Ain't In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm with Eamon O'Flynn

Today's episode is about "Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm", from 2010, directed by Jacob Hatley.
Our guest today is a returning champion, Eamon O'Flynn, host of Record Roulette Podcast, which can be found on Twitter @rrmusicpod - check out our previous episode with Eamon about "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band".
"Ain't in It for My Health" is very different from Robbie's movie - it offers an intimate and revealing picture of The Band's legendary singer and drummer, Levon Helm, as he struggles with cancer while recording what ended up being the final studio album he released during his life, the Grammy-winning "Electric Dirt". We see Levon crack wise and offer hard-earned wisdom surrounded by family and friends (famous and obscure), undertake a short tour under challenging conditions, and work closely with guitarist/producer Larry Campbell.
Rock Docs is a Treble Media Podcast hosted by David Lizerbram & Andrew Keatts Twitter: @RockDocsPod Instagram: @RockDocsPod Cover Art by N.C. Winters - check him out on Instagram at @NCWintersArt

[@hannejeppesen1809]

There is an interview with Jon Taplin and Robbie on Utube. Taplin was the manager of The Band for awhile. Taplin recalls how he would go to Robbie's house at 9 in the morning and Robbie was up writing songs, the 3 other guys Rick, Richard and Levon were still sleeping, and when Taplin try to wake Levon up, Levon came after him with a knife. Also Robbie did a lot of research for his songs, going to library, especially Dixies and and Arcadian Driftwood. It was only after Levon went through his money he blamed Robbie.

[@hannejeppesen1809]

According to Barney Hoskyns biography of The Band, they all made a lot of money, not as much as money as Robbie, but still a lot of money. Seems like a lot was wasted on drugs and bad money management. Also according to Joe Forno Jr's book "Levon's Man" Levon spend money recklessly. He did want to do things his way, and that was fine, but blaming Robbie for his money trouble is not fair. Having said that I love Levon's drumming and singing, as well as the other members of The Band. I'm huge fan of their music, also a huge Robbie fan and have a soft spot for Rick, so I'm not being judgemental. I'm of that generatin so I get the drug use. Robbie by his own admission was no angel, he did plenty of drug, but music always came first with Robbie, and he was more business minded than they others.