re: Long haired hippie redneck freaks -- that is to say, Country-Rock

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Other artists that did get featured in the documentary and went on to become outlaw country music legends include Steve Young, Gamble Rogers, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Larry Jon Wilson, and The Charlie Daniels Band.

The consensus amongst the crowd in Pioneertown gathered to hear Leader speak on Saturday was that perhaps it was the right choice, after all, to pass on Nelson and Jennings, considering that their absence gave the other artists a chance to shine — like Townes Van Zandt, whose legion of fans have only grown since his death in 1997.

“The energy around Townes is always — he’s very infectious. It’s hard to describe,” Leader recalled of his time getting to know the “Poncho and Lefty” singer.

One of the most touching scenes in Heartworn Highways is when Van Zandt plays a jaw-dropping rendition of his song “Waitin’ Around to Die” in the kitchen of his good friend “Uncle” Seymour Washington, who begins to cry as Van Zandt is singing.

“He was pretty sober when he sang that song, and I don’t know how to describe what it was like to be there 45 years ago,” Leader remembered. “That song came out of that day we spent together. We were filming, not filming, eating. There was this thing happening, but the beauty of it, for me, was that relationship between Townes and Uncle Seymour. What’s amazing is that Jim [Szalapski] captured the closeups of him playing guitar, and obviously the bigger motions, the cutaways to uncle Seymour. It’s very powerful.”

You can watch the original Heartworn Highways in full on YouTube, and you can stream Leader’s 2015 sequel, Heartworn Highways Revisited, on Apple TV+.

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