Chuck Leavell is a staple of not only Southern rock, but the entire music world.

Best known for his work with Macon legends, the Allman Brothers, Leavell quickly became one of the most sought after pianists, doing work with the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Black Crowes among others.

Leavell’s former band Sea Level, were the headliners of the Georgia Theatre’s first show.  It is only appropriate that Leavell make a return to the Theatre as part of its two-week reopening.

The Red & Black caught up with Leavell to discuss the Theatre’s reopening, his present work with John Mayer and other projects.

The Red & Black’s Wil Petty: The Georgia Theatre is reopening Aug. 1 and on Aug. 2 you’ll be headlining a show. What are your thoughts on the Theatre’s return?

Chuck Leavell: Well you know there’s some important history with myself and the Georgia Theatre. My band Sea Level opened up the Georgia Theatre back in, I think it was, ‘78.

It’s always been an extremely important venue for musicians, not only from the South but throughout the country. We all know the history Athens, Ga. has with music, and Georgia Theatre has always played a part of that history.

You know, it’s such a great honor for me to be able to come back — of course, it’s a tragedy the place burned down and had to be rebuilt.

I understand that —I’ve been by it but I haven’t gone in, but everyone has told me that it’s really coming along well. It’s going to have a nice sound system built better than it ever was, and I just think it’s great. I’m very proud to be part of it’s reopening.

R&B: I was actually there about two weeks ago. There’s a lot of similarities and a lot of improvements.

CL: Good. Well I certainly look forward to it. You know I have a lot of friends in Athens I work with and have worked with through the years. As I’m sure you’re aware of, Randall Bramblett.

Of course, Randall’s band will be in the reopening with me. Davis Causey will be playing guitar, and I just saw Davis yesterday. I have been doing my next project in Athens at Jim Hawkins’ studio. Davis played on my record yesterday. Randall was also on it, so we’re going to be able to have some new things to play, but we’ll also have fun and revisit the Sea Level material, and celebrate my career.

Chuck Leavell, will be making his return to the Georgia Theatre Aug. 1. Photo courtesy of Chuck Leavell

I’ve been so fortunate to work with so many different artists: The [Rolling] Stones, [Eric] Clapton, [George] Harrison. So we’re just going to have a great time and I look forward to it.

R&B: How does it feel to you personally? As you said earlier, Sea Level opened the Theatre, and now you’re going to be part of it reopening again.

CL: Well I think it is just marvelous that the tradition will continue. Now we’re starting with a fresh building that’s well designed, well constructed and I think it’s going to stand for decades and decades —who knows how long? But hopefully it will stand a very long time, to give musicians a great place to play an intimate setting with an audience, and of course to give the audience a lot of joy and great memories.

R&B: Well let’s talk a little bit about your music. You’ve worked from band to band, and now you’re working with John Mayer up in New York?

CL: Yes I have been working with John on-and-off since last December. I can tell you that it’s going to be an extraordinary album. Just wonderful, he’s one of the most talented people out there I think in the rock ‘n’ roll world and pop world. We have definitely finished all the basic tracks, John has moved the whole setup to L.A. now, and I believe it’s just John and Don Was — Don is co-producing.

The two of them are in L.A. now just to do final touches— John’s vocals, any other guitar overdubs he might want to do. I think market date is sometime in October for the release of the record. You might even see a single out before then I’m not sure, they’re still working on logistics right now.

I can just tell you that I am thrilled to be working with John. I will be touring with John starting late October and going through early December. And then we will continue to tour next year starting in January and going through part of March. And beyond that, it’s unclear exactly what his plans are, but I can tell you we will be working together at least through early March of next year and I really look forward to it.

R&B: John also has Georgia ties I believe.

CL: Oh yeah. His career sort of began in Atlanta. John is from Fairfield, Conn. where he grew up. Then he started developing his talents— he eventually enrolled into Berklee School of Music in Boston, and then about half way through his program he decided to move to Atlanta with a partner. That’s where his career really began.

So there’s really a Georgia connection there. As we know, right after the release of his first record [Inside Wants Out] that did tremendously well, he moved out to LA, spent some years out there and did a couple of records and now he’s back in New York.  He’s made the rounds but he definitely has a Georgia connection.

R&B: You’ve worked with artists for the last roughly 40 years.  Have you noticed a trend amongst the musicians you’ve worked with in sound and progression?

CL: Well I can just tell you that I have seen a lot of changes in my career technologically.

When I first started out recording professionally, we were using 4-track machines, which quickly went to 8-track machines, 8-track to 16, 16-track to 24, 24 to 48 and then of course the advent of digital technology recording which has changed everything dramatically.

Also in terms of the delivery.  When we first started out we were all listening to vinyl.  That led to cassettes, from cassettes to CDs and now CDs to digital downloads.   There has been just a lot of changes technologically.

I think in most part for the better, however we all know pirating, through the digital media is a lot easier than it would have been otherwise.  I can go back in time a little bit and tell you there were concerns when cassettes came into play because at that point they could record from their LPs on to cassettes and then give it to somebody who could use it without paying for the production.

