Rick Nelson performed his last show in Alabama before his tragic 1985 death: New film tells the story

A new film premiering this weekend documents how the final chapter of a music legend played out in Alabama almost 40 years ago.

“Rick Nelson: Guntersville” tells the story of the final gig for the singer of “Garden Party,” which happened on Dec. 30, 1985.

Director Kenny Scott Guffey, 37, wasn’t even alive then.

Guffey, a native of Kentucky, discovered Rick Nelson in the pages of a magazine. He conceived the idea of a documentary after visiting Guntersville following a family vacation.

“It was the last place that he really ever touched earth,” he said.

“The hotel where he stayed is still there, the building where he played is still there. I noticed the stage was still there. How much longer was it always going to be there? The Guntersville portion of Rick’s story needed to be told.”

Rick Nelson’s career in television, movies and music is an odd tale – his popularity at the dawn of rock and roll burned white hot, but did not last.

The second son of band leader Ozzie Nelson, Rick and his family starred in the 50s sitcom “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” an extension of his parents’ radio program.

“It was a very meta series, before we used that word,” Guffey said.

“It was reality TV before reality TV. They played fictional versions of themselves.”

As Rick grew older, he began performing music on the show.

When he covered the Fats Domino hit “I’m Walking” in April 1957, the record reportedly sold a million copies within a week.

But timing began to bedevil his career. While successful, he was eventually eclipsed by Elvis Presley.

Nelson continued to produce albums, and appeared in films such as “Rio Bravo.” But the Beatles and the groups of the British Invasion, as well as lack of promotion for his albums, seemingly held him just outside the spotlight.

In 1972, he scored a top 10 hit with “Garden Party,” a song he wrote about being booed at Madison Square Garden.

He continued to perform, making television and film appearances. When he came to Guntersville, he drew packed houses from devoted fans.

His presence in northeast Alabama came at the invitation of Pat Upton, a former band member who owned P.J.’s Alley on Gunter Avenue.

Nelson agreed to two shows with his Stone Canyon Band for the receipts at the door. The stopover proved to be such a success that he agreed to one more show on Monday, Dec. 30.

It ended just after midnight, with Nelson performing “Rave On,” a tune originally recorded by Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash after a performance in 1959.

On Dec. 31, Nelson and his band boarded his 43-year-old DC-3, parked at Guntersville Airport, for a ride to Texas for a New Year’s Eve party gig at the Park Suite Hotel in Dallas.

The bulky, 14-seat plane was a temperamental craft.

One band member had already resolved to quit once it landed because he was scared to fly in it any longer.

Earlier that year, Jerry Lee Lewis, the plane’s former owner, refused to step aboard.

About 150 miles east of Dallas, at around 5:15 p.m., the pilot radioed Dallas-Fort Worth flight controllers that the cockpit was filling with smoke from a fire in the rear of the plane.

He was unable to find a landing strip and set the DC-3 down in a field at DeKalb, Texas.

Nelson, his fiancée Helen Blair, four band members and a sound man were killed, while the pilot and co-pilot survived. A faulty gas heater in the rear of the plane was identified as the cause of the fire.

Guffey’s stopover in Guntersville, with a view of the lake from Nelson’s hotel room, inspired him to shoot a rough video documentary.

But after securing interviews with many of the people who attended Nelson’s final show, and those who interacted with him, he expanded his idea into a feature.

“During production, I stayed in Rick’s hotel room,” he said.

“That’s as close to him as you can possibly get. That’s the room he spent his last night on earth in.”

A premiere for “Rick Nelson: Guntersville” will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. at Pizza Ed, the restaurant that was formerly P.J.’s.

Admission is free. The documentary will later stream on Amazon and other platforms.

“We wanted Guntersville, fans of Rick and people who didn’t know him, to see the film,” he said. “I think the film about his last performances being premiered on the stage where he last performed is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”