1:01:01 > 1:01:05# Welcome to my world... #
1:01:05 > 1:01:08MUSIC FADES
1:01:09 > 1:01:12CACOPHONY OF VOICES
1:01:22 > 1:01:25GUITAR MUSIC PLAYS
1:01:28 > 1:01:32BOY: Do you know what you're looking for?
1:01:38 > 1:01:41Do you think this place is on a map?
1:01:47 > 1:01:50Do they have roads you can walk down?
1:01:53 > 1:01:58- JIM WHITE: - # I was shacked up down in Mobile with a girl from New York City
1:02:04 > 1:02:10# She woke me up one night to tell me that we weren't alone... #
1:02:10 > 1:02:12BOY: Will you know it when you see it?
1:02:15 > 1:02:21# She said she saw the ghost of a woman staring at me
1:02:26 > 1:02:28# I told her not to worry
1:02:28 > 1:02:32# But in the morning when I woke up
1:02:32 > 1:02:34# She was gone
1:02:38 > 1:02:44# So I headed on to Florida where I tangled with some sailors
1:02:49 > 1:02:55# As I lay bloodied on the wharf I cursed the ship they sailed on
1:03:00 > 1:03:06# Wouldn't you know 24 hours later that ship sank into the ocean
1:03:11 > 1:03:19# Disappearing like an unwanted memory beneath the waves
1:03:23 > 1:03:28# I guess it's cos still waters run
1:03:28 > 1:03:31# Run deep in me
1:03:31 > 1:03:33# Cos I've this crazy way... #
1:03:33 > 1:03:36MUSIC IS DROWNED BY ENGINES
1:03:43 > 1:03:46- Hi.- Turn it off.
1:03:48 > 1:03:50What's up, man?
1:03:57 > 1:04:01# ..And I was woke up just before dawn... #
1:04:01 > 1:04:03I've got a favour to ask you.
1:04:04 > 1:04:07- I got some buddies of mine...- Yeah?
1:04:07 > 1:04:11..and they kinda want to ride around the South a little bit...
1:04:15 > 1:04:20Seems to me, if you want to come and infiltrate the South
1:04:20 > 1:04:23and learn something important about it,
1:04:23 > 1:04:25you're gonna need the right car.
1:04:25 > 1:04:29You can't show up in some Land Rover or Lexus
1:04:29 > 1:04:34and expect poor folks to talk to you, tell you what's in their heart.
1:04:34 > 1:04:36I got this buddy, he's got a...
1:04:36 > 1:04:39he's got a lot of cars.
1:04:39 > 1:04:46There's one in particular I've got in mind which I think would be good for you. It's a 1970 Chevy...
1:04:46 > 1:04:48good big engine in it.
1:04:48 > 1:04:53Problem is...it belongs to Jimmy Tuck, and Jimmy's kinda possessive about his cars.
1:04:53 > 1:04:59They're kinda like women to him, it's like part of his harem, like he's a sheikh.
1:04:59 > 1:05:02- Hey, Jimmy.- Yeah? What about 100?
1:05:02 > 1:05:04100 a day.
1:05:04 > 1:05:06MUSIC PLAYS FAINTLY
1:05:20 > 1:05:24# ..Providence will stoop down just to save me
1:05:27 > 1:05:31# And it's all because still waters run
1:05:32 > 1:05:34# Run deep in me
1:05:34 > 1:05:37# And I've got this crazy way... #
1:05:41 > 1:05:45See, I was dragged to the South when I was five years of age
1:05:45 > 1:05:48from southern California.
1:05:48 > 1:05:50And I resisted...
1:05:50 > 1:05:54The immensity of the South, I just resisted it,
1:05:54 > 1:05:57because it's an overpowering culture.
1:05:57 > 1:06:04I desperately wanted to leave from the age of about 13. I just couldn't figure out how to do it.
1:06:04 > 1:06:06See that swamp there?
1:06:06 > 1:06:09I couldn't see the beauty in it.
1:06:09 > 1:06:13You see, when you're growing up in this,
1:06:13 > 1:06:17it seems like there's a blanket over the whole world.
1:06:18 > 1:06:20It feels like...
1:06:20 > 1:06:25like Gulliver when the Lilliputians tied him down. You feel tied down.
1:06:25 > 1:06:28When I left the South,
1:06:28 > 1:06:33I'd get some place like Amsterdam, Holland or Tel Aviv, Israel,
1:06:33 > 1:06:38or some place like that, and suddenly it'd smell like the South.
1:06:38 > 1:06:41Someone would say something or I'd see a tree...
1:06:41 > 1:06:45or some gentle moment would sneak up on me
1:06:45 > 1:06:51and I would remember... the value of what I couldn't find when I was here.
1:06:51 > 1:06:55Until you've walked away from it, you can't see it.
1:06:55 > 1:07:01I decided to come back to the South and...become a Southerner...
1:07:01 > 1:07:05as best I can. I will never BE a Southerner.
1:07:05 > 1:07:09I'll be...an imitation of a Southerner. But, in a way,
1:07:09 > 1:07:14I feel like that brings me closer to God, cos I've chosen...
1:07:16 > 1:07:22It's almost like a form of divinity. I've chosen my divinity rather than my divinity choosing me.
1:07:23 > 1:07:28Man, they've got some good garbage here.
1:07:29 > 1:07:31They've got some good stuff.
1:07:31 > 1:07:37They've got corrugated tin sitting on the side of the road, used carpet...
1:07:38 > 1:07:43Some fine lumber in there... Good Lord, that's a big old bookcase!
1:07:45 > 1:07:48That's my kind of road.
1:07:48 > 1:07:50A junkyard road.
1:07:50 > 1:07:53CAT POWER SINGS "Cross Bones Style"
1:07:54 > 1:07:58# Child, come and rescue me
1:07:59 > 1:08:03# Cos you have seen
1:08:03 > 1:08:09# Some unbelievable things... #
1:08:27 > 1:08:30Don't need no guns.
1:08:30 > 1:08:33HE CHUCKLES
1:08:34 > 1:08:37How much are you asking for it?
1:08:37 > 1:08:41500. MORE LAUGHTER
1:08:41 > 1:08:43I'll give you 60 for it.
1:08:43 > 1:08:46- 65.- All right.
1:08:46 > 1:08:50All right. You gotta help me put it in the trunk, though.
1:08:50 > 1:08:54- All right.- It's not heavy, is it? - Yes.
1:08:54 > 1:09:00# ..You have seen some unbelievable things... #
1:09:05 > 1:09:08GUITAR PLAYS: "Murder" by Johnny Dowd
1:09:24 > 1:09:27# There's been a murder here today
1:09:27 > 1:09:31# The blood stains are on the walls
1:09:33 > 1:09:35# There's been a murder here today
1:09:35 > 1:09:39# Blood stains on the walls
1:09:41 > 1:09:44# There's a body in a bedroom
1:09:44 > 1:09:48# And another one in the hall
1:09:49 > 1:09:52# I said, "Murder"
1:09:53 > 1:09:55# I said, "Murder"
1:09:57 > 1:09:59# I said, "Murder"... #
1:10:17 > 1:10:22So, we were riding fast, night time, we were high as hell.
1:10:22 > 1:10:28Earl was riding on the hood with a hatchet in his hand in case he saw the warlocks...
1:10:28 > 1:10:32and a tree was coming up with a low overhang.
1:10:33 > 1:10:37He swung that axe at the limb, a big live oak limb,
1:10:37 > 1:10:42and the axe hung and Earl just disappeared off the hood.
1:10:42 > 1:10:45We were going 30mph when he did it.
1:10:45 > 1:10:48It looked like the warlocks got him!
1:10:48 > 1:10:55It turns out he was so high and so drunk that he'd held onto the axe handle and it pulled him off
1:10:55 > 1:11:00and he was laying in the middle of the road laughing like hell.
1:11:00 > 1:11:05Most people it would kill, but he was one of them tough, insane Louisiana people.
1:11:05 > 1:11:10I guess he's either dead or in prison now.
1:11:10 > 1:11:15Probably grew up in a nice little house like that there,
1:11:15 > 1:11:17broke his mama's heart.
1:11:20 > 1:11:24# Oh, alone I took to drinking
1:11:27 > 1:11:31# Bottles of cheap whiskey
1:11:31 > 1:11:34# And staggering through the backwoods
1:11:34 > 1:11:37# Killing snakes with a sharpened stick... #
1:11:37 > 1:11:43Everybody will tell you the South's not a place, it's a state of mind. I think the South is an atmosphere.
1:11:43 > 1:11:47# ..Every creature casts a shadow
1:11:47 > 1:11:52# Under the sun's golden finger... #
1:11:52 > 1:11:54I used to live in New York City
1:11:54 > 1:12:00and I'd ride my bike over that damn Brooklyn bridge every day.
