#Almost Famous Gets the Band Back Together for 20th Anniversary Reunion Podcast

The Almost Famous cast reunited for Cadence13’s Origins podcast. The five-part series is hosted by James Andrew Miller and will premiere on July 8th. Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Billy Crudup, Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon, Patrick Fugit, Jason Lee, and others are set to make appearances. Guitarist Peter Frampton served as the movie’s technical consultant and he shares his thoughts with Nancy Wilson of the band Heart, who co-wrote the fictional band Stillwater’s songs with director and ex-husband Cameron Crowe.

Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous hit theaters in September of 2000. The movie is semi-autobiographical, since Crowe was a teenage writer for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s. The story revolves around teenage journalist William Miller, who is trying to land his first cover story by following the band Stillwater on tour in the 1970s. Crowe based some of the tour stories from traveling with bands Poco, the Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd back in the day. Crowe had this to say about uniting with Cadence13’s Origins and James Andrew Miller for the podcast reunion.

“Between his personable style, and the exhaustive research behind his wonderful questions, Jim Miller managed to summon all the spirit and emotion of Almost Famous with the original cast. It’s a little bit of a magic trick. He put the band back together.”

Almost Famous was released to widespread acclaim, even though it was only released to limited theaters where it did not fare well. It only ended up making nearly $48 million from an initial budget of $60 million. James Andrew Miller was in the audience when the movie first opened in theaters and he loved it instantly. You can read his statement about the reunion podcast below.

“I’ve loved Almost Famous since day one. It’s easy to argue this is one of the greatest films of the past quarter-century, and it was on my Mount Rushmore of movies to share with my daughter. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was that Cameron and the cast would – 20 years after the movie’s release – remember so much and be so keenly affected by the experience of making the film together. Their memories and deeply personal reflections were raw, and fans of the film will hear a great many new revealing anecdotes and candid observations from all of them.”

The Almost Famous reunion podcast will also bring along casting director Gail Levin, photographer Neal Preston, and Pennie Trumbull, who is the real-life inspiration for Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane character. From the sounds of the podcast trailer, the cast and crew had an excellent time making the movie and have no problems remembering things from 20 years ago.

With Cameron Crowe taking elements from his experiences on the road with some of the biggest rock bands in the world, one should hope that he’ll reveal some more of where certain elements of Almost Famous came from. Greg Allman has revealed that the scene where Billy Crudup’s Russell jumps from the top of the Topeka party house into a pool was based on something Duane Allman did, though it was mixed with some dialogue from Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant in the movie. You can head over to Origins Podcast website to hear the trailer.