I don’t get out to the movies much. That fact is not merely a matter of my laziness or the presence of Netflix. In truth, there are just very few occasions when…..
I do not frequently go to the movies. That is not just because Netflix is available to me or because I am lazy. As a matter of fact, I rarely find a new film that greatly interests or motivates me enough to take the time to go to the theater. Thus, it seemed improbable that the arrival of A Star Is Born last month—the fourth iteration of the sentimental story that was originally filmed in 1976 starring Barbra Streisand—would cause me to change that policy. But I pulled my wife along and raced to my neighborhood Cineplex, where I paid the exorbitant price to watch it with strangers in a dark room. And there was only one reason I did so: Lukas Nelson.
That desert was precisely the Coachella Festival grounds in Indio, California, home of the 2016 classic rock extravaganza Desert Trip. Lukas Nelson was there for his usual side gig as frontman of Promise Of The Real, Neil Young’s backup band. Nelson was approached by Bradley Cooper, who was already working on the A Star Is Born remake, asking him to serve as a consultant for music and “authenticity” in the movie. This was a crucial role that eventually led to Nelson becoming the chief songwriter as well, having written or co-written six of the original songs, produced the majority of the soundtrack, and even made an appearance in multiple scenes as Bradley Cooper and Jackson Maine’s backing band, along with Promise Of The Real. For a fortuitous encounter “in the midst of the desert,” not too terrible.