1:12:00 > 1:12:02There was a white line on it
1:12:02 > 1:12:07and I used to try and get my bike to sit right on the white line,
1:12:07 > 1:12:13going at 40mph, I'd try to get my bike on the white line, the tyre to touch it.
1:12:13 > 1:12:18And I noticed that, if I looked down directly at my tyre,
1:12:18 > 1:12:20I could never keep it on the line.
1:12:20 > 1:12:25But if I looked up and sort of glazed my view of things,
1:12:25 > 1:12:27I could keep it on the white line.
1:12:27 > 1:12:32It was peculiar. I reckon, if you look directly at something,
1:12:32 > 1:12:34it's...
1:12:34 > 1:12:37inapprehendible.
1:12:37 > 1:12:39Sometimes you've got to look away
1:12:39 > 1:12:43before you can...achieve something.
1:12:43 > 1:12:47You don't see the South when you ride along the interstate.
1:12:47 > 1:12:52You pull off and there's Cracker Barrel Oil or Dillard's or whatever.
1:12:52 > 1:12:56But you go five or ten miles off the interstate
1:12:56 > 1:13:01and you get to the South as it was 50 years ago or 100 years ago.
1:13:01 > 1:13:04You can't do that in many places.
1:13:04 > 1:13:09# ..Every creature casts a shadow
1:13:09 > 1:13:15# Under the sun's golden finger
1:13:15 > 1:13:20# But when the sun sinks past the waving grass
1:13:20 > 1:13:26# Some shadows are dragged along. #
1:13:28 > 1:13:33# Christ in the cradle It's a wintry day
1:13:34 > 1:13:39# Walking to church in the pouring rain
1:13:39 > 1:13:44# I've got the heirs of Eve and the mark of Cain
1:13:44 > 1:13:49# But I can't get free of this being born stain. #
1:14:01 > 1:14:04See, when I was a boy,
1:14:04 > 1:14:06a Sears Roebuck catalogue,
1:14:06 > 1:14:11a great thick thing, came to everybody's mailbox in the South.
1:14:11 > 1:14:17The first thing that struck us was everybody in the Sears Roebuck catalogue was perfect.
1:14:17 > 1:14:22There weren't any bald heads. Everybody had all their fingers.
1:14:22 > 1:14:26Nobody had any open and running sores on their bodies.
1:14:26 > 1:14:30But everybody we knew had a finger missing
1:14:30 > 1:14:34or one eye put out from a staple glancing off a post.
1:14:35 > 1:14:39In other words, in our world, everybody was maimed and mutilated,
1:14:39 > 1:14:44whereas everybody in a Sears Roebuck catalogue world was perfect.
1:14:44 > 1:14:51And so, we started to tell stories about the people, give 'em names, said where they was from.
1:14:51 > 1:14:55We'd turn over and see this young girl standing in a spring frock
1:14:55 > 1:15:00and say, "See this girl here? She is the daughter of him standing here..."
1:15:00 > 1:15:06We'd turn about 40 pages back. "Him standing with his shotgun, that's her daddy.
1:15:06 > 1:15:11"You know how come he's looking kinda startled there like that?
1:15:11 > 1:15:18"It's because this fella over here in this green suit with the sharp creases in it,
1:15:18 > 1:15:24"he's seeing that girl, his daughter, and he's doing her wrong, being nasty.
1:15:24 > 1:15:30"And he's gonna fix that fella, he's gonna fix him good. Probably gonna kill him."
1:15:30 > 1:15:36And before it was over, we had everybody related, fighting, feuding and the rest of it.
1:15:36 > 1:15:42BANJO PLAYS # I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
1:15:42 > 1:15:46# Travelling through this world of woe
1:15:46 > 1:15:50# Ain't no sickness, toil or danger
1:15:50 > 1:15:53# In that bright land to which I go
1:15:53 > 1:15:58# I'm going there to see my father
1:15:58 > 1:16:02# Said he'd meet me when I come
1:16:02 > 1:16:06# I'm only going over Jordan
1:16:06 > 1:16:10# I'm only going over home... #
1:16:23 > 1:16:27# I know dark clouds are gonna gather round me
1:16:27 > 1:16:31# I know my way be rough and steep
1:16:31 > 1:16:36# Yet beautiful fields lie just before me
1:16:36 > 1:16:40# Where God's redeemed their vigils keep
1:16:40 > 1:16:45# I'm going there to see my loved ones
1:16:45 > 1:16:49# They've gone before me one by one
1:16:49 > 1:16:53# I'm only going over Jordan
1:16:53 > 1:16:57# I'm only going over home... #
1:17:11 > 1:17:16My ma let my brother, who's older than I am,
1:17:16 > 1:17:22and my cousins, catch some birds and keep 'em in the house, in a little room.
1:17:22 > 1:17:27One night, Annie, as she sat in that rocker, she hasn't said anything.
1:17:27 > 1:17:33It's too quiet, too still, hearing them trees and that wind, and her being quiet and I said, "What is it?"
1:17:33 > 1:17:38She said nothing. I said, "What is it, Annie?" She said, "Them birds."
1:17:38 > 1:17:41I said, "What about them birds?"
1:17:41 > 1:17:47She said, "Them birds. You don't know it, young 'un, but a bird can spit."
1:17:47 > 1:17:51I said, "What?" She said, "He can spit, open his mouth and spit.
1:17:51 > 1:17:56"You got your mouth open and it goes in there, you're dead, young 'un."
1:17:56 > 1:18:01I said, "Why would he wanna do that?" "He usually don't.
1:18:01 > 1:18:05"But usually he ain't in nobody's house locked up neither.
1:18:06 > 1:18:10"You need to let them birds go before they spit in your mouth."
1:18:10 > 1:18:15On one level, this is just saying get the birds out of the house.
1:18:15 > 1:18:21On another level, she's telling you there's a right way to do things and there's a wrong way to do things.
1:18:21 > 1:18:26Everything had a right way and a wrong way.
1:18:26 > 1:18:28HE PLAYS BANJO
1:18:30 > 1:18:35Sorry to interrupt you, but will you play me a song?
1:18:35 > 1:18:37OK, let me think here.
1:18:39 > 1:18:41What kind of painting's on there?
1:18:41 > 1:18:44One's just a horseshoe there.
1:18:44 > 1:18:47And...a cross in the middle.
1:18:49 > 1:18:54Basically this is just a symbol for this being a work instrument for...
1:18:54 > 1:18:56for God.
1:19:01 > 1:19:03# The chill of Coffeeville
1:19:03 > 1:19:06# She's in those hills still
1:19:06 > 1:19:09# Kindness of her face so white
1:19:09 > 1:19:11# The chill of Coffeeville
1:19:11 > 1:19:14# Lord, pray it be your will
1:19:14 > 1:19:19# That she dwell in your house tonight... #
1:19:27 > 1:19:31# Cottonmouth, quick cross the water
1:19:31 > 1:19:34# She gave me her hand Phyllis Ann
1:19:34 > 1:19:38# Cottonmouth, quick cross the water... #
1:19:38 > 1:19:43HARRY CREWS: She would cook a possum in the oven,
1:19:43 > 1:19:49showed us how to butcher one - when the offal, the guts and stuff come out, you got rid of that.
1:19:49 > 1:19:55You didn't get rid of the brain. The head was a delicacy. She took out its little eyes.
1:19:55 > 1:20:02You... You...dug your hole and you put the guts and the blood and mess down in there.
1:20:02 > 1:20:04And the teeth.
1:20:04 > 1:20:09Then the eyes. But the eyes, bless God, would have to be pointing down
1:20:09 > 1:20:12so that if he woke up - and he would -
1:20:12 > 1:20:17and come looking for you who killed him - and he would -
1:20:17 > 1:20:22and him being a meat-eating carnivore, he'd come looking for you and find you.
1:20:22 > 1:20:27But if you put the eyes down and he woke up down there in the dirt,
1:20:27 > 1:20:31he'd start digging, cos they're digging animals.
1:20:31 > 1:20:37Well, when he woke up, he'd start digging but he's pointed the wrong way, unbeknowns to him.
1:20:37 > 1:20:41So he'd dig right on down and you're safe,
1:20:41 > 1:20:47cos he's gonna hit some little Chinaboy down on the other side of the earth, but not you!
1:20:47 > 1:20:52You're safe. Things like that kept you safe.
1:20:53 > 1:20:56The truth of the matter was
1:20:56 > 1:21:00stories was everything and everything was stories.
1:21:00 > 1:21:05Everybody told stories. It was a way of saying who they were in the world.
