Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy

# I've tried and I have failed, Lord... #

In 2011, Glen Campbell announced that he had Alzheimer's

and that his next tour would be his last.

# ..I've lived... #

It marked the end of a journey that had started

over 60 years earlier with nothing but a dream.

He showed up at my door and said, "Here I am! Make me a star."

Glen Campbell's career had begun as a session guitarist,

playing on huge hits by Elvis, Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys.

Then, under his own name,

he recorded some of the 1960s' greatest songs.

# ..And I need you more than want you... #

His shining musicianship is there in every fibre of him.

It's there in his voice, it's there in his fingers,

it's in every gesture.

# ..And the Wichita lineman... #

By the end of the decade, he had his own prime-time TV show

and starring roles in Hollywood films.

But in the late 1970s, this clean-cut hero fell to Earth

with stories of divorce, drink and drugs.

Here's a guy who had always been a Southern gentleman.

Now, all of a sudden if he's on a commercial aircraft,

he's abusive to the flight attendants, to the other passengers,

and the word spread.

# There's been a load of compromising... #

Then, like the rhinestone cowboy of his most famous song,

Glen Campbell came back and won a new generation of fans in that

"star-spangled rodeo".

# Like a rhinestone cowboy

# Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo

# Like a rhinestone cowboy... #

Glen Campbell was born in 1936 in Billstown, Arkansas,

just outside the small town of Delight, population 311.

This Southern state also produced two more flawed American heroes,

Johnny Cash and Bill Clinton.

Then, as now, the place is righteous, remote and rural.

I grew up on a farm in Arkansas. I was one of 12 kids, 8 boys, 4 girls.

And we grew up in the river bottoms,

which is like bog land.

And we didn't have electricity when I was a kid.

We had to watch TV by candlelight.

Mom's folks were from Tipperary, Ireland.

And Dad's were from Scotland, the Campbells of Argyll.

That's my heritage, so I'm Scotch-Irish.

# Oh, Lord, that last long day she said goodbye... #

Glen's father was a sharecropper, scratching a living growing cotton on someone else's land.

The Campbells were dirt poor, and all 12 children had to help out on the farm.

Picking cotton IS back-breaking work.

You're on your knees and you're picking the cotton.

And you don't make a hell of a lot of money either.

What sort of money were you making?

Maybe a dollar per 100 lb.

If I worked real hard all day, I could pick 85lb. So that's 85 cents.

It was tough. I was born in 1930, right at that Depression.

Back then, a lot of time you didn't have enough meat to go around and stuff like that.

-But we all made it.

-We didn't have a lot of possessions, but we had a lot of love.

And we had a big garden. We'd raise all the vegetables - peas, okra, potatoes, onions.

We'd eat ducks or squirrels. We always had plenty to eat.

Even though we were a poor family, we didn't know we was poor.

They had 12 kids, and as soon as they could get in the field and work,

those kids went to work.

Grandma working in the cotton field just a few days after she gave birth to a child.

So they worked as a family, suffered as a family and also celebrated as a family.

And a lot of that's where the music came from, I think.

# Down in Louisiana in the bright sunshine

# I do a little boogie-woogie all the time

# We do the Hadacol boogie

-# The Hadacol boogie

-The Hadacol boogie... #

'So when the sun went down, anybody that was around

'would grab a guitar or a fiddle or roll a piano out there,

'whatever they could, and just have a big hoedown right there on the front porch,

'just a big dance in the front yard and enjoy music all night long.'

-# ..The Hadacol boogie

-The Hadacol boogie

-# The Hadacol boogie

-The Hadacol boogie

# Making boogie-woogie all the time... #

Nowadays, kids choose what's available to them.

"R&B speaks to me, rap speaks to me,

"metal speaks to me, country speaks to me."

But a person like Glen Campbell, everything around him would have been country music.

There wouldn't have been this choice in front of him as a child.

It's just part of what he crawled out of the cradle doing, as did the whole clan.

# ..The Hadacol boogie making boogie-woogie all the time... #

SHE LAUGHS

We played old country music just about every Saturday night,

but Glen just picked it up real good. Daddy got him a little Sears and Roebuck guitar

and he started picking that thing and just picked it right up.

He was just natural on it. Daddy was natural, too.

He could play the piano, French horn and guitar.

And Glen, he learned a lot from soldier boys, too.

He passed us! He was hot on that guitar.

I don't remember NOT having a guitar or a musical instrument in my hand.

And then Dad bought a guitar

for, like, 5.95, you know? It was one where the cowboy was up here

and the rope went around the hole in the guitar,

and the lasso and calf on this end, and the strings about that high off of the neck.

But I found out real quick that it was lighter than pulling a cotton sack or ploughing.

Wes Campbell, Glen's father, had a brother, his nickname was Boo,

and Uncle Boo was quite a guitarist.

And he showed a now five-year-old Glen Campbell how to make chords and how to play rhythm.

Glen Campbell was a prodigy,

and by the time he was 12 years old,

he was incredibly adept as a guitarist.

Not only as a rhythm guitarist but as a lead guitarist.

He had never played in anyone's band, he had played only with Uncle Boo.

