Post Description

In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 
and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across 
Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, 
from impoverished childhood in Arkansas through huge success first as a 
guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and 
Rhinestone Cowboy. With comments from friends and colleagues including 
songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, it's a moving story of 
success, disgrace and redemption as rich as any of the storylines in Campbell's 
most famous songs.

The peak of Glen Campbell's career was in 1975 when he topped the charts around 
the world with Rhinestone Cowboy, but his musical journey to that point is 
fascinating. A self-taught, teenage prodigy on the guitar, by his mid-twenties 
Campbell was one of the top session guitarists in LA, a key member of the band 
of session players now known as the Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of 
tracks while working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of the 
Beach Boys, including Daydream Believer by the Monkees, You've Lost That Lovin' 
Feeling by the Righteous Brothers, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra and 
Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley. 

But Campbell always wanted to make it under his own name. A string of records 
failed to chart until, in 1967, he finally found his distinctive country pop 
sound with hits like Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The 
latter was written by Jimmy Webb and together the two created a string of great 
records like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Campbell pioneered country 
crossover and opened the way for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. 

By the end of the 1960s, Campbell was the fastest rising star in American pop 
with his own television show and a starring role in the original version of 
True Grit. Over the following ten years, he had more success with Rhinestone 
Cowboy and Southern Nights, but his private life was in turmoil. Divorce, drink 
and drugs saw this clean-cut all-American hero fall from grace and a 
tempestuous relationship with country star Tanya Tucker was front-page news.

Despite a relapse in 2003, when he was arrested for drunk-drinking and his 
police mug shot shown around the world, the last two decades have been more 
settled. He remarried, started a new family and renewed his Christian faith, 
and musically was rediscovered by a new generation. Like his friend Johnny 
Cash, he released acclaimed new albums with young musicians, covering songs by 
contemporary artists like U2 and the Foo Fighters. Therefore the diagnosis with 
Alzheimer's was all the more poignant, but his dignified farewell has made him 
the public face of the disease in the USA.

The film includes contributions by many of Campbell's friends and colleagues, 
including his family in Arkansas, fellow session musicians Carol Kaye and Leon 
Russell, long-time friend and collaborator Jimmy Webb, former Monkee Mickey 
Dolenz, broadcaster Bob Harris, lyricist Don Black and country music writer 
Robert Oermann.