1:21:05 > 1:21:09It was their understanding of themselves.
1:21:09 > 1:21:14It was letting themselves know how they believed the world worked -
1:21:14 > 1:21:18the right way and the way that was not so right.
1:21:18 > 1:21:22# Sunday I am young and wild Monday I am lame
1:21:24 > 1:21:28# Tuesday I start twitching Wednesday I'm insane
1:21:31 > 1:21:35# Thursday I lay dying Friday I'm quite dead
1:21:37 > 1:21:41# Saturday I'm carried away by things better left unsaid
1:21:43 > 1:21:45# But heaven ain't no place, brother
1:21:45 > 1:21:48# Love ain't no word, sister
1:21:48 > 1:21:52# And prison ain't no building made of iron bars and stone
1:21:53 > 1:21:55# You can seek the rhyme and reason
1:21:55 > 1:21:58# But in the realm of the unknown
1:21:58 > 1:22:04# You won't catch no true reflections in that "Alabama Chrome"... #
1:22:04 > 1:22:08Can't buy a new car. Yours is all rusty.
1:22:08 > 1:22:13You cover it up with some duct tape. That's why they call it Alabama Chrome.
1:22:18 > 1:22:20Welcome to Smalltown in the South.
1:22:21 > 1:22:23You come pulling into town,
1:22:23 > 1:22:28you see all the strip joints, cut and shoot bars.
1:22:28 > 1:22:32Then you work your way into the respectable realm of...
1:22:34 > 1:22:38..churches and main-street businesses.
1:22:38 > 1:22:42It's a kind of crucible - the haves and the have-nots.
1:22:42 > 1:22:44The have-nots are round the edges...
1:22:44 > 1:22:47and they bury their powerlessness...
1:22:50 > 1:22:52..in sort of the ritual of...
1:22:52 > 1:22:55sin.
1:22:55 > 1:23:02Hello! I love the small town. It's not even half a mile across the whole town. Very small.
1:23:02 > 1:23:05Over here we have the church...
1:23:05 > 1:23:10Over here we have the truck stop. Over here a jump joint.
1:23:10 > 1:23:13And behind me we have a prison. A typical Southern town.
1:23:13 > 1:23:19Whatever you grow up in, if there's generations upon generations that have grown up in that before you,
1:23:19 > 1:23:25it gets in your blood. I had a cat one time that had never been out of the house.
1:23:26 > 1:23:31I was watching a TV show and there was a chicken on the TV.
1:23:31 > 1:23:34This cat had never seen a chicken.
1:23:34 > 1:23:38But the chicken came on the TV and my cat...
1:23:38 > 1:23:43instinctually went into a stalk mode. He just looked at it.
1:23:43 > 1:23:47He'd never seen a chicken and he wanted to kill that thing.
1:23:47 > 1:23:52It was in his blood to kill that chicken. In a small town like this,
1:23:52 > 1:23:57it's in your blood - you gotta either choose Jesus or choose hell.
1:23:57 > 1:24:02You've got your choice. And there's not a whole lot in-between.
1:24:02 > 1:24:07I guess if you've got your choice between grief and nothing,
1:24:07 > 1:24:12you'll take grief. You know you're alive when you're sad.
1:24:14 > 1:24:18Otherwise, how do you know you're alive?
1:24:19 > 1:24:23Did you see how short that town was? We ran out of town.
1:24:26 > 1:24:29# I came into town
1:24:29 > 1:24:35# I was looking for a job
1:24:36 > 1:24:39# I couldn't find nothing
1:24:39 > 1:24:43# I started looking
1:24:43 > 1:24:49# For someone to rob
1:24:56 > 1:25:00# I took out my ski mask
1:25:00 > 1:25:05# And I put it over my face
1:25:08 > 1:25:10# Walked into the feed store
1:25:11 > 1:25:17# And I robbed everyone in the place... #
1:25:17 > 1:25:22- WOMAN SINGS: - # First there was a funeral
1:25:22 > 1:25:27# And then there was a trial
1:25:29 > 1:25:33# They hung me in a courtyard there
1:25:34 > 1:25:42# And let me hang up there a while
1:25:45 > 1:25:52# Let me hang up there a while... #
1:26:01 > 1:26:04# I bought a new shirt
1:26:06 > 1:26:09# So soft to touch
1:26:11 > 1:26:16# And a new pair of beetle boots
1:26:16 > 1:26:24# Hope I didn't pay too much... #
1:26:29 > 1:26:33- What have you been doing? - Killing time.
1:26:33 > 1:26:35It won't die.
1:26:37 > 1:26:41Did I tell you about this buddy of mine?
1:26:41 > 1:26:45- Who's that?- You don't know him.
1:26:45 > 1:26:47He was in an accident.
1:26:47 > 1:26:50A bad traffic accident.
1:26:54 > 1:26:59He was with his wife... having sex while they were driving.
1:27:00 > 1:27:04- I guess he...- And he lost control of the vehicle. Wow!
1:27:06 > 1:27:08- The car rolled over, he wasn't hurt,
1:27:08 > 1:27:13but she was thrown from the vehicle and had a spinal injury.
1:27:14 > 1:27:20Now she's in a coma, probably will never get out of it.
1:27:20 > 1:27:24Now he's so completely ate up with guilt,
1:27:24 > 1:27:28he spends all his time at the hospital, lost his job...
1:27:30 > 1:27:33# My eyes got heavy
1:27:35 > 1:27:38# I fell asleep
1:27:41 > 1:27:45# Usher came by and said
1:27:45 > 1:27:53# "Get out of here, you creep." #
1:27:53 > 1:27:57His whole...thing now to justify his existence
1:27:57 > 1:28:01is that he'll never touch another woman.
1:28:01 > 1:28:04He feels like that...
1:28:04 > 1:28:08to make amends...for what happened.
1:28:08 > 1:28:13Like he says, it's not a sacrifice he's making.
1:28:14 > 1:28:16It's a religious thing, a penance.
1:28:16 > 1:28:22- An act of love.- It's an act of love, exactly. Exactly.
1:28:22 > 1:28:25How long has she been in a coma?
1:28:26 > 1:28:29- Seven years.- Oh.
1:28:29 > 1:28:32# ..Then there was a trial
1:28:33 > 1:28:37# Hung me in a courtyard there
1:28:38 > 1:28:45# Let me hang up there a while
1:28:48 > 1:28:57# Let me hang up there a while. #
1:29:08 > 1:29:14One Saturday afternoon, this man came in and asked me if I could cash his cheque. I told him I couldn't.
1:29:15 > 1:29:21So he went down the street and got a couple of cans of beer and got his cheque cashed.
1:29:21 > 1:29:28He got back along, about the door... and I saw this white man come up behind him and give him a prod,
1:29:28 > 1:29:33took both feet and kicked him in the back and he went down in the gutter.
1:29:33 > 1:29:38This old man came out of his coat with a butcher knife.
1:29:38 > 1:29:43He took that butcher knife and just punched the guy in his stomach, all the way through him.
1:29:43 > 1:29:49When he did that, this other guy reached in his pocket and got HIS knife out
1:29:49 > 1:29:53and they were laying in the gutter fighting.
1:29:53 > 1:29:58The police happened to come by and they took them to jail.
1:30:00 > 1:30:04You know, it's the bad, the bad's more exciting.
1:30:04 > 1:30:08Doing bad's exciting, you know? That's...
1:30:08 > 1:30:12Getting in trouble, that was the outlaw-type ways, you know.
1:30:13 > 1:30:17I listened to outlaw music and stuff like that
1:30:17 > 1:30:22and that's just...that was really what I wanted to be, in a way.
1:30:22 > 1:30:25- It started a long time ago.
1:30:25 > 1:30:28I was smoking weed and drinking...
1:30:28 > 1:30:32and one day one of my friends came down to Georgia,
1:30:32 > 1:30:38and he had had it and asked me if I wanted to try it. I did and I liked it
1:30:38 > 1:30:40and I just kept on, kept on and...
1:30:40 > 1:30:43couldn't get enough of it in the end.
1:30:44 > 1:30:48I attempted to break into a bar in...
1:30:48 > 1:30:51Christmas Eve 2000.
1:30:51 > 1:30:54They gave me seven years flat.
1:30:54 > 1:30:58I had a good family, well-respected people and...
1:30:58 > 1:31:03I would get in trouble, they would get me out of trouble...
1:31:03 > 1:31:08until it didn't matter if I got in trouble or not - they were gonna get me out.
1:31:08 > 1:31:12Then finally they couldn't get me out and now here I am.
1:31:12 > 1:31:15I broke in a house...
1:31:15 > 1:31:17down at home...
1:31:17 > 1:31:19Uh...