Aged 14, Glen dropped out of school and went on tour with his Uncle Boo.

Criss-crossing the Southern states, they picked up work wherever they could.

GLEN: Well, it started out making a little money playing barn dances, and stuff.

Then when I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to go to work with my Aunt Judy and her husband's band.

I was 15 or just turned 16.

It was the early 1950s and Glen got his first taste of life as a professional musician.

We had a radio show in Albuquerque. We had a kiddies' show on Saturday, which we'd have to tape

because we'd usually be out playing somewhere on a Saturday night.

That was the going thing then - nightclubs - and they had bands, and that would bring people and gals in.

People dancing and getting drunk... and throw their beer bottles at the band.

These are rough and tumble places.

I mean, they were called knife and gun clubs, figuratively,

but the joke was, if you didn't have a knife or gun, you were given one at the door.

And Glen, a young 15-year-old, did not know what a bordello was.

He told me, he said, "I didn't understand why the men kept coming in there

"and visiting with those pretty women, but they didn't stay very long

"and none of the women ever left with them.

"I began to wonder if those women had any kind of personality at all."

MUSIC: "Tequila" by The Champs

Glen was married with a child by the age of 20.

He was soon a star around Albuquerque, and musicians

travelling through New Mexico began to check out this kid and his hotshot guitar.

The first time I met him was backstage in Albuquerque, New Mexico,

at this show I was performing at with The Champs.

Remember The Champs? Tequila?

A good friend of mine, Jerry Naylor, he was friends with Glen Campbell,

and so Jerry brought Glen backstage to get our autographs

and I never let him live it down.

# Tequila! #

Then he invited us to come and see his band.

So we went down there and first note I heard him play, I went crazy.

Just a great guitar player. And then when he sang, that capped it.

So afterwards I told him, I said, "There's only one place for you to go and that's Los Angeles."

And he took me up on it.

He actually showed up at my doorstep a few months later

and said, "Here I am! Make me a star."

# Tequila! #

Jerry Fuller was Glen's only contact in LA.

He'd arrived guitar in hand and just a few dollars in his pocket.

Jerry got Glen his first gig, hooking up with The Champs

as they promoted their hit instrumental, Tequila.

Bob Morris from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Glen Campbell from Murfreesboro, Arkansas.

It was a good band. We toured with Jack Scott, Danny & The Juniors.

It was cool. It was a good four-piece band. We sang anything, played anything.

But the gig with The Champs was short lived.

Glen, now with a young family to support, had to earn a living.

He tracked across LA, playing clubs by night,

making radio jingles and doing demos by day.

Finally, on a tiny west coast label, he started to release records under his own name.

# Tequila! #

Glen had a little record out during those lean days

called Turn Around, Look At Me.

And that was barely '60, I think, '60, '61.

# There is someone

# Walking behind you

# Turn around

# Look at me... #

That was the first record I ever bought. It was a 45 and I wore it out.

# ..Watching your footsteps... #

Gorgeous, sweet voice floats out,

and it also happened to be a really nice song,

and then this guy singing like an angel.

And it was Glen.

# ..There is someone... #

I was a Southern Baptist minister's son, so I can remember getting down beside the bed

and actually praying, saying, "Dear God, please let me meet this guy Glen Campbell one of these days."

I was only 14.

# ..Turn around

# Look at me... #

Jimmy Webb's prayers wouldn't be answered for another six years.

For now, Glen's opening was as a session guitarist.

People would hear these demos and say, "Who is that? Who's that playing the guitar?"

And everybody recognised the talent, of course.

# You just settle, baby How I love you... #

If you're a true stylist on your instrument,

you're constantly soaking up influences.

And so by the time he hit the studio scene in LA,

although his root was as a country guitarist,

he, by that time, had reached out and transcended it in many ways.

Whether it be bluegrass, rock, pop, whatever,

you have to be able to be versatile to survive in that environment.

MUSIC: "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys

Glen's prowess on the guitar got him into the hottest session music scene in the pop world.

Working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys,

he played on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s.

In 1963 alone, he was on almost 600 different tracks.

# ..I'm picking up good vibrations... #

Across Los Angeles, a music revolution was taking place.

# ..I'm picking up good vibrations Good vibrations... #

Glen had joined a band of gifted session players making these pop music symphonies.

At the time they were anonymous,

now they're known as the Wrecking Crew.

The Wrecking Crew was a small group that ended up secretly,

and I do mean secretly,

playing on hit record after hit record, and the public never knew.

And the reason for that

is the record labels didn't want the public to know.

They didn't want you and I or anybody to know

that your favourite artist wasn't playing on the album,

because they thought that would be bad for business.

As well as The Beach Boys, other tracks that Glen played on included Daydream Believer by The Monkees...

# ..Cheer up, sleepy Jean... #

..You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by the Righteous Brothers...

# ..Bring back that lovin' feeling... #

..and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis.

# Viva...

# Viva Las Vegas... #

What's extraordinary is that Glen Campbell did all this despite a major disadvantage.

Most of the session musicians, particularly in Los Angeles -

that's not true in Nashville -

but in New York and Los Angeles,

it is pretty much expected that you can read charts, read music.

