SMN: Tell me a little about the opening night in Atlanta.

Geoff Hanson: The premiere was like watching a Cheech and Chong movie in 1974 [laughter]. It was so loud and boisterous and I was totally unprepared for it. It was powerful for my brother and I to have worked so hard on the piece, and Friday night [April 12] was the indication that it worked.

For us, the most important thing was to make a movie that was accepted by the fans of the band as the movie about Widespread Panic. In order for it to have any chance of succeeding outside of the scene, the fans would have to embrace it as, of their own and, of the band.

SMN: And The Dirty Dozen Brass Band played after the movie premiere ...

GH: I think the music venue combination we did at the Roxy sort of set the stage for later events. It’s shaping the way we’re going to take the movie out in the future (this tour, including Asheville, will only be showing the movie) by putting it out there with a band. Preferably it will be (a band) we showed in the movie.

SMN: Obviously you’re a rabid Panic fan and you’ve made a documentary that will hopefully appeal to a wide variety of people. How do you displace some of that personal fervor to make a documentary that everyone can appreciate?

GH: Obviously, you have to make something that can be appreciated by someone who knows nothing about the band and yet, will have extra meaning to people who know something about WSP. You can see it [in the movie] by the way we use “Driving Song” [from the album, “Space Wrangler”]. The way we use “Driving” in the movie is the same way they perform in concert by using segues [Widespread is known for inserting song(s) in the middle of “Driving”]. We show Mikey [Mike Houser, guitarist] and JB [John Bell] doing an acoustic version of “Driving” and then we leave that, and then we come back at the end of the first set into “Driving.

A friend of mine from Asheville (who came all the way to Atlanta) told me, ‘At that point, in ‘Driving’, I totally got what you guys were doing.’ He realized that our intention was not random and that it was very calculated. Someone who doesn’t know anything about Panic will see [the “Driving sequence] and say, ‘oh, that’s something interesting.’ We’ve heard nice things from people who weren’t Panic fans when they came in (to the movie), but came out with new respect for the band.

Another thing is you have to be interested in music in order to like the movie. It’s about a band that makes music. It’s a movie about process because that’s what Panic does. The live setting is Panic’s sacredness. They worked real hard, and they said no to a lot of deals so they can be six guys (at this stage in their careers) who get up on stage and play whatever they want.

SMN: Did the title, “The Earth Will Swallow You” prompt Panic to relearn the original instrumental by the same name? I believe they hadn’t played it in over 10 years [until it appeared again at a New Orleans show last October]...

GH: The thing about working with Panic is that you don’t say, ‘do this.’ We came to Panic with an idea. We told them that since this movie is about process it would be interesting to watch them relearn a song they haven’t played live in 10 years. They thought it was cool, and we had to give them a recording of it, because they had literally forgotten it. There was a snafu, and I thought I had the whole song, but we ended up with only 35 seconds of it. They used that 35 seconds to say, ‘Ok, we vaguely remember that one.’ JoJo [pianist John Hermann] had never even heard it. However, they went in and learned it so we could basically sit there and watch. It became the film title because it’s a movie about making music.

SMN: There’ll be some folks who read this article who don’t really understand the pull of Panic and the love for them. I want to go back and trace some of the shows that really pulled you in (i.e. your first show).

GH: When I first saw them in ’91 (in Telluride) I was instantly hooked. What I think that surprised me was that I had a misconception of the band because of their title, ‘Widespread Panic.’ Most people’s initial reaction is, ‘oh, they’re going to be a hardcore band.’ And I even thought they were going to have a metal edge and (the title’s) kind of misleading for the kind of music they play (The band even told a story of how punk rockers would come to their show and be disappointed.) Their music, as Todd Nance [drummer] says in the movie, is ‘sometimes it’s loud, sometimes it’s soft, sometimes it’s really pretty, sometimes it’s really hard.’

So it’s kind of hard to really get your arms around the music. They cover a lot of territory in rock-n-roll. I began to sense that when I first saw them, and I realized that the songs were good and complex. That’s what really grabbed me. They seemed like a band with a brain. Their integrity was their intention, and it’s something that comes out very poignantly in the movie.

My next big show was Grand Junction in ’96, and at that point I knew I had to start chasing this band. Once the Grateful Dead ended, I thought I had put a chapter of my life away. I thought I was no longer the traveling music fan. And it was Panic who got me back into saying, ‘OK, I’m now going to get on planes and chase a rock-n-roll band around the U.S.’

My most special moment with Panic occurred when I wasn’t even there. My daughter was born on July 29, 2001. [Panic was in the final night of a three-day run at Oak Mountain.] I called Trey Allen (Panic’s road manager) that we had a baby girl at 10 a.m. that morning. That night, Panic opened the show with ‘Bowlegged Woman’ [a Jorma Kaukonen original that Panic covers], which is my wife’s favorite tune, and then they played ‘Space Wrangler’ which is about birth.

Pete Couhig [Geoff’s friend and huge fan of the band] delivered me the first set of the show. I wondered to myself if JB had changed the gender of ‘Space Wrangler’ that night since my little Wrangler was a girl. I listened to the tape and sure enough, JB sang ‘A little Wrangler was born/I seen her squirming in her saddle all wet and warm.’ (JB) didn’t mess up the female reference the whole song. I was so touched that they ushered my little baby girl into the world with their musical energy.

When I saw JB not long after that, I thanked him for it, and it was clear to me that he had no idea what I was talking about. That’s the beauty of Panic. They have no idea how profound they affect people’s lives.

SMN: You and your brother, Chris, had a dream come true. Not many folks can approach their heroes and do what you guys accomplished. Tell me the process (and the emotions you must have felt) as this project started to gel...