1:31:19 > 1:31:22I got convicted on that
1:31:22 > 1:31:25and I had a parole violation...
1:31:27 > 1:31:29..and here I am.
1:31:30 > 1:31:35It was, like, eleven. We was drinking and smoking pot,
1:31:35 > 1:31:39cos that was the only excitement going on.
1:31:39 > 1:31:43I just kept on drinking and kept on...
1:31:43 > 1:31:47I got into drugs and heavier drugs and...
1:31:47 > 1:31:52I started doing cocaine and ecstasy and meth, you know, and...
1:31:52 > 1:31:56That's about the only excitement around here, you know.
1:31:56 > 1:31:58Armed robbery.
1:32:00 > 1:32:02Boring, really.
1:32:03 > 1:32:06There ain't nothing to do.
1:32:06 > 1:32:09Trouble. Get into trouble, that's it.
1:32:09 > 1:32:13I do this just to kinda keep my mind off of the...
1:32:14 > 1:32:17..predicament I've gotten myself into.
1:32:17 > 1:32:21Selling crystal meths and stolen property.
1:32:24 > 1:32:26That's about it.
1:32:26 > 1:32:29Tell them how you got caught.
1:32:29 > 1:32:31- No. I just...
1:32:31 > 1:32:35- I could handle some of that. - You sure would.
1:32:35 > 1:32:38You sure would.
1:32:40 > 1:32:42I don't know... Just...
1:32:43 > 1:32:45I...
1:32:46 > 1:32:49I don't really want to talk about it.
1:32:49 > 1:32:53I guess my family is what got me started. I just...
1:32:53 > 1:32:59I remember growing up, never going to church or nothing, my family party, party.
1:32:59 > 1:33:04Then when I got about 13, old enough to think I was big enough, they find God!
1:33:05 > 1:33:10I just couldn't turn over after living that long the way I'd lived.
1:33:10 > 1:33:15Hell, they wanted to do right then and I didn't see no point in it.
1:33:15 > 1:33:21I remember when I was a kid, you used to just dive into the river and didn't care what was out there.
1:33:21 > 1:33:26But as you grow up and become an adult, you fear those things.
1:33:26 > 1:33:30But as a kid, you don't. It's just part of growing up.
1:33:35 > 1:33:37I grew up, I was a Pentecost.
1:33:37 > 1:33:42When I went to church. And it was a really hard church, real strict.
1:33:42 > 1:33:44And...
1:33:45 > 1:33:51It taught me you had to speak in tongues. Well, when I went to church I never did speak in tongues.
1:33:51 > 1:33:55They didn't teach... There was no middle ground.
1:33:56 > 1:34:00You was either...in church or you was in the bars.
1:34:00 > 1:34:04It was one way or the other. There was no middle ground.
1:34:04 > 1:34:08Hell, I worked doing roofing, you know.
1:34:08 > 1:34:11..I ain't in. ..I made $300 a week.
1:34:11 > 1:34:15Yet I could sell crystal meths and make $5,000 a week.
1:34:15 > 1:34:18I didn't have to bust my ass at all.
1:34:18 > 1:34:22Just...just last time, it caught up with me.
1:34:22 > 1:34:24I got locked up in 1989.
1:34:24 > 1:34:30They gave me 120 years for five cell charges - they gave me 20 years a-piece.
1:34:30 > 1:34:35They got child molesters - they slap him on the hand, give him six months.
1:34:35 > 1:34:40I sell a little dope and you want to throw me away for ever.
1:34:40 > 1:34:46My mama's died since I've been in. My daddy. I've lost my kids. I had to give them away to adoption.
1:34:46 > 1:34:49I don't know how to explain my life. It's just so messed up.
1:34:53 > 1:34:59'When life doesn't have a lot of pleasures to offer you, you gotta do something.'
1:34:59 > 1:35:05It's like a buddy of mine. He said, "Let's do something, even if it's something wrong."
1:35:06 > 1:35:11Every town needs a bad guy, somebody who can take the heat.
1:35:11 > 1:35:13They don't like me.
1:35:13 > 1:35:16They think I'm a little crazy.
1:35:16 > 1:35:19You know, just...
1:35:25 > 1:35:29I'd drink, party and raise hell on Saturday nights...
1:35:29 > 1:35:33get up on Sunday morning, go to church, try talking to a good man.
1:35:33 > 1:35:36They act like they don't do bad things.
1:35:37 > 1:35:40All of 'em's bad in one way or another.
1:35:55 > 1:36:00# Cold, cold, cold As the cold wind blows
1:36:03 > 1:36:07# I was halfway there one frozen dawn
1:36:09 > 1:36:14# When she appeared at the side of the road
1:36:14 > 1:36:20# A woman weeping in the frozen snow
1:36:21 > 1:36:27# Her black hair flying across the empty road
1:36:27 > 1:36:33# Cold, cold, cold As the cold wind blows
1:36:35 > 1:36:40# I pulled to the shoulder and she fell to the snow... #
1:36:40 > 1:36:43A Pentecostal town like this...
1:36:44 > 1:36:50..Saturday night comes, you gotta decide who you are, what you're gonna do.
1:36:50 > 1:36:52When you're poor...
1:36:55 > 1:36:59..and you've got very little resources,
1:36:59 > 1:37:04you can't live up to God's expectations. It hurts too much.
1:37:04 > 1:37:09You're waiting for that promise of heaven, and it never comes.
1:37:09 > 1:37:14Pretty soon you think, "I'm just gonna take what I can get."
1:37:14 > 1:37:20# ..And she called my name in the swirlin' snow
1:37:20 > 1:37:25# And I turned to run back to my car
1:37:27 > 1:37:33# There was nothing waiting but her frozen arms
1:37:33 > 1:37:40# Cold, cold, cold As the cold wind blows. #
1:37:40 > 1:37:42I'm gonna get outta here.
1:37:42 > 1:37:46I got no real use for a place like this.
1:37:46 > 1:37:52Y'all might wanna go inside and see what they have to offer. It might be educational for you.
1:37:52 > 1:37:58- Johnny, I'm heading out. You want a ride?- I don't think so. OK.
1:38:01 > 1:38:05- This is your bar? - Mine and my husband's...
1:38:05 > 1:38:09What you got here is your basic, Deep South, cut and shoot bar.
1:38:09 > 1:38:13To me, I look at it as a thing of great beauty.
1:38:13 > 1:38:19It's a representation of the humanity, for all its good and bad, that lives there.
1:38:19 > 1:38:22It's real. It's a real place.
1:38:22 > 1:38:26To those people inside there, they don't know it's a real place.
1:38:27 > 1:38:29That's just the place they go.
1:38:33 > 1:38:35'Slim's has been here for ever.'
1:38:35 > 1:38:38I've known Slim's since I was a little kid.
1:38:38 > 1:38:44- All you gotta do, baby, is come down and save 'em.- You're not sinners.
1:38:44 > 1:38:46You're just having a good time.
1:38:46 > 1:38:51Let's go to confession Sunday morning and be saved(!)
1:38:51 > 1:38:55Look, I'm a backslider.
1:38:55 > 1:38:59I'll tell you... this is rock and roll.
1:38:59 > 1:39:04I was rock and roll when I was born. I'm rock and roll now.
1:39:16 > 1:39:19There's not a lot to do here.
1:39:19 > 1:39:26But you can invite people like this to become your friends, so you can buy friends.
1:39:26 > 1:39:30The Bible says, when you backslide you must start your first works over.
1:39:38 > 1:39:41MUSIC PLAYS, PEOPLE SHOUT
1:39:45 > 1:39:50You love Jesus and you're for real, you shall be saved. That's what the Bible says.
1:39:50 > 1:39:52The devil cannot read your mind.
1:39:53 > 1:39:59A town like this is like a pressure cooker...like a...like a vice.
1:40:00 > 1:40:05People in the main, they just get squeezed down and flattened out.
1:40:05 > 1:40:08Like this, they get squeezed down.
1:40:10 > 1:40:15End of the cone, what's around the edges there, this part right here...
1:40:21 > 1:40:23..that's your criminal element.
1:40:25 > 1:40:27There's your religious fanatics.
1:40:27 > 1:40:30That right here, that's the artists.
1:40:32 > 1:40:35They don't fit in the cone.
1:40:35 > 1:40:41They gotta find some other way to express themselves or they get eaten like I ate that. I'm the small town!
1:40:43 > 1:40:48You take Jesus into your heart, you're going to heaven.
1:40:48 > 1:40:52You've just got to repent, ask God to forgive you.
1:40:52 > 1:40:55Sex in the South is the best.
1:41:04 > 1:41:07We're family.
1:41:07 > 1:41:09It's not drinking, it's not drugs.