And Glen's singularity on that scene was that he was so gifted

that he could hold his own with those people and not read a note.

Ears...ears out to here. He was great.

When I'd hum him some line that an arranger would write an idea down,

he says, "OK, how does this go, Carol?" I'd go, "Da-da-da-da,"

and he got it just like that.

Well, he's like no other.

I've played in symphony sessions with him.

No matter what it was, if it was Shostakovich or hillbilly music,

you'd just play it and then he was ready to play a part on top of it.

Pretty magnificent, really.

It was a very distinct discipline, and that's one of the reasons producers would use him,

is because it was very expensive to record back then.

And it had to be right on and quick and fast and in and out,

certainly in the case of The Monkees.

The truth is, we weren't really allowed top get in the studio and play.

Peter Tork tells the story of going into an early session with the Wrecking Crew with his bass guitar

and they said, "What are you doing here?!"

MUSIC: "Strangers In The Night"

Glen played lead guitar on a giant Sinatra hit called Strangers In the Night.

# Strangers in the night

# Exchanging glances

# Wondering in the night... #

Now, you gotta realise Glen still had a lot of Billstown, Arkansas, in him.

So when he's in this recording session, he couldn't take his eyes off Sinatra.

I knew the song because we had run the song at least ten times

before Sinatra came into the studio.

I was the last guitar player on the end, and he was over there singing. Well, I was looking at him.

Just listening to him sing and when he'd look over, I'd go back to the paper, like I knew what I was doing.

So when we got a take, he went into the producer and said, "Who is the fag guitar player on the end?"

LAUGHTER

"He's obviously gay, he's obviously homosexual, because he keeps staring at me."

And Bowen said, "No, Mr Sinatra, he's not gay.

"He just is... starstruck to the max."

MUSIC: "Surfing USA" by The Beach Boys

But Glen's own star was on the rise.

When Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys pulled out of a tour,

the band recruited Glen as his replacement.

I was a Beach Boy for a year, I played bass and sang the high parts.

-A Beach Boy?

-Yeah.

-How did that happen?

Brian got sick and from doing their sessions and studio work,

they asked me if I would go on the road and play.

I said, "Sure!" The money was good, more than I was making in the studios.

They had a bunch of dates booked in Texas.

They asked me two days before,

would I go and play bass and do Brian's parts?

Well, I'm not a bass player. I can play bass but I'm not a bass player.

# ..Everybody's gone surfing

# Surfing USA... #

Glen went out and put on the stripped short-sleeved shirt, like the rest of The Beach Boys,

and they liked him and he liked doing it,

but after six months or so,

Glen always had his eye on his own career,

he didn't want to be a lifetime Beach Boy.

# ..But I couldn't stay away from you... #

Brian Wilson wrote Glen a new song, Guess I'm Dumb.

Unfortunately, it sounded just like a Beach Boys track and it flopped.

# ..Evermore, evermore I guess I'm dumb...#

As a guitarist he was incomparable,

but as a singer, Glen Campbell was still searching for his own identity.

The problem Glen had to start with

was he sounded so good, he sounded like so many other people.

And he had the ability to do that.

He didn't have an identity of his own,

he didn't have that Glen Campbell identity.

# ..Till you set me free... #

Glen was a regular on the US pop show Shindig,

but always covering other people's songs.

# ..I can feel... #

His label, Capitol Records, was starting to getting worried.

# ..You gave me all the things... #

As gifted as he was, I think there were four or five albums before the breakthrough,

before he actually had a hit.

That really speaks to the differentness of the time,

that a label would stick with an artist like that.

That wouldn't happen today, I don't believe.

# It's knowing that your door is always open

# And your path is free to walk... #

Finally, Capitol Records' patience was rewarded,

although it was Glen who found the breakthrough song.

It was 1967, and folk singer John Hartford's Gentle On My Mind

reflected the new, relaxed mood.

It's knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk.

I thought that was a great line to start a song with.

He had slow on his mind, I think.

He's just...doon-chucka-doon-chucka on the banjo.

I heard it and said, "If you've got something like Gentle On My Mind,

"say it and get out the way and let people reflect on what the song is."

And that's what happened, that's why I sped it up like I did.

And the rest is history, I guess.

# I still might run in silence

# Tears of joy might stain my face

# And a summer sun might burn me till I'm blind

# But not to where I cannot see you walking on the back roads

# By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind... #

It was a song that at the time

fitted the profile of everything else that was going on.

If you put it into context,

you know, we're talking about the summer of love

and the hippies and all of that.

And it seemed to fit right in with that whole atmosphere of the time,

even the title of the song alludes to that.

# ..By the rivers of my memories

# Ever smiling Ever gentle on my mind... #

Gentle On My Mind is not a typical pop song,

it's not even a typical country song.

It's just a little off there in oddball folk land.

And I think maybe it's very differentness is what worked.

Glen followed Gentle On My Mind with another unconventional pop song,

this time from an album he'd heard by Johnny Rivers.

# By the time I get to Phoenix

# She'll be rising... #

By The Time I Get To Phoenix was written by a 21-year-old songwriter named Jimmy Webb -

the same teenage fan who'd fallen in love with Glen's first single.

