What band is ‘Almost Famous’ based on?

On By Pranco

(Credit: DreamWorks Photos)

Film and music have always been inextricably linked, dating back to the grand orchestral arrangements of the silent film era. In more recent years, Hollywood has even invented its own fictional bands to appear in films – groups like Spinal Tap, Sex Bob Omb or Otis Day & the Knights. While these groups are often little more than made-up plot points, they often have their basis in real-world musical artists, as in the case of the cult comedy-drama Almost famous.

Written by and loosely based on the life of journalist Cameron Crowe. Almost famous tells the story of a teenage music journalist in the early 1970s. The main character, William Miller, is assigned a story by Rolling stone magazine and is sent on tour with a group called Stillwater. That band is a work of fiction and does not exist in the real world, with members played in the film by Jason Lee, Billy Crudup, Mark Kozelek and John Fedevich. However, behind the fictionalized band lay a treasure real rock history.

When hired by Rolling stone in 1973, Crowe was their youngest contributor, and during his time at the magazine he met some truly legendary artists. Inevitably, the journalist drew on these experiences when formulating the fictional Stillwater. In fact, Crowe’s very first assignment for the magazine was following the Jacksonville blues rock group The Allman Brothers Band on tour. A large part of the Stillwater story therefore goes back to the experiences gained with the Allman Brothers.

Ultimately, Stillwater was an amalgamation of several prominent rockers from the 1970s. For example, the scene where Stillwater’s guitarist, Russell Hammond, declares, “I’m a golden god!” was directly inspired by Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, who had uttered a similar shout from the balcony of a Hollywood hotel at the height of Zeppelin’s stardom. At various points in the film, the fictional group also draws on influences from artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd and even the Eagles.

You can’t have a fictional band without real musicians, and their cast and crew Almost famous was packed with iconic names from the world of rock and roll. Peter Frampton, for example, was a technical advisor on the film, providing his expertise on the depths of 1970s rock debauchery. However, the majority of the Stillwater songs in the film were written by Crowe himself, along with his wife Nancy Wilson. A hard rock icon in her own right, Wilson had an undeniable impact on the film and the fictional band through her performance with Heart.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready also stepped in to help create the fictional world of Stillwater, playing lead guitar on all of the band’s material. Even beyond the Hollywood stories, there is a rock band with Nancy Wilson, Peter Frampton, Mike McCready and the guy from My name is Earl should be enough to draw the audience in.

Although Stillwater in Almost famous is based on a plethora of mainstream rockers from the 1970s, but there was also an actual band using that name at the time. The real Stillwater originated in Georgia in 1973 – around the time the film is set – and achieved a modest degree of commercial success before hitting the market in 1984.

Still, the filmmakers were forced to pay the defunct Southern rock band for the use of their band name Almost famous. “They probably could have done it without permission,” Stillwater guitarist Bobby Golden later said, “but then they probably would have had a lot of different lawsuits.”

Related topics

Subscribe to the Far Out newsletter