1:41:09 > 1:41:12It's family.
1:41:12 > 1:41:18- Don't know when to say no. - But God gave you enough sense not to jump in front of a 18-wheeler.
1:41:22 > 1:41:28Don't ever get the wrong idea about little bars on the side of the road.
1:41:28 > 1:41:31You can meet some of the best people.
1:41:31 > 1:41:37- That's when I earned my... - But God didn't have no...
1:41:37 > 1:41:40Best of five. Best of five.
1:42:11 > 1:42:17There's a great tradition emerging from a clash with the sacred and the secular.
1:42:17 > 1:42:23The devil's alive in the South. Without the devil, what's God? Nothing. You need both.
1:42:23 > 1:42:29- You need something dark, ghosts... you need evil before good makes any sense.- Yeah. You need some sin.
1:42:30 > 1:42:36Those people like Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, they could have been priests or killers.
1:42:36 > 1:42:40The amount of blood, the bloodthirstiness of so many of the songs...
1:42:40 > 1:42:43It's just oral tradition in poverty.
1:42:43 > 1:42:49But what is it about Southern music and Southern religion that has a lot of blood and violent images to it?
1:42:49 > 1:42:55- It's very sensual.- Yes. It's almost...Pentecostal. It's a God, a devil that you can touch and feel.
1:42:55 > 1:43:01- The flames of hell are all around you.- Pentecostalism is very sensual. We're not snake handlers.
1:43:02 > 1:43:07- Most people don't want that kind of relationship with God.- I don't!
1:43:07 > 1:43:12They don't want to even take it that far, but to take that step is an amazing leap...
1:43:28 > 1:43:31For the uninitiated walking in...
1:43:31 > 1:43:33seeing a healing service or...
1:43:35 > 1:43:38..a spiritual church in full bloom,
1:43:38 > 1:43:41it's quite a wondrous sight.
1:43:41 > 1:43:45There's a real power there that you can't deny.
1:43:45 > 1:43:47It's pretty incredible.
1:43:47 > 1:43:50And there's a lot of love there.
1:43:50 > 1:43:54And there's a lot of... There's a presence.
1:43:55 > 1:43:57It's... It's hard to explain.
1:43:59 > 1:44:01It's just so hard to explain.
1:44:01 > 1:44:05Things happen there that defy explanation.
1:44:05 > 1:44:10And you feel like you're in the presence of God, real strong.
1:44:11 > 1:44:14It gets sort of addictive.
1:44:14 > 1:44:20You go to a Presbyterian church, you go to a Catholic church, and it's a lot of friendly talk.
1:44:20 > 1:44:25But it doesn't give you any clue that beyond your mind...
1:44:26 > 1:44:30..that there's some...immensity...
1:44:30 > 1:44:32that loves you.
1:44:32 > 1:44:34You get in one of these churches,
1:44:34 > 1:44:39the first thing they do is set the mind at the door,
1:44:39 > 1:44:41walk in with your heart.
1:44:41 > 1:44:46And it feels...real good sometimes just to leave that mind behind
1:44:46 > 1:44:49and let your heart do the talking.
1:44:50 > 1:44:52I'm excited about Pentecost!
1:44:52 > 1:44:55I'm excited about the Holy Ghost.
1:44:55 > 1:44:59I'm excited that there is a power that can bring a man out of darkness
1:44:59 > 1:45:04and put him on a pew and put his life back together
1:45:04 > 1:45:08- and put his wife back in his home. - CONGREGATION CHEER AND APPLAUD
1:45:08 > 1:45:13'I could tell you what the blues was about because I had them.
1:45:13 > 1:45:17'From the time I was 16 until I was 25, I used drugs every day.
1:45:18 > 1:45:22'I used to lie on my couch on Sunday afternoons, high all weekend,'
1:45:22 > 1:45:25and I'd be saying to myself,
1:45:25 > 1:45:28"There's got to be something more significant than this."
1:45:28 > 1:45:33When they look at us, they say, "My goodness, you folks are crazy.
1:45:33 > 1:45:39"You folks act wild, like you've lost your mind." No, we found our mind!
1:45:39 > 1:45:44Not only our mind, we found our purpose, our destiny, our dignity.
1:45:44 > 1:45:46We're not lost, we're not crazy,
1:45:46 > 1:45:51we're not part of the thing that's turning the world upside down.
1:45:51 > 1:45:55- We're here to turn it back upright. - CHEERING
1:45:55 > 1:45:57GUITAR MUSIC
1:46:05 > 1:46:09# Some people make fun of the way I move
1:46:11 > 1:46:15# They may talk about me cos I carry this book
1:46:17 > 1:46:21# It's plain that they don't know
1:46:24 > 1:46:27# I'm a sinner but he don't know
1:46:29 > 1:46:33# And when the devil came around I said, "Listen good..." #
1:46:33 > 1:46:39If a bit of chemically-induced excitement can make people happy on a Saturday night,
1:46:39 > 1:46:45the righteousness and the peace of the Holy Ghost can make YOU excited every day!
1:46:45 > 1:46:52It can make you have a purpose to live. Yes, I'm a radical. Yes, I'm a fanatic. Yes, I'm extreme.
1:46:52 > 1:46:57I used to be extreme in one direction. I found what was really wrong.
1:46:57 > 1:46:59# I'm going through the valley
1:46:59 > 1:47:01# I'll reach that mountain top
1:47:01 > 1:47:05# I'm rooting for that city I can't stop
1:47:05 > 1:47:11# Oh, Lord, hear me when I pray
1:47:11 > 1:47:15# I want to stand where you're standing, Lord... #
1:47:18 > 1:47:23# One day Jesus will call my name
1:47:23 > 1:47:29# As days go by I hope I don't stay the same
1:47:29 > 1:47:35# I wanna get so close to him that there's no big change
1:47:35 > 1:47:41# On that day when Jesus calls my name... #
1:47:41 > 1:47:43Sing it with me.
1:47:43 > 1:47:49# One day Jesus will call my name
1:47:49 > 1:47:55# As days go by I hope I don't stay the same
1:47:55 > 1:48:01# I wanna get so close to him that there's no big change
1:48:01 > 1:48:05# On that day when Jesus calls my name... #
1:48:05 > 1:48:08INDIVIDUALS CALL OUT
1:48:10 > 1:48:12SHE SPEAKS IN TONGUES
1:48:24 > 1:48:29# ..Some days I bless him And some days I curse
1:48:29 > 1:48:36# And many's the day I put myself first
1:48:36 > 1:48:41# But it's not what I do the cross made that plain
1:48:42 > 1:48:46# And one day Jesus is gonna call my name. #
1:48:46 > 1:48:48Help us sing it now.
1:48:48 > 1:48:52# One day Jesus is gonna call my name
1:48:52 > 1:48:54# Hallelujah
1:48:54 > 1:48:59# As days go by I hope I don't stay the same
1:48:59 > 1:49:04# I wanna get so close to him it's no big change
1:49:04 > 1:49:08# On that day Jesus calls my name. #
1:49:08 > 1:49:12- PEOPLE WHOOP - That's right. Yes.
1:49:12 > 1:49:17That's what we're looking for. Just keep it up. That's right.
1:49:19 > 1:49:22Yes. You're holding on.
1:49:22 > 1:49:26Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
1:49:26 > 1:49:29In a poor world like this,
1:49:29 > 1:49:34gravity seems a lot stronger. It's pulling you down into the earth.
1:49:34 > 1:49:38And every day it's a fight not to disappear...
1:49:38 > 1:49:40the way the gravity's pulling you.
1:49:40 > 1:49:43Maybe you're thinking
1:49:43 > 1:49:50if you're gonna disappear, you're gonna disappear according to your own terms, escaping from reality...
1:49:51 > 1:49:53..define your own, make your own,
1:49:53 > 1:49:57be the guru of your own little Tibet.
1:49:57 > 1:50:02The beauty of the people who have no wealth but still...
1:50:03 > 1:50:09..enrich their world with their stories and their songs and their language...
1:50:09 > 1:50:13You could walk into any one of these mobile homes
1:50:14 > 1:50:19and you could hear the best story, the saddest story that you'll ever hear in your life.
1:50:19 > 1:50:24It was a little alien about this big, and it was really messed up,
1:50:24 > 1:50:29so I went and I had to get this one done. This is a cover-up.
1:50:29 > 1:50:33I used to have mine and my ex-husband's name.
1:50:33 > 1:50:35This one is a cover-up.
1:50:35 > 1:50:39It had initials "BE" here and I covered them up.
1:50:39 > 1:50:42And this one here is my son's tattoo.
1:50:42 > 1:50:45You see? He died about 15 years ago.