# She'll laugh when she reads the part... #

It made me cry cos I was homesick.

# By the time I get to Phoenix She'll be rising... #

I made the trip from Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, you know, Albuquerque.

It was just backtracking home. And it made me real homesick when I heard that.

# By the time I get to Phoenix

# She'll be rising... #

So he calls up Al De Lory at Capitol, who was his producer,

who, by the way, was also in the Wrecking Crew.

He was a great pianist. So he says, "Al, I think we've got our hit."

# She'll laugh when she reads the part

# That says I'm leaving

# Cos I've left that girl

# So many times before... #

He had exquisite taste in songs, but he could sing anything.

You can hear another person sing the same song,

the same words, it doesn't have the same effect.

It's something that he was really born with.

It's there in every fibre of him, it's there in his voice,

it's there in his fingers, it's in every gesture.

And I think that is where the country part comes in because in order to be a great country singer,

that's your key right there, you have to be believable.

# Oh, and she'll cry

# Just to think I'd really leave her... #

There's a certain honesty about Glen's rendition of all the songs that he's recorded.

It's like he lived it.

And to this day, I wonder if the guy ever did leave Phoenix.

# She just didn't know... #

The partnership of Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb is one of the most celebrated in pop music history,

but it got off to an unpromising start.

We were working on a commercial for General Motors.

General Motors had given me an obscene amount of money - God knows what they paid him -

but this brought us together.

There was Glen tuning his guitar, I walked over and put my hand out to say, "Hi, I'm Jimmy Webb."

And he looked up and never took his hands off the guitar

and just said, "When you going to get a haircut?"

But an enduring friendship developed between singer and songwriter,

so when Glen was looking for a follow-up to Phoenix,

he got on the line to Jimmy Webb.

They call me and said, "Can you write us a song about a town?"

And I said, "Well, I'm not sure I want to write a song about a town right now.

"I think I've overdone that."

He said, "Well, can you do something geographical?"

So I spent the rest of the afternoon, all afternoon,

sweating over Wichita Lineman.

With that song and all of his hit singles to follow,

who did Glen want to plan his sessions, but his fellow Wrecking Crew players,

cos they're his pals and they're the best in the business.

We knew that this tune was special.

And they said, "Create an intro, Carol." So I went... to F.

-Leaving room for...

-# I am the lineman for the county... #

-Carry that motif.

-# And I drive the main roads

# Searching in the sun for another overload... #

Just keeping it very simple.

Cos when you first get the tune rolling, you want to stay in the background as much as possible.

And he starts singing. And when he did, the hair stood up on my arms.

I said, "Ohh, this is deep!"

# And the Wichita Lineman

# Is still on the line... #

I'd seen these guys up on these poles out in the middle of nowhere talking on the telephone

and I thought, "What if he was talking to his girlfriend?" It just popped into my head.

So I remember sending that song over to them later that day

and I actually hadn't really finished it.

So the second verse ends...

# And I need you more than want you

# And I want you for all time

# And the Wichita Lineman

# Is still on the line... #

I just played this...

I don't know, a couple of weeks later, I ran into him somewhere

and I said, "So, I guess you guys didn't like that song?"

He said, "Oh, we cut that."

I said, "Well, it wasn't done."

I said, "I was just humming the last bit."

And he said, "Oh, well, it's done now."

# I am a lineman for the county... # APPLAUSE

# And I drive the main roads

# I'm searching in the sun for another overload

# And I hear you singing in the wires... #

You've got to totally acknowledge the importance of Jimmy Webb

and those songs in Glen's career.

I mean, Wichita Lineman, when you listen to the lyrics of that song,

you know, you're almost there in the telephone lines, aren't you? You can hear them whistling.

He really has always been able to bring that feeling of a song to the fore.

# I know I need a small vacation... #

Jimmy doesn't write too many duff tunes

and, yeah, you're right, they did hit it off.

I don't think you can reduce that stuff too much.

It doesn't really work like that. You just capture lightning in a bottle.

I love the way Jimmy Webb writes his songs,

because he has a wonderful way of writing songs

that you know, from the opening line, what the story is,

you don't have to wait.

By the time I get to Phoenix She'll be rising.

Straight away, you've got the picture there.

He made me sound good, he made me sound like a genius,

but really I just did what I did and he had the wherewithal

to follow through and hit some notes that really, honestly he shouldn't have been able to hit.

And a lot of other singers would have said, "Hey, listen, take this home and work on it, son,

"cos I can't sing that!"

Wichita Lineman made Glen Campbell a star.

In 1968, he outsold The Beatles in the USA

and cleaned up at that year's Grammy Awards.

His blend of country and pop was new

and paved the way for future country cross-over artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

It enabled him to sing on Top 40 radio.

When a lot of country artists were stuck in their own little milieu,

he was right in the middle of the charts

and just selling millions of records.

And he introduced the idea of country music as a cross-over possibility.

# Where's the playground, Susie? #

Other contemporary Americans such as Jerry Lee Lewis, such as Chuck Berry, such as Elvis,

they saw their popularity dwindle in the wake of the British invasion.

