A new film premiering this weekend documents how the final chapter of a music legend played out in Alabama almost 40 years ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cRick Nelson: Guntersville\u201d tells the story of the final gig for the singer of \u201cGarden Party,\u201d which happened on Dec. 30, 1985. <\/p>\n
Director Kenny Scott Guffey, 37, wasn\u2019t even alive then. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the last place that he really ever touched earth,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2019s story needed to be told.\u201d <\/p>\n Rick Nelson\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n The second son of band leader Ozzie Nelson, Rick and his family starred in the 50s sitcom \u201cThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,\u201d an extension of his parents\u2019 radio program. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very meta series, before we used that word,\u201d Guffey said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was reality TV before reality TV. They played fictional versions of themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n As Rick grew older, he began performing music on the show. <\/p>\n When he covered the Fats Domino hit \u201cI\u2019m Walking\u201d in April 1957, the record reportedly sold a million copies within a week. <\/p>\n But timing began to bedevil his career. While successful, he was eventually eclipsed by Elvis Presley. <\/p>\n Nelson continued to produce albums, and appeared in films such as \u201cRio Bravo.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n In 1972, he scored a top 10 hit with \u201cGarden Party,\u201d a song he wrote about being booed at Madison Square Garden. <\/p>\n He continued to perform, making television and film appearances. When he came to Guntersville, he drew packed houses from devoted fans. <\/p>\n His presence in northeast Alabama came at the invitation of Pat Upton, a former band member who owned P.J.\u2019s Alley on Gunter Avenue. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n It ended just after midnight, with Nelson performing \u201cRave On,\u201d a tune originally recorded by Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash after a performance in 1959.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Eve party gig at the Park Suite Hotel in Dallas. <\/p>\n The bulky, 14-seat plane was a temperamental craft. <\/p>\n One band member had already resolved to quit once it landed because he was scared to fly in it any longer. <\/p>\n Earlier that year, Jerry Lee Lewis, the plane\u2019s former owner, refused to step aboard. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n He was unable to find a landing strip and set the DC-3 down in a field at DeKalb, Texas. <\/p>\n Nelson, his fianc\u00e9e 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.<\/p>\n Guffey\u2019s stopover in Guntersville, with a view of the lake from Nelson\u2019s hotel room, inspired him to shoot a rough video documentary. <\/p>\n But after securing interviews with many of the people who attended Nelson\u2019s final show, and those who interacted with him, he expanded his idea into a feature. <\/p>\n \u201cDuring production, I stayed in Rick\u2019s hotel room,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s as close to him as you can possibly get. That\u2019s the room he spent his last night on earth in.\u201d<\/p>\n A premiere for \u201cRick Nelson: Guntersville\u201d will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. at Pizza Ed, the restaurant that was formerly P.J.\u2019s. <\/p>\n Admission is free. The documentary will later stream on Amazon and other platforms. <\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted Guntersville, fans of Rick and people who didn\u2019t know him, to see the film,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the film about his last performances being premiered on the stage where he last performed is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.\u201d <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.al.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new film premiering this weekend documents how the final chapter of a music legend played out in Alabama almost 40 years ago. \u201cRick Nelson: Guntersville\u201d tells the story of the final gig for the singer of \u201cGarden Party,\u201d which happened on Dec. 30, 1985. Director Kenny Scott Guffey, 37, wasn\u2019t even alive then. Guffey, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kenny](\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/resizer\/v2\/V4JHYLYZ2FBZVDQNL44A3TCIVA.jpg?auth=1a50874d8cffee5938d800595fd3c873595804cddb7cc02b3ba1e01111b70297&width=1280&quality=90\")
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