1:50:45 > 1:50:49And when he died, I put the wings on to represent him.
1:50:49 > 1:50:54That's an old gang I belonged to. I'm gonna get that one covered up.
1:50:54 > 1:50:57I'm gonna get this one covered up.
1:50:57 > 1:51:00The ones on my back are cover-ups.
1:51:00 > 1:51:03And I got...
1:51:03 > 1:51:05this one right here.
1:51:06 > 1:51:11This is a sister tattoo. Another girl got one just like this, named Star.
1:51:11 > 1:51:16And we both had this one on us, too. They were called sister tattoos.
1:51:17 > 1:51:24And then...I got a... a messed-up pyramid with one of my ex-boyfriends' initials in it.
1:51:24 > 1:51:28And then the panther with the blue wings and the heart with...
1:51:28 > 1:51:34the two hearts with my two sons' names in it, and I got a ninja star here.
1:51:34 > 1:51:36I was 16.
1:51:36 > 1:51:38It was young, dumb years.
1:51:38 > 1:51:42There's nobody perfect, except the Lord himself.
1:51:42 > 1:51:46And if anybody tells you they're perfect, they're a liar.
1:51:57 > 1:52:01# It's gonna rain champagne
1:52:01 > 1:52:05# And the hills are gonna dance
1:52:10 > 1:52:13# There will be power in the blood
1:52:13 > 1:52:17# When that helicopter comes
1:52:22 > 1:52:28# Rocks are gonna roll uphill And the sun will dive in the sea... #
1:52:28 > 1:52:33There you go. A lot of rapture talking, that car right there.
1:52:33 > 1:52:36The Bible says you must be born again.
1:52:36 > 1:52:41The rapture? What's gonna take place in the near future, I think.
1:52:41 > 1:52:47These scenes are the Lord and his angels. They're coming out of the graveyard.
1:52:47 > 1:52:51The Bible says the grave will come up first to meet the Lord.
1:52:51 > 1:52:57They'll be coming out them buildings, the ones that's ready to meet the Lord.
1:52:57 > 1:53:04Pilots in planes - one pilot may be a born-again Christian... If he's born again,
1:53:04 > 1:53:09he will go with the Lord. If he's not saved, he'll be left.
1:53:09 > 1:53:15If you're not born again, it don't make any difference if you've been to church all your life,
1:53:15 > 1:53:18you MUST be born again when Jesus comes.
1:53:18 > 1:53:20As I travelled all around the world,
1:53:20 > 1:53:25I became more and more dissatisfied with my search for God.
1:53:25 > 1:53:28I couldn't find God wherever I went.
1:53:29 > 1:53:31I couldn't find any meaning.
1:53:32 > 1:53:37Then I realised I was looking for what everybody else was,
1:53:37 > 1:53:42I was sort of looking for the gold tooth in God's crooked smile.
1:53:43 > 1:53:45So I came back to the South...
1:53:46 > 1:53:49..looking for that.
1:53:50 > 1:53:54And I ended up stumbling on places like this right here.
1:53:57 > 1:54:01And it's all wrong. It's so wrong that it's right.
1:54:14 > 1:54:19They come in here to... They've got problems. Some of them's divorced.
1:54:19 > 1:54:22Some's in a bad frame of mind.
1:54:22 > 1:54:27They come in here to find out if the Lord can help 'em,
1:54:27 > 1:54:32and he CAN help 'em. The love and the blood is what does the work.
1:54:32 > 1:54:36Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German poet,
1:54:36 > 1:54:41he said, "There is no crime of which I cannot conceive myself guilty."
1:54:41 > 1:54:45You think about that for a minute, buddy.
1:54:45 > 1:54:48That doesn't just include homicide...
1:54:50 > 1:54:52..that includes infanticide.
1:54:52 > 1:54:57My understanding of that is that he is admitting...
1:54:57 > 1:55:00his oneness...with mankind,
1:55:00 > 1:55:03his involvement in mankind.
1:55:04 > 1:55:06He did NOT escape...
1:55:08 > 1:55:10..original sin.
1:55:10 > 1:55:13# ..a bar in southern Mississippi
1:55:13 > 1:55:16# She meets a man by the name of Charles Lee
1:55:16 > 1:55:21# She introduces herself to him as Lee Charles
1:55:23 > 1:55:27# "What a coincidence," he says And one week later they are married
1:55:27 > 1:55:31# He wakes up one night six months down the line
1:55:31 > 1:55:34# To find her staring at him in the oddest way
1:55:36 > 1:55:38# When he says, "Honey, what's wrong?"
1:55:38 > 1:55:43# She says, "Nothing, dear. Except that tears are a stupid trick of God."
1:55:46 > 1:55:50# By the time they find his body six weeks later
1:55:52 > 1:55:56# Hell, she's a thousand miles away... #
1:55:56 > 1:56:02- Child molesters and people who kill cops.- They call it death row. - One of the guys grabbed a gun.
1:56:02 > 1:56:08- The guy said, "You had a gun, why didn't you do something?"- Murder. - The woman was seven months pregnant.
1:56:08 > 1:56:14- She got thrown through the window. - # Cut it, spit it up... # - Then thrown back in.
1:56:14 > 1:56:17# Baby, why don't you cry?
1:56:17 > 1:56:20# Baby, why don't you cry?
1:56:20 > 1:56:23# Baby, why don't you cry...? #
1:56:23 > 1:56:28Kimberly Leach was kidnapped by Ted Bundy.
1:56:28 > 1:56:33- If I would have been the trial judge that tried Ted Bundy for murder... - Killed him.
1:56:33 > 1:56:39As the judge, I wouldn't do it unless I was personally willing to throw the switch myself.
1:56:39 > 1:56:45They take that blade and stick it in the handle, they go by you... you're laid wide open.
1:56:45 > 1:56:47Man being what he is...
1:56:49 > 1:56:51finds out WHO he is...
1:56:52 > 1:56:55..in moments of extremis,
1:56:55 > 1:57:00when he's gotta jump right or jump left, he can't stay where he is.
1:57:00 > 1:57:04Until I got saved, I was married for 27 years.
1:57:04 > 1:57:08And when I got cancer, I wound up getting divorced.
1:57:08 > 1:57:13I feel like I've been to hell and back. I had a son that was 15...
1:57:13 > 1:57:16He passed away.
1:57:16 > 1:57:20And...that stops you from believing for a while.
1:57:20 > 1:57:24But I believe that he went to a better place,
1:57:24 > 1:57:28because he was headed in the wrong direction too.
1:57:28 > 1:57:34And it took me a long time to figure out that he is in a better place.
1:57:35 > 1:57:39I went to his grave the other day, first time in 12 years.
1:57:39 > 1:57:42It took me a long time to go there.
1:57:42 > 1:57:44I'm glad I did.
1:57:48 > 1:57:52# I met a little girl in Knoxville... #
1:57:52 > 1:57:55Are you all gonna sing? All right.
1:57:55 > 1:57:58# I met a little girl in Knoxville
1:57:58 > 1:58:02# A town we all know well
1:58:02 > 1:58:07# And every Sunday evening
1:58:07 > 1:58:11# In her home I'd dwell
1:58:11 > 1:58:14# We went to take an evening walk
1:58:14 > 1:58:19# About a mile from town
1:58:19 > 1:58:23# I picked a stick up off the ground
1:58:23 > 1:58:27# And knocked that fair girl down
1:58:27 > 1:58:32# She fell down on her bended knees
1:58:32 > 1:58:35# For mercy she did cry
1:58:35 > 1:58:40# "Oh, Willy, dear don't kill me here
1:58:40 > 1:58:44# "I'm unprepared to die."
1:58:44 > 1:58:48# She never spoke another word
1:58:48 > 1:58:52# I only beat her more
1:58:52 > 1:58:56# Until the ground around me
1:58:56 > 1:59:00# With her blood did flow... #
1:59:02 > 1:59:08WOMAN: I think hell to me is everlasting, it's never gonna stop. It never will stop.
1:59:08 > 1:59:13You will burn internally, starting at the feet or the hands or the head.
1:59:13 > 1:59:19It may start in the inner of your whole body and come on the outside and you'll burn just like that...
1:59:19 > 1:59:24Most ordinary conversation in the South has a theological...
1:59:24 > 1:59:26basis.
1:59:26 > 1:59:28This guy had been in prison.
1:59:29 > 1:59:34He killed numerous of women, numerous of children, numerous of men,
1:59:34 > 1:59:37he killed to kill. Before he died,
1:59:37 > 1:59:42he told the man that his feet were burning.
1:59:42 > 1:59:45His friend watched and saw...
1:59:45 > 1:59:48what that man was dealing with
1:59:48 > 1:59:55and he told him, "Yes, I do believe in hell now. My feet are burning, they're on fire." He was going.