Glen, he emerged! His star ignited!

Glen's clean-cut good looks attracted the attention of

the American TV networks.

In the summer of 1968 he took over from hip comic duo

The Smothers Brothers in their prime time Sunday night slot.

-Tommy, that's a hippopotamus.

-What hippopotamus?

He's a horse. He's the smartest horse in the whole world.

In fact, in the whole San Fernando Valley, aren't you, big fella?

The Smothers Brothers were no fools.

They hired him to do six episodes in the summer of '68. And it was perfect.

It also made CBS Television very happy

because the Smothers Brothers, as funny as they were,

were also a big thorn in the side of the network

because they were pushing the envelope.

They wanted to mention the war in Vietnam and all that.

Glen wasn't going to mention any of that. CBS loved Glen.

Ladies and gentlemen, Glen Campbell.

Glen Campbell was a Republican and this, along with

his well-groomed appearance, went down well with middle America.

CBS dropped the Smothers Brothers and gave Glen his own show.

# For once in my life I have someone who needs me

# Someone I've needed so long... #

Tommy Smothers and Dick Smothers gave Glen what was arguably

the biggest break he ever had.

# Somehow I know I'll be strong... #

Americans who'd been listening to his hits on the radio,

had a face to place with the hits.

# Long before I knew

# Someone warm like you... #

Oh, it was wonderful. I'd call Mother, say,

"Mother, don't forget, Glen's going to be on tonight at 7.00."

And we'd all have our televisions tuned in. We'd always watch it.

And it made... I was filled with pride.

Thinking, "That's my brother and he's really going places."

Glen's own career was hot at this point that all the other

A-list vocalists wanted to be on that show.

# All I really wanna do

# Is, baby, be friends with you... #

He was tall, he was slender, he looked clean-cut.

This guy looked like somebody you'd want to date your daughter.

# I don't want to compete with you... #

Anybody who makes it big in TV, particularly in music,

I think has to have an extremely wide appeal.

And that is one thing that country music has always had.

Country music doesn't care if you're six or if you are 90,

if you like us, we like you.

# Far from Folsom prison... #

And Glen understood that instinctively.

If you can't hug a fat lady, don't go into country music.

It's not about "I'm cooler than you are," you know,

that just doesn't wash.

And that's why it works so well on television,

and that's why that show worked so well.

Because Glen appealed to the world.

# Blow my blues away. #

CROWD APPLAUD

Two years earlier,

Glen had been a virtually unknown session musician.

Now he was America's fastest rising star.

For his family it was a shock.

We were mobbed.

I mean, everywhere we went, once he really started to take off.

It was hard going anywhere because everybody wanted his autograph

and we couldn't eat, our food would get cold.

He really got big very, very quickly. Superstardom.

The hits came at the right time

and then all of a sudden you're doing a network TV show

where you're seen by - what? - 52 million a week

or something like that.

We sold 65 million albums.

I couldn't have planned that whole scenario if I had wanted to.

Part of Glen Campbell's appeal was that he cut a comfortable,

middle-of-the road figure

in a country riven by protests against the Vietnam war.

Then Jimmy Webb brought Glen a new composition.

It was an anti-war song called Galveston.

When I first showed him Galveston, it was a ballad.

SLOW MELODIC MUSIC

# Galveston, oh, Galveston

# I still hear your sea winds blowing... #

Well, he went out. And, of course, he rearranged it. It was like...

HE LAUGHS

Are you ready for the intro? It was like...

PLAYS HIGH TEMPO VERSION

# Galveston, oh, Galveston... #

Wham! Wham! You know, big drums.

And it almost sounded patriotic.

It was like, "Let's go kick their ass, boys!" You know?

HE LAUGHS

# Galveston, oh, Galveston

# I still hear your sea winds blowin'

# I still see her dark eyes glowin'... #

Galveston, yes, may have been about a guy in the Vietnam War,

longing to go home to Galveston and everything,

but I don't think the public gave it a whole lot of thought.

# Galveston, oh, Galveston... #

Also, he was on the side of the troops.

And he could understand a guy longing for home.

To him, it wasn't a comment on the war,

whether the war was good or bad, it was just about a guy that

was in the Army and missed his home in Texas.

# I clean my gun and dream of Galveston... #

Hit records with Glen Campbell definitely pegged me

as middle-of-the-road, leaning to the right, because he was a Republican.

He had Bob Hope on the Glen Campbell Show. He had John Wayne on.

All those guys were hawks.

They were, you know, "Let's go over there and blow 'em to hell!"

You know?

I was an anti-war guy but, musically, we spoke the same language.

# Galveston, oh, Galveston... #

It was John Wayne who propelled Glen's career even higher,

with a co-starring role in his new western True Grit.

He presented something that the public wanted to hear.

They could relate to Glen.

He was singing cool stuff but he wasn't threatening in any way.

That's certainly part of why John Wayne wanted him for True Grit.

But Wayne, though, I think, in the background in Hollywood,

did know that Glen was certainly not a leftist.

# One day, little girl... #

Glen had second billing to John Wayne.

Glen sang the title song from that picture.

