.
“When I was drunk and a buffoon, I looked like an idiot,” admits Isbell. “But me was before an idiot, and I’m celebrating, because if I wasn’t such an idiot then, I wouldn’t be such a non-idiot now.”
Those formative years leading up to rehab may offer an exciting glimpse into his psyche, but it’s his relationship with the Shires that is heartbreaking and heartbreaking.before the training heart of the documentation. Friends and collaborators for over 18 years and married for a decade, Isbell and Shires are the golden couple of the Americana music scene and seem to be the true definition of soul mates. Together and individually, they are magical on screen – he with his easygoing, confident charm; her with her brutal and stubborn intelligence. Her natural response is the stuff of movies from Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.
In addition to playing violin and singing backing vocals in Isbell’s band The 400 Unit, Shires also juggles her own career as a solo artist and makes music with star-studded supergroup The Highwomen (with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby). .
In the film, we watch—fly-on-the-wall style—isbell and Shires argue over minor stylistic issues like audio levels and dangling participles while writing and recording reunions in the studio. It’s classic workplace tension, complicated by a power imbalance and exacerbated by the fact that not only can they keep it up in the office, but it also points to parallel issues in their personal dynamics. At one point, Isbell temporarily moves out of the home she shares with her young daughter, Mercy, into the local Omni Hotel, and you wonder – as she does – whether their marriage will survive.
“It was hard to watch,” says Shires meeting. “It’s a little hard to revisit places when you feel like you’ve walked past them.”
Like most relationships, their union remains a work in progress.
“Jason is not easily open about his male feelings. He got better,” writes Shires. “And my mistake was that I dropped everything and helped him find his damn checkbook and that’s not my job. I have to take myself and my time seriously. I think we are doing the right thing by not falling into these traps now and remembering each other as people rather than the couple’s identity.”
Jones, the filmmaker, remembers their individual reactions when he showed them an early version of the documentary.
“I always like to show a film in person, but in this case it was not possible due to the pandemic,” explains the director. Amanda was working at a studio out of town and Jason was at home. So I sent them a link at the same time. Amanda was live texting me the whole time she was watching. Finally, when it was all over, Jason wrote that he liked it and it was great. And I was like, wow, they don’t have any notes! You will accept this thing exactly as it is.
Isbell says he never wanted to exercise editorial control over the film.
“The easy way would be if I was an executive producer and we would do a movie that would just be a promotion and the fans would be excited for the next album or tour,” he says matter-of-factly. actually. “The hard part is getting people to follow you when you’re actually a human trying to navigate a relationship, a family and a career.”
Still, Isbell admits there were times during filming when he needed a moment to himself.
“I left the room or disconnected my microphone and walked away from the camera. Sometimes it was too much,” he says. “But once all the footage was there and edited together, I didn’t veto or delete anything.”
Isbell had much less control over his lead role in the highly anticipated Martin Scorsese film Killer of the Flower Moon, which will have its world premiere on May 20 at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, it is an adaptation of David Gann’s best-selling non-fiction book about a 1920s killing spree in the Osage Nation of Oklahoma. Isbell plays the husband of an Osage woman. Fellow musicians Jack White and Sturgill Simpson also perform.
As confident as Isbell is on a musical stage, he wasn’t sure he’d see his image on a 22-foot movie screen.
“When I started shooting this Scorsese film, I thought, ‘How am I going to look on this giant screen?’ And then I thought, “I’m going to be myself. And I’m going to be up there, and all things that are mistakes – that’s part of me too,” he says.
Embracing imperfection is just part of the job.
“We were all arrested. All of us. The older you get, the more broken you are. That’s why people are drawn to the aesthetics of relics—guitars that look like they’re 100 years old and old cars that still have their original paint. That’s why an old car is worth more if it has all the rust. I think there’s a kind of true beauty in all those scars.”
But Isbell wonders if there will be more films in his future – documentaries or otherwise.
“I am still far from the end of the challenges of making music,” he says. “I think it’s a never-ending challenge for me. But it all depends on the story. If the story is good enough and worth telling and they need my help, I will help them tell it. Otherwise I just keep playing the guitar.”
Jason Isbell: Run with your eyes closed It currently airs on HBO and HBO Max. This is the latest episode of “Music Box,” the HBO/HBO Max series about defining moments in music, created by Bill Simmons. Jason Isbell and the upcoming 400 Unit album, weather indicatorswill be released on June 9. Their US tour kicks off April 28th in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Source: Deadline
Bernice Bonaparte is an author and entertainment journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a passion for pop culture and a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest entertainment news, Bernice has become a trusted source for information on the entertainment industry.