1:59:55 > 1:59:57GUITAR PLAYS
1:59:57 > 2:00:01# Who stole my crown of spiky thorns?
2:00:05 > 2:00:09# Who stole my garments ripped up and torn?
2:00:13 > 2:00:18# Who stole my hammer? Who stole my nails?
2:00:21 > 2:00:26# Who locked Barabbas up in a jail?
2:00:29 > 2:00:34# Who took the burden of the cross?
2:00:37 > 2:00:42# Who can measure what has been lost?
2:00:45 > 2:00:50# Miracles happen every day
2:00:52 > 2:00:55# There are two...roads
2:00:55 > 2:01:02# But there's only ONE real way... #
2:01:08 > 2:01:12You can ride down an old country road
2:01:12 > 2:01:19and see a house painted purple with Milk of Magnesia bottles hanging from the tree, thousands of them.
2:01:19 > 2:01:21I saw that in Florida once.
2:01:21 > 2:01:23That man had an aesthetic outburst,
2:01:24 > 2:01:26he just had to say something.
2:01:26 > 2:01:32He was desperate and the only tool he had was a thousand Milk of Magnesia bottles.
2:01:32 > 2:01:34He probably drank every one himself.
2:01:44 > 2:01:49My buddy, John Wood, he was a psychopathic individual.
2:01:49 > 2:01:55His family was famous for being the people most likely to end up spending life in prison.
2:01:55 > 2:02:00He threw a hand grenade at me one time when I was at the beach.
2:02:00 > 2:02:03One day, John got Jesus
2:02:03 > 2:02:05and he went insane for Jesus.
2:02:05 > 2:02:10He moved to the Philippines and became a preacher there.
2:02:10 > 2:02:13He got him a suit covered with lights
2:02:13 > 2:02:16that would blink John 3:16.
2:02:16 > 2:02:21He was just a regular, old Southern insane lunatic
2:02:21 > 2:02:24who, in his quest for union,
2:02:24 > 2:02:28ended up being more separate than ever.
2:02:35 > 2:02:38GUITAR PLAYS SOFTLY
2:02:38 > 2:02:41NO SOUND FROM TV
2:02:43 > 2:02:45I wish Kojak was on.
2:02:48 > 2:02:51Is that that Geeshie Wiley song they're playing?
2:02:52 > 2:02:54Let's try that. I love that song.
2:03:05 > 2:03:09# The last kind word
2:03:09 > 2:03:14# I heard my daddy say
2:03:15 > 2:03:19# Lord, the last kind word
2:03:19 > 2:03:23# I heard my daddy say
2:03:27 > 2:03:32# When you see me coming
2:03:33 > 2:03:37# Across the rich man's field
2:03:38 > 2:03:42# If I don't bring you flowers
2:03:42 > 2:03:46# I'll bring you a broken me
2:03:49 > 2:03:53# I went to the depot
2:03:53 > 2:03:57# I looked up at the sun
2:04:00 > 2:04:04# Christ, some train don't come
2:04:04 > 2:04:07# Gonna be some walking done
2:04:11 > 2:04:15# My mama told me
2:04:15 > 2:04:21# Just before she died
2:04:21 > 2:04:26# Lord, precious man-child
2:04:26 > 2:04:30# Don't you be so wild. #
2:04:33 > 2:04:35That's a great song, man.
2:04:36 > 2:04:38That's Geeshie Wiley.
2:04:38 > 2:04:41BANJO PLAYS
2:04:41 > 2:04:45# Stay by the brook Stay by the brook
2:04:45 > 2:04:49# You go down and stay by the brook... #
2:04:52 > 2:04:57When I was a little kid, I used to listen to the Gospel Jubilee,
2:04:57 > 2:05:03which is a white gospel TV show in Pensacola. I didn't know I was hearing mountain harmonies.
2:05:03 > 2:05:09I just heard... I heard people lonely for God. And I heard them crying out for his attention.
2:05:09 > 2:05:14And I guess I sympathised with it. I was lonely for God myself.
2:05:17 > 2:05:22I admired them for trying to talk to God in their simple voices,
2:05:22 > 2:05:26not trying to make them pretty or wear a fancy tuxedo.
2:05:34 > 2:05:39# Oh, meet me on the other side... #
2:05:39 > 2:05:42These hills right here are full of spirit.
2:05:42 > 2:05:46No wonder people are thinking about eternity and hell so much.
2:05:49 > 2:05:54Mortality is a frequent visitor to a place like this, I guess.
2:05:54 > 2:05:57Every lamppost is a crucifix.
2:05:57 > 2:06:01And every bridge has a little memorial on it.
2:06:03 > 2:06:06HIGH-PITCHED WHINING: "Amazing Grace"
2:07:06 > 2:07:11She just started laughing. She couldn't help herself,
2:07:11 > 2:07:15even though it was her granddaddy's funeral.
2:07:15 > 2:07:22I don't know what got into Amy and Kimberly and Christie either, her sisters.
2:07:22 > 2:07:26They all started laughing too. It was contagious.
2:07:26 > 2:07:29It was quite horrifying, though.
2:07:29 > 2:07:35You'd think a missionary woman would be more sombre at a funeral, but...
2:07:35 > 2:07:37She couldn't help it, because...
2:07:37 > 2:07:41their granddaddy was lying in the casket
2:07:41 > 2:07:46and Grandmother had had a stroke and lost her short-term memory
2:07:46 > 2:07:52and kept saying, "Wake up. Everybody's here. Wake up, Sud.
2:07:52 > 2:07:57"Wake up!" And for some reason, that just hit her as funny.
2:07:57 > 2:08:03I guess it was either laugh about it or cry about it. But, boy, she laughed so hard.
2:08:03 > 2:08:05Kimberly even snorted.
2:08:05 > 2:08:08I was not amused.
2:08:08 > 2:08:13But, anyway...that's the way it goes sometimes at funerals.
2:08:13 > 2:08:16You never know how people are gonna act.
2:08:16 > 2:08:20Now, the sound of this type of music has been for...
2:08:20 > 2:08:26in my growing up and my grandfather and, I guess, his grandfather...
2:08:26 > 2:08:28it's the old lonesome sound.
2:08:28 > 2:08:31BANJO PLAYS
2:08:31 > 2:08:35It's these old hills that's kinda sad, you know.
2:08:35 > 2:08:38And you get to feeling down and out
2:08:38 > 2:08:44and looking at these old hills, sitting out on your front porch or something,
2:08:44 > 2:08:48and you get to playing these old tunes, it helps you.
2:08:48 > 2:08:51It builds your morale up a bit.
2:08:58 > 2:09:03# Oh, yonder stand Little Maggie
2:09:03 > 2:09:08# With her dram glass in her hand
2:09:08 > 2:09:15# She's drinking away her troubles
2:09:15 > 2:09:19# And a-courting another man
2:09:40 > 2:09:45# Oh, how can I ever stand it
2:09:45 > 2:09:51# For to see those true blue eyes
2:09:51 > 2:09:57# A-sparklin' at another
2:09:57 > 2:10:01# Like a diamond in the sky... #
2:10:15 > 2:10:17I don't like the city.
2:10:17 > 2:10:22I think this is the way God created it. He wants. ..
2:10:22 > 2:10:24a person to live more like this
2:10:24 > 2:10:27than to live on concrete slabs.
2:10:27 > 2:10:31And he also provided the means to make a living.
2:10:31 > 2:10:34Coal was created by the maker.
2:10:34 > 2:10:39There wasn't anything that was made that wasn't made by him.
2:10:40 > 2:10:43And that's about all I've got to say.
2:10:43 > 2:10:46There ain't nothing easy to it.
2:10:46 > 2:10:49It ain't no place for no woosie to be.
2:10:49 > 2:10:54- If I was able, I was telling him, I'd go back in tomorrow.- Would you?
2:10:54 > 2:10:57I loved to work the mines. Yes.
2:10:57 > 2:10:59It was a hard life, but...
2:11:00 > 2:11:04I went in the coalmines when I was 16 years old.
2:11:04 > 2:11:08My father had an accident, got his hands blowed off with dynamite.
2:11:08 > 2:11:12They gave him a stick of dynamite and a box of caps
2:11:12 > 2:11:17and he's smoking a Chesterfield cigarette!
2:11:17 > 2:11:19Ash is on it about that long.
2:11:19 > 2:11:24And he just turned around and it all exploded right in his hands.
2:11:24 > 2:11:29He looked to me as if his hands were sticking right to the ceiling.
2:11:29 > 2:11:35If there weren't fire in them ashes, setting off those caps, they never did know what done it.
2:11:35 > 2:11:38He used to be a good banjo player.