GH: It began when we used their song, ‘The Take Out’ in ‘Scrapple’...

SMN: Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you originally have one of Stephen Still’s songs instead of “The Take Out,” but then his company asked for way too much money?

GH: That was the single best thing that ever happened to me and my career was Stephen Stills shutting us down. We had to go back and remix ‘Scrapple’ to knock out the Still’s song. It cost us thousands. Everyone else was playing ball except for him. I can’t particularly blame Stephen Stills himself for this, but his people were clearly not coming from an open place. They wanted more money for that one song than all the rest of the music in the movie combined.

So we began looking for another song, and we loved Panic. We played “The Take Out” for the one particular scene and it was perfect. At that point, we approached them through Mary Armstrong (she was the hero on that side of the fence). She pushed our movie request through and made it happen.

Then I brought ‘Scrapple’ to Athens six months later. By that time, Dave Schools had become a fan (of the movie), and I began talking to Mary in October 1999 about doing a movie on Panic.

She set up a meeting with Buck Williams [Panic’s manager] at the Halloween shows in New Orleans in 1999. Buck told me to put something down on paper and put a proposal together. I didn’t really follow up and I started working for a company in Baton Rouge trying to acquire an Internet music technology.

Two months before 2000 summer tour, I was faced with the prospect of giving up my dream as a filmmaker because it wasn’t lucrative and I was faced with a ‘real job.’ I thought to myself before I take this job, I’ve got to call Panic and give it one more shot. I called Mary up and asked her if I could shoot Panic at Red Rocks. She told us that they already had three proposals on their desk and that they didn’t like any of them. That’s when we really began to negotiate for the filming rights.

It was interesting that we had a shot because Panic was (at the time) in between labels and that gave us a window of opportunity that usually wasn’t there. There was no way that we could have made a movie with a label involved.

Hollywood Video (which had carried ‘Scrapple’) immediately stood up for us and told us that they would buy 5,000 pieces from us even though we hadn’t shot a lick of the film. It impressed Panic’s management and made them realize that this was perhaps a viable commercial enterprise.

We were going back and forth on how this was going to work, and then my lawyer called me on the morning of June 19. She told me they called with another concern and she said, ‘Geoff, I gotta tell you. It seems like they’re looking for a reason to tell you no.’ At that point, I told myself that I’m done. I gave it my best shot. I did the best I could, and now I’m letting it go. The minute I let it go in my heart, the phone rang. It was Buck Williams saying, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ We didn’t make a deal with Panic until June 19 (the Red Rocks shows began on June 23).

Four nights later, we had 35 crew members shooting Panic.”

SMN: Widespread Panic, as people, are very humble and somewhat shy. How did you make them enjoy the situation with the cameras on them at all times?

GH: It was difficult for them. I think it comforted them that we were not using 99 percent of what we filmed. That’s why it has an almost home movie feel because the cameras do make them nervous. In order to get them to relax we had to shrink the cameras down and get rid of the soundmen. When we created that smaller environment, it gave a stilted sense of reality. Often the greatest moments with these guys came when we had the smallest camera.

SMN: What was your personal highlight?

GH: The moment that I was in the room with JB and Jorma when they did ‘Genesis’ [another Kaukonen original]. I walked into a room and the two of them were just sitting there talking. I asked them, ‘can I please go and get you guys some guitars. Can we do something here?’ They both looked at each other and said, ‘OK.’

At the end of them playing the song (we feature the two of them playing ‘Genesis’ in the movie), I thanked JB, and he said, ‘No, thank you. Because I would have never had the balls to ask.’

SMN: What separates Panic from the typical rock-n-roll band?

GH: My favorite story is about their driver, Donnie. When Donnie first got on tour with Panic, he couldn’t figure out for the life of him who was in the band. Finally one night he decided to go to a show just so he could see who the six guys were in the band. That to me defines what Panic is all about. They didn’t do this to become stars. They’re in it to play music.



SMN: Tell me about the value of editor of Dave Frankel. He was a stranger to the Panic scene and his prior work was a movie on the punk band, Fugazi ...

GH: He did a movie called “Instrument.” He’s also a bass player (which gives him a musician’s sentiment). He was incredibly valuable because he didn’t know anything about the band. You get the people who know and love Panic to shoot the film, and then you give it to somebody that doesn’t have any preconceived ideas about what the band’s about.

SMN: Tell me about growing up in a media family [the Hanson’s grandfather was a magazine publisher, their dad was in radio, and their uncles are very successful television producers and directors] and its positive impact on you?

GH: That we could accomplish making movies. If you have family who produced television shows and you’re meeting Fonzie when you’re 7 [Geoff got an autograph from Henry Winkler that said, “Geoffrey, drink milk and be good to your teeth.”], it gives you a conception that you can grow up in the media world.

SMN: I know you studied acting at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and you acted in your own movie, ‘Scrapple.’ Any acting plans for the future?

GH: I’m working on developing a children’s show, which I believe I’ll act in. But I’d love to do some more acting if it works out. I’m totally open to the idea of being in a couple of movies in certain periods of my life. I have a family, so I want to be around. I don’t want to jump out there and throw myself all over the planet. I want to do it on my own terms. If anything, I’d like to write some material I could act for, or a movie that my brother directs.

SMN: Future plans?

GH: If we get to make three films, that’s wonderful. ‘Scrapple’ was a fun story, but it’s about drugs; and the Panic movie is valuable, but I really want to do something tangible, like teaching really cool values to little children. This kid’s show is something I’ve been into for awhile. I’ve even written songs for it. (The show will be) socially valuable and it’s important for me to focus on something that can contribute to the betterment of the community.