R&B: Not to mention recording off the radio.

CL: Exactly, you could tape off the radio.  So these are not new issues to musicians, performers and writers. We’ve all seen these challenges before.

We should be concerned and we are concerned about piracy and about illegal reproduction of our intellectual property.  I think it still needs to be addressed and I’ve been along with most of my other fellow artists who are terribly disappointed with the record companies over the last 20 years.

They can’t seem to figure this out, and I think it is very unfortunate and has created almost an entire generation of young folks—you know and I can’t blame them—but the attitude is that music should be free.  And that’s not right.

We all have to make a living, and we all want to have the things to collect whatever property we have, whether it’s personal or intellectual.  This remains one of the biggest challenges we have as artists.  I don’t think it’s insurmountable and I think we can find ways of protecting the digital media.

As a matter of fact there is a company called Media Rights Technology (MRT) that has made tremendous strides in anti piracy technology.  In my opinion they have the best technology out there and that technology should be enjoyed—not only for recorded music, but for films, etc.

R&B: Well let’s also talk about some of the other projects you have.  You’re big on the environment and own a tree farm?

CL: There’s two things I like to mention about that.

No. 1, my new book  “Growing a Better America” — this is my fourth book and the theme of the book is smart growth. The fact that we have 310 million people in this country now and we expect to have 400 million by 2040 or before.  And the bottom line is this constitutes a tremendous amount of pressure on our natural lands and natural resources.

Here in the state of Georgia the Atlanta Metro area loses somewhere between 50-60 acres a day because of growth and development.  The Southeast as a whole from Virginia to East Texas loses on the order of a million acres a year to growth and development.

When you look at those numbers —and here are some other numbers—you have something like 265 million vehicles on our roads everyday, over 80 thousand planes in the sky.  Anyway you look at it, there’s just a lot of pressure on our natural resources and natural lands.

I think we are at a very critical juncture.  We’re all still concerned with issues like global climate change and this is a part of it.

The fact is we’re going to have this growth, it’s going to continue and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, even if we wanted to.  I’m not anti-growth, or suggesting we have some kind of population control, but I am suggesting that we all need to take a very long and hard, close look at where we are and where we expect to go in the not so distant future.

There are ways that we can meet these challenges and have a much lower carbon footprint.

That’s the theme of the book. We offer solutions, we talk about concepts like biomimicry, which is the study of nature to find better ways and things for mankind, we talk about industrial symbiosis which is using what would otherwise be wasted energy that industrial manufacturing —taking that energy and doing something positive with it.  We talk about transportation issues, we talk about energy issues and much much more.

The other thing I want to mention is the website that my partner Joel Babbit and I have put together that launched in 2009 called the Mother Nature Network.

That gives me and our team an even broader platform on environmental matters, because as we know the internet is the world’s library—the world’s information center.

I can tell you the two and a half years we have been in existence, we have gone from a no-start .com, to being the 3rd most visited environmental website in the world.

And I say that, I’m very happy for our success, but I’m not saying that necessarily for that reason. I say it because it just shows that Americans have a deep concerns over these matters.  I mean we’re getting over 2 million hits a month now, and over 8 million page views a month.

I think it really shows America cares and America wants to tackle these problems.

Here we are in a very tough political environment, where yes we have these economic challenges and we know cutbacks are coming, but I fear some of these cuts concerning our environmental challenges are going to be deeper than we ought to see.

I think it’s very important we pressure our lawmakers to ensure we have good policies in place.  It makes sense for our environment and we should not forget about that. It should not and can not be on the shoulders of government.  Individuals can do things, companies can do things to be responsible. Charities can do things, neighborhoods, schools, churches, everybody can pitch in on this and they should.  While we are trying very hard through MNN to make it the No.1 resource for environmental solutions.

R&B: You have done a little bit of everything lately.  You have been performing and recording in one place, making appearances on CNN and the Huckabee Show, taking part in helping the environment and as you just mentioned, writing a book.  How does this all tie in your day-to-day life?

CL: I’ve had that question before and I appreciate that question very much.

I have always been interested in time management.  It’s not just about multitasking, we all know that we have to multitask.  But it’s also about common sense time management.

When I realize I need to be working with John Mayer in New York City — well, you know, what can I do in New York that would enhance some of the other things I have passions or interest in.  Well, you know, the Huckabee Show and Anderson Cooper are in New York and I can tie in some other things that I’m doing with John’s sessions.

And that’s the way I think on a day-to-day basis.  I mean, you mentioned our tree farm, Charlane Plantation, that requires a lot of work as well, a lot of maintenance and upkeep on the place.  And I enjoy that maintenance and upkeep. I love being outdoors, I love the physical work and so it’s not all too difficult to make the time for that.  I might get up early in the morning on a hot day, and  get some work done on the place and then when the real heat of the day comes find something else to do like practice on the piano.

But getting to the point it is just common sense time management.  That’s getting to do these things and making the best of what time we all have.

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