2:11:38 > 2:11:43My daddy and all my uncles... and my aunts...and grandfather,
2:11:43 > 2:11:47and I had a brother who was a good banjo player.
2:11:47 > 2:11:53I had a boy got killed back in September who was a fine banjo player.
2:11:53 > 2:11:57A fella hit him with a car and killed him stone dead.
2:12:05 > 2:12:11# If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck
2:12:11 > 2:12:15# I'd dive to the bottom and never come up
2:12:15 > 2:12:21# Rye whiskey, rye whiskey rye whiskey, I cry
2:12:21 > 2:12:25# If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die
2:12:41 > 2:12:46# Rye whiskey, rye whiskey As I always say
2:12:46 > 2:12:51# I'll see you in heaven some old day
2:12:53 > 2:12:58# Rye whiskey, rye whiskey rye whiskey, I cry
2:12:58 > 2:13:02# If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die. #
2:13:02 > 2:13:05BANJO PLAYS
2:13:09 > 2:13:13Those of you today that are not saved,
2:13:13 > 2:13:18this will be a wonderful day for you to give your heart and life to God.
2:13:18 > 2:13:23But if you do not give your heart and life to the Lord
2:13:23 > 2:13:25while you live on this earth,
2:13:25 > 2:13:28you'll have to go and meet God
2:13:28 > 2:13:33and never return to the earth to get right with God
2:13:33 > 2:13:37and never be out of that awful place of punishment.
2:13:37 > 2:13:42Just think, when you burn your finger or something, how bad it does hurt.
2:13:42 > 2:13:46Well, think of your whole soul being in a great lake
2:13:46 > 2:13:52and the flames rolling around your soul, not a drop of water to put on your tongue.
2:13:52 > 2:13:57You'll remember the many times God spoke to your heart
2:13:57 > 2:14:00to give your life to him.
2:14:00 > 2:14:06And you turned aside those opportunities and did not surrender your whole life to him.
2:14:06 > 2:14:10We know that God is watching everything
2:14:10 > 2:14:14and he sees everything there is on the face of this earth.
2:14:14 > 2:14:17And it's so real to be saved.
2:14:17 > 2:14:22You cannot even put it in words how much it means to go to bed at night
2:14:22 > 2:14:27knowing, if you never get up next morning, you're ready to go.
2:14:27 > 2:14:30You know deep in your soul when you're ready to go.
2:14:35 > 2:14:39MUSIC: "Borrowed Wings" by Jim White
2:14:39 > 2:14:44I was thinking about the desperate people here
2:14:44 > 2:14:48and their desperate religion, their hell-fire religion.
2:14:50 > 2:14:55So they invent a God who's gonna whup some ass, basically.
2:14:58 > 2:15:03# ..Until the sheriff caught up with us and we tried to run
2:15:05 > 2:15:09# Now we return to earth on borrowed wings... #
2:15:09 > 2:15:13Here you feel the presence of the spirit.
2:15:13 > 2:15:16You may not like it.
2:15:16 > 2:15:20It might be wearing the costume of crazy religious people or...
2:15:20 > 2:15:23wild hillbillies or whatever...
2:15:23 > 2:15:25but it's real.
2:15:25 > 2:15:28And it's alive and it's awake.
2:15:30 > 2:15:32# ..On borrowed wings... #
2:15:32 > 2:15:34Welcome to Jesus Central.
2:15:38 > 2:15:42You're sitting here looking at it, on the hill.
2:15:42 > 2:15:45No church.
2:15:45 > 2:15:51It's not in the Bible. I've read the Bible to tormented spirits. They... HE HISSES
2:15:51 > 2:15:56And I've sung songs to the dark and it sang with me.
2:15:56 > 2:16:03Where did you start believing in this kind of stuff? HE LAUGHS
2:16:03 > 2:16:06MUSIC: "I Will Dance Like David"
2:16:06 > 2:16:11# Then, my lord I will dance like David
2:16:11 > 2:16:15# Well, I will dance like David... #
2:16:17 > 2:16:19ALL TALK AT ONCE
2:16:28 > 2:16:30Why can't they see spiritual things?
2:16:30 > 2:16:33Why did there have to be a new way?
2:16:33 > 2:16:36Flesh wants to control.
2:16:36 > 2:16:38Flesh wants to hold on.
2:16:38 > 2:16:41It wants to dominate.
2:16:41 > 2:16:47So that every time I go to do good, evil is present with ME.
2:16:47 > 2:16:51You've got to realise God is so real, so powerful...
2:16:51 > 2:16:53in a spirit form.
2:16:53 > 2:16:58Lock your doors, shut your heart up, close your eyes and ears, and he'll still come through.
2:16:58 > 2:17:01Sit and listen to songs and stuff.
2:17:01 > 2:17:06You'll be sitting there going back in time or going forward in time
2:17:06 > 2:17:11because the Spirit is trying to get your flesh confused
2:17:11 > 2:17:15so he can talk to you. Flesh cannot go in these places.
2:17:15 > 2:17:18CONGREGATION SINGS
2:17:28 > 2:17:32The Spirit of God is kinda strange to the world. Praise the Lord.
2:17:32 > 2:17:36The Holy Ghost came back. Hallelujah.
2:17:36 > 2:17:40PREACHER SPEAKS PEOPLE SING AND PRAY
2:17:57 > 2:18:00Praise the Lord!
2:18:03 > 2:18:08You've come here looking for some sort of essential truth...
2:18:09 > 2:18:13..about the South, or some spiritual revelation,
2:18:13 > 2:18:18and you're not gonna find it unless by accident or by grace.
2:18:18 > 2:18:20These people know about it.
2:18:20 > 2:18:25I guess they have what Flannery O'Connor called the "Wise Blood".
2:18:25 > 2:18:28The blood rules them.
2:18:28 > 2:18:30They don't rule the blood.
2:18:30 > 2:18:36If you want to know the secrets of the South, you gotta get it in your blood.
2:18:36 > 2:18:41And you ain't gonna get a transfusion from the blood bank for it.
2:18:47 > 2:18:52Well, I guess this is as good a place as any to leave you.
2:18:52 > 2:18:56I apologise. I wish I could stay with you...
2:18:56 > 2:19:03while you go and look for what you're looking for, but... Jimmy Tuck...needs his car back.
2:19:04 > 2:19:08And I value my life, so I'm gonna take it to him.
2:19:12 > 2:19:14So long!
2:19:28 > 2:19:31# Where in the world...
2:19:33 > 2:19:36# ..did you come from, my dear?
2:19:39 > 2:19:42# Did some mysterious voice...
2:19:43 > 2:19:46# ..tell you I'd still be here?
2:19:53 > 2:19:56# I bought this ticket to Mobile
2:19:58 > 2:20:01# But I've been stranded all day
2:20:02 > 2:20:05# PA said the bus broke down
2:20:05 > 2:20:11# Ten miles away from the station
2:20:16 > 2:20:19# So seldom a door
2:20:20 > 2:20:22# So seldom a key
2:20:22 > 2:20:25# So seldom a lock
2:20:25 > 2:20:29# Like the love between you and me
2:20:29 > 2:20:32# But seldom comes happiness
2:20:32 > 2:20:35# Without the pain
2:20:35 > 2:20:39# Of the devil in the details
2:20:39 > 2:20:43# Since I saw the smile on your face
2:20:43 > 2:20:48# As I was crying in a Greyhound station
2:20:48 > 2:20:51# On Christmas Day
2:20:51 > 2:20:55# In 1998
2:20:55 > 2:21:01# As I was crying in a Greyhound station
2:21:01 > 2:21:03# On Christmas Day...
2:21:14 > 2:21:20# The burden of love is the fuel of bad grammar
2:21:21 > 2:21:23# You stutter and stammer
2:21:23 > 2:21:26# What a bitch to convey
2:21:32 > 2:21:35# The crux of the matter
2:21:35 > 2:21:38# When the words you must utter
2:21:39 > 2:21:41# Are hopelessly tangled
2:21:41 > 2:21:47# In the memories and scars you show no-one
2:21:51 > 2:21:54# So seldom a door
2:21:54 > 2:21:57# So seldom a key
2:21:57 > 2:22:00# So seldom a hit
2:22:00 > 2:22:04# Like the hurt you put on me
2:22:04 > 2:22:06# But seldom comes happiness
2:22:07 > 2:22:09# Without the pain
2:22:09 > 2:22:13# Of the devil in the details
2:22:13 > 2:22:17# Since I saw the smile on your face
2:22:17 > 2:22:22# As I was crying in a Greyhound station
2:22:22 > 2:22:24# On Christmas Day... #
2:22:24 > 2:22:28E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk