Jason Isbell On His New Documentary, Co-Starring In Scorsese’s ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon,’ And Journey From “Idiot” To “Non-Idiot”

deadline.com:

When HBO hosted a special screening of Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, the intimate documentary about the singer-songwriter’s personal and creative journey during the making of his 2020 album Reunions, seemingly met with unanimous approval.

But as applause and whistles rippled over the closing credits, one person sitting in the center of the theater was thinking, “I don’t think I want to watch it again for at least a decade.” That person was Jason Isbell.

Three days later, the film screened again — this time in Nashville, the town he calls home. True to his word, the five-time Grammy winner and his wife, fellow musician Amanda Shires, showed up for the Q&A, but skipped the movie itself. “There are two different kinds of music documentaries,” Isbell tells Deadline from his home in Tennessee. “There’s the kind that the artist is comfortable with, and then there’s the kind that’s not boring.

A good documentary should be something that makes you squirm a little bit, because we’re all fallible human beings.” Director/producer Sam Jones, showing the same deft touch he displayed in his 2002 movie I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco, offers Isbell a safe space to talk about the pivotal moments in his life: the uncertainty of being raised by teenage parents in Alabama, finding early success with the alt-country rock band Drive-By Truckers, then derailing that prolific six-year run due to a destructive appetite for Jack Daniels and drugs. “When I was drunk and being a buffoon, I looked like an idiot,” Isbell admits. “But I was an idiot, and I celebrate that because if I hadn’t been such an idiot back then, I wouldn’t be such a non-idiot right now.” Those pre-rehab