# As soon as you've won

And he was an absolutely dreadful actor, Glen.

His timing was terrible.

You've got to learn that you can't have everything your own way.

When I've bought and paid for something, I'll have it my way.

I don't understand this conversation at all!

That was my first picture.

And I thought I was so bad in True Grit that

I made John Wayne shine so well that he won his only Oscar.

Well, Wayne's horse bit Glen's horse. Savagely, on the neck.

Glen's horse thereafter was afraid of John Wayne's horse.

And when the director rode closely to John Wayne,

Wayne's horse would exhale forcefully and Glen's horse would

dramatically and rapidly turn its head in an effort to get away.

I thought he did a terrific acting job.

I was very surprised he didn't go on and on.

At the time, you know, they compared him to Sinatra

in From Here To Eternity,

and how Sinatra opened up a whole new career as a great actor.

And I thought Glen was going to follow that.

But by the early 1970s, Glen was looking out of date

alongside new denim-clad country rock bands like the Eagles.

# Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

# Such a fine sight to see... #

Don't forget, his popularity ascent was just white hot.

And anything that hot is certain to burn out.

But, yes, his career cooled. But he had staying power.

His core audience was comprised of country music fans.

And they are the most loyal fans on earth.

I mean, he'd play the Hollywood Bowl for four nights in a row

and sell it out.

And everybody knew who he was. And everybody could sing those songs.

As Glen's ratings slipped, his American TV series was cancelled,

but in 1973 he crossed the Atlantic

and launched a new music show on the BBC.

Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank everyone for making my stay in Great Britain

a very pleasurable one. It's really been fantastic.

Playing to Britain's dedicated country music audience,

it also showed that Glen had lost none of his skills on the guitar.

Glen was making some of his best music.

A new album with Jimmy Webb showed a new mature style

for both singer and songwriter.

When I saw the record that said,

"Reunion - Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb",

I paid money for that record. I couldn't wait to hear it.

# I fell out of her eyes

# I fell out of her heart... #

People have said that's the best album Glen and I ever made.

But things had begun to, for all of us,

things had started to fall apart in the record department.

# And I fell and fell alone... #

If you sold 300,000 or 400,000 records,

that just wasn't good enough, you know. We are not interested in that.

The record companies would actually let artists go.

They wanted that big platinum album but just rocked the world.

# The moon's a harsh mistress... #

In 1975 Capitol Records decided to take one last shot

at reviving Glen's recording career.

They teamed him up with young producers Dennis Lambert

and Brian Potter, who'd just had a major hit with the Four Tops.

He was still an incredibly popular artist.

He just had lost a little bit of his momentum on radio.

And that's not a small thing, certainly.

It wasn't easy to regenerate the kind of excitement

and interest in new recordings.

Glen is an artist who has had this great past, and now maybe needs

a defining song that, for him, would be like his theme.

The key song came from an unlikely source.

Larry Weiss was a young singer-songwriter

whose debut album had just been released.

And he came up to our office

and he was playing in cuts from his new album.

One of them was Rhinestone Cowboy.

I don't think he was originally terribly interested in

giving it up, because this was a new record of his own.

I wanted to be able to take it to Glen and play it for him.

I knew, even just in that meeting, that it was that strong a song.

# I've been walking these streets so long

# Singin' the same old song... #

I did not know what a rhinestone cowboy was when I wrote the song.

I was living in LA, I was hardly aware of country music.

I heard the phrase somewhere, at a party or something.

And put my own story to it.

I made it a guy who was overdue, walking the streets on Broadway.

As far as the chorus was concerned, that came from another place.

A movie in the late '40s called Buffalo Bill.

And the last scene in that movie, he comes riding out

in a star-spangled rodeo, with flags draped over the seats,

on a white horse with his white beard and white long hair.

And he thanks everybody for the wonderful life that he had.

MUSIC: "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell

# I've been walking these streets so long

# Singing the same old song

# I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway... #

Rhinestone Cowboy was Glen Campbell's first number one,

topping both the American pop and country charts simultaneously.

It went on to sell over a million copies.

If ever a song defined a personality, it would be Rhinestone Cowboy

and Glen Campbell. I mean, he became the rhinestone cowboy.

With the white outfit. And the song is just wonderful.

It has the downtrodden, "I'm a nobody" verses,

and the soaring "I'm making it" chorus.

# Like a rhinestone cowboy

# Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo... #

It just floored me. It was the story of my life.

I'm a lyric man.

When I'm listening to a record, the lyrics grab me first.

If I like it, then I understand what the whole picture was about.

That's when I got the whole picture what a Rhinestone Cowboy was,

cos that's what I'd been doing for a while.

I hadn't had a hit record in two or three years.

And for the right image for the rhinestone cowboy, who else do

you go to than the king of country music fashion, Manuel Cuevas?

# Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo... #

It's white outfit with a John Wayne shirt with roses.

Whatever I could visualise at the time of the Rhinestone Cowboy.

Of course, we put rhinestones on it.

We made him shine and had fun with it.

The truth is, you can make beautiful suits for ugly people

and they don't come out that pretty.

But he's a beautiful person inside and out.

And if you make him beautiful clothes, well,

all the better for the situation, right?

The better for everybody, I should say.

Naturally, I was happy to have a hit.

But I also knew in my heart of hearts that he really sold the song

a lot more than I did. At least, that's how I arrived at it.

I was, of course, thrilled that it did

and surprised that it has become such a huge American anthem.

# Southern nights

# Have you ever felt those southern nights?

After Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen had another US number one single

with Southern Nights in 1977,

but behind the scenes things were falling apart.

He divorced Billie Jean, his wife of 15 years, and married

Sarah Davis, but that marriage was stormy and didn't last long.

His drinking was getting out of control

and now combined with a serious cocaine addiction.

# To anyone who can truly say

# That he has found a better way... #

I think that there was a lot of turmoil in his own

personal life at the time.

He was trying to come to terms with all this sudden new success,

back on top, again headlining Las Vegas as, you know,

the superstar that he already was.

This was just sort of piling it on.

And I see some of these artists that come up

and their dream is to get a pickup truck, a new boat,

a place to go fishing, a house and a house for their mom.

Then after they get that, OK, what's the goal?

You're the best guitar player, one of the best singers,

you've got everything going for you. What's your next goal?

# A country boy

# You got your feet in LA

# But take a look at everything you own... #

He was living in this mansion on the top of Mulholland Drive.

All by himself, literally, there was no-one around him.

And it was kind of a sad time for him, I think.

And now it seemed that something was missing.

And it seemed all a little hollow because there he was,

kind of sad and wondering, you know, what is this really all about?

# A country boy

# You got your feet in LA

# But take a look at everything you own... #

I think I probably just quit letting God run my life.

And I actually just got into drugs and booze pretty heavy.

# Country boy. #

I don't think he knew who he was then.

Here's a guy who had always been a southern gentleman.

Now, all of a sudden, if he's on a commercial aircraft, he's abusive to

the flight attendants, to the other passengers, and the word spread.

Soon there was even more to talk about,

as Glen's next relationship hit the headlines.

Glen was going through a divorce,

and a divorce that was really highly publicised for obvious reasons.

And Glen gets a call one night...

HE LAUGHS

..and she says, "I understand you're going through a divorce."

And he says yes.

And she says something to the effect, I'm paraphrasing,

"I know you're hurting and it sounds to me like you could use a friend."

And he said, "Well, I'm sure I can."

And...the caller was Tanya Tucker.

MUSIC: "Highway Robbery" by Tanya Tucker

His marriage to Sarah had been turbulent but, you know what?

It had been placid when compared to his union with Tanya.

# I wasn't trying to outrun you... #

Tanya Tucker was the explosive wild girl of country music.

A star since her teens and still only 21,

her relationship with Glen was tabloid heaven.

Well, as one southerner to another,

how about the pleasure of this next song?

Why certainly, Mr Campbell. I'm just sitting out here on the front porch.

I was 21, 22 and that probably didn't help.

He was 44 and thinking he was 22.

And that probably didn't help.

# Every night I hope and pray

# A dream lover will come my way

But this dream love quickly turned into a nightmare,

with stories of drink, drugs, fights and smashed hotel rooms.

# Dream, dream lover

Glen, I think, he just wants to be Glen.

And when people put ideas in...they try to take advantage of him.

And she tried to take advantage of him.

She tried to use him to further her career. It was very hard.

It was hard on the people that liked him and were around him.

# I want a dream lover... #

I really don't want to talk about it. OK, I'll say it like this.

If I talk about her real truthfully,

I'd have to say a lot of things that I wouldn't want to say about her.

It's a long story. HE LAUGHS

Every day was the same madness, you know.

There was a period in '79-'80 - it was when I almost went, I thought.

I had to reach up to touch bottom.

He had been seen as really clean-cut.

The relationship with Tanya Tucker, the drug-fuelled craziness

and all that stuff...I wouldn't say it damaged his reputation,

but it certainly changed his reputation.

Country music fans are very loyal.

And this is when he comes back to Nashville.

This is when he comes to Nashville and starts making records,

instead of in LA.

And maintains a very steady presence in the country charts.

All through even the worst of his substance-abuse problems.

# And the queen's still the belle of the ball... #

In the 1980s, Glen Campbell was still a big draw with country fans,

in the US and in the UK, but his personal problems continued.

The turning point was a blind date in New York

where he met his current wife Kimberly.

When I first met Glen, on our first date, we went out to eat

and he bowed his head to say a prayer before the meal began.

And I thought, "Yes!"

Cos I had been asking the Lord to send me a Christian man.

So we had a great date but as the night progressed,

I realised that he had a terrible drinking problem.

-It wasn't terrible. I was enjoying it.

-I should have added, "Be specific when you pray!"

She accepted a blind date to go out with Glen Campbell

and she'd never heard of the guy.

She had no idea who he was.

She subsequently said, "Had I known about Glen Campbell

"and his reputation, I would have never agreed to go out with him."

# Some day

# And some way

# You realise that you've been blind... #

Kimberly Woollen was a former Radio City dancer,

but with strong Christian beliefs.

These were tested by Glen's behaviour.

Even their wedding wasn't without surprises.

And that night at the wedding when he talked to Kimberly's mother,

he said to her, "You know, aren't you excited, Mom,

"that you're going to be a grandmother?"

Kimberly's mother didn't know she was three months pregnant.

That's how the mother learned.

# You just laughed

# And you called me a clown... #

It was a new start for Glen,

with Kimberly's faith playing an increasingly large part in his life.

They've now been married for 30 years, through good times and bad.

We had a lot of dark valleys that we had to walk through.

But I knew that he was seeking God.

Glen changed his circle of friends

and started playing golf with the preacher and the deacons

and they really just surrounded him with a lot of love.

I could beat them, so I enjoyed that.

She went through a lot, too.

She didn't have it really easy for a while there, either.

And I think she gave him an ultimatum.

Thank goodness he took her up on it.

Because who knows what he would be like now if he were by himself.

Every hanger-on in the world would be trying to get piece of him.

In 2003 there was one final and highly publicised relapse.

Arrested for drunk-driving, Glen fought with police officers

and was jailed for ten days.

His police mug-shot was shown around the world.

I finally got to...to learn what was right and what was wrong.

What was good and what was bad.

And what you SHOULD be doing instead of what you WERE doing.

I quit drinking, smoking, everything.

Cocaine, you name it.

I think I got as close to hell as I want to get.

I was very blessed to get my life turned around.

MUSIC: "Times Like These " by Glen Campbell

Over the last ten years, there's been a turnaround in

Glen Campbell's music, as well.

With a team of young producers, he released an acclaimed new album

covering songs by bands including U2 and the Foo Fighters.

# It's times like these you learn to love again

# It's times like these

# Time and time again... #

I love it when they get to make a victory lap.

Like Johnny Cash did. I just love that.

That they can, you know, do that one more ride around the arena

and come out with guns blazing.

And Glen gets to do that.

# It's times like these you learn to live again... #

Over seven decades, Glen Campbell has overcome a poor upbringing,

the struggle to make it in the music business

and his own demons with drink and drugs.

But in 2011 he faced an even greater challenge.

# Time and time again... #

I had read some reviews where the reviewers had accused

Glen of being drunk on stage.

So much so, that he could not remember the lyrics.

Kimberly, his wife, in the wake of those reviews,

she came forward and said, "My husband has Alzheimer's."

We had suspected that something was going on for years,

and I had taken him to neurologists and had some testing done.

-Short term memory was beginning to...

-Oh, yeah.

-..go away.

Well, I didn't want to remember all that stuff that was in my past.

I was glad I was forgetting it.

So we're just taking it day by day. And God is faithful.

-And we're just going to trust in Him and rely on Him for the future.

-Amen.

-She'd make a good preacher, wouldn't she?

-HE LAUGHS

# I know a place between Life and death for you and me... #

Glen's final album Ghost On The Canvas

was released in 2011 to universal acclaim.

He then embarked on farewell tour across Europe

and America with three of his children in the band.

# Ghost on a canvas

# No... #

When I went to see him perform live, the farewell tour,

he'd forget something or screw up and he just would laugh about it

and make a joke.

Yeah, to his credit, he just threw it right out there.

"This is where I'm at, this is what's happening, this is what I got.

"Take it or leave it." And we all took it.

# We all fall in love

# With ghosts on the canvas... #

I don't really pull my punches with him or anything.

If he tells me a joke more than four or five times I'll tell him,

"Quit telling me the same joke."

And Glen just says, "Oh, I forget things. That's all."

# Ghost on the canvas... #

I remember one particularly difficult moment,

we were in the wings behind the band.

I'm standing there just looking at him with a smile on my face,

and I said, "You're doing pretty good, Hoss."

And he said... He looked at me for a minute and he said,

"Did you write Wichita Lineman?"

HE LAUGHS

And I said, "Yes, I did."

And, you know, there's some moments like that where you...

You feel for a second like it hurts.

MUSIC: "The Rest Is Silence" by Glen Campbell

I think people love him

because he symbolises America's last age of innocence.

Of wholesomeness. Of decency.

I think he appealed to grassroots America.

And then the fact that he had all of those talents,

that was just the icing on the cake.

You know, people find their heroes.

And if it's not the Lone Ranger, it's Glen Campbell.

If it's not Glen Campbell it's Johnny Cash.

And believe me, to us, Glen was our hero because he was the Kid.

MUSIC: "A Better Place" by Glen Campbell

# I've tried and I have failed, Lord... #

When I think of Glen Campbell, the word that comes to mind is golden.

He was a golden boy. He was beautiful.

He was gifted. He had the voice of an angel. He just...

In his prime, no-one could touch him.

# One thing I know

# The world's been good to me... #

I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but he's one

of the best guitar players

and one of the best singers in the world to me.

I mean, I like a lot of other singers, too, but Glen is special.

I guess, cos he's my brother.

# Some days I'm so confused, Lord... #

If you think of country people as being stupid and backward,

then you don't understand what's going on.

I just think he's an honest, straight-forward country boy

who somehow or other hit the big time.

# One thing I know

# The world's been good to me

# A better place

# Awaits you, you'll see... #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd