{"id":380653,"date":"2025-11-15T12:06:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T12:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/380653\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T12:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T12:06:18","slug":"cameron-crowe-recounts-becoming-almost-famous-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/380653\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron Crowe recounts becoming ‘Almost Famous’ in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cameron Crowe and Kate Hudson at the Magnolia Theatre, beneath a projected photo of him interviewing Kris Kristofferson. (Photo by Peter Blackstock\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

For Cameron Crowe,\u00a0all roads lead back to San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was onstage Thursday night at the Magnolia in El Cajon, speaking with actress Kate Hudson before a packed house to celebrate his new memoir\u00a0\u201cThe Uncool.\u201d She\u2019d just asked him why he chose this time to look back on the moments that took him from teenage rock journalist to Oscar-winning filmmaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crowe spent most of the 1970s writing cover stories for\u00a0Rolling Stone\u00a0while most of his peers were still in high school or college. Then came the movies:\u00a0Fast Times at Ridgemont High,\u00a0Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire,\u201d and finally 2000\u2019s\u00a0Almost Famous, a semi-autobiographical tale of his almost mythical time on tour with the Allman Brothers when he was 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two decades later, the movie was revived as a musical theater production, and\u00a0premiered at San Diego\u2019s Old Globe Theatre in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Returning to his hometown for the musical helped crystallize Crowe\u2019s thoughts about telling his life story on the printed page.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to live half a mile away across from the Old Globe Theatre,\u201d he told Hudson. \u201cIt was now 2019, and we were doing a musical about the year 1973, almost across the street from where I lived at the time. And then right next to that was the radio station KPRI, where I met (legendary rock critic) Lester Bangs. And I thought, you know what? I want to start writing about this feeling. Because it was a huge happy\/sad feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started thinking about, what makes your taste in music? Well, your experiences in life, and where you heard the songs that you fall in love with, and when they happened in your life. That\u2019s what makes music so great: It\u2019s a living diary of you,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the difference between \u2018I like this song,\u2019 and the realization that \u2018I AM this song.\u2019 It made me have the feelings I had and make the choices I did. So I wanted to write a book that told the stories of what made me fall in love with music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cameron Crowe reading from his new memoir, \u201cThe Uncool,\u201d at the Magnolia Theatre on Nov. 13, 2025. (Photo by Peter Blackstock\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Crowe\u2019s hourlong conversation with Hudson was illuminating, insightful, thought-provoking, endearing \u2014 and yes, both happy and sad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That push-pull has always been central to Crowe\u2019s work, both onscreen and in his writing. Hudson, initially recruited for a smaller part in\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0before she took on the co-starring role that earned her an Oscar nomination, helped Crowe reminisce about their experiences making the film, including iconic scenes shot at the San Diego Sports Arena (now Pechanga Arena).<\/p>\n

Some of the most poignant discussion involved the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who portrayed Bangs brilliantly in\u00a0Almost Famous. A brief discussion of Joni Mitchell, the subject of a forthcoming Crowe film, led to talking about a scene in\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0with Mitchell\u2019s song \u201cRiver,\u201d in which the music elicited a deep emotional response for Hudson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The song triggered a beautiful filmmaking moment, but \u201cit didn\u2019t always work that way for everybody,\u201d Crowe said, before describing an unsuccessful gambit to evoke a response from Hoffman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in San Diego doing his scenes, and he was doing the scene where he\u2019s listening to Iggy (Pop) in the KPRI studio. And I put on \u2018I Wanna Be Your Dog\u2019 in the middle of his take. I guess I didn\u2019t know him well enough, because he said, \u2018Cut!\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018I think the director is supposed to say \u2018cut.\u2019 And he said, \u2018What makes you think that the music you\u2019re playing during my scene is better than what I have in my head?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018NOTHING. You will not hear music again from me.\u2019 He was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowe is sure Bangs would have appreciated Hoffman\u2019s performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what Lester\u2019s opinion would have been of me writing about him and honoring him and feeling so much mentorship from him,\u201d Crowe said. \u201cBut I do know that he would have LOVED Philip Seymour Hoffman. Those two? A house afire. They would\u2019ve left and maybe never come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowe began the evening onstage himself, reminiscing about his youth in San Diego and homes where he lived with his parents in Mission Valley and downtown. He recalled writing memorable articles about such legends as Kris Kristofferson (who he interviewed at El Torito) and Jim Croce. He also recalled \u201cdriving an endless circle\u201d around Fiesta Island, pulling over at various spots to write.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He then read a 20-minute portion of a chapter from\u00a0\u201cThe Uncool\u201d\u00a0that details his experiences on tour with the Allman Brothers in 1973, a sequence of events so remarkable that they begged to be made into a movie. And so he did, a quarter-century later.<\/p>\n

He praised Hudson, whose new film\u00a0Song Sung Blue\u00a0comes out next month, for bringing such passion to her role as Penny Lane in\u00a0Almost Famous.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenny Lane is the spirit of all that we love about music, and that\u2019s what you brought to the story,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n

Crowe and Hudson took several questions from the audience in the final 20 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One crowd member asked Crowe what he considered \u201cthe quintessential San Diego question: KPRI or KGB?\u201d \u2014 referring to two radio stations that loom large in the city\u2019s cultural history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crowe hedged his bets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna cheat and say KGB in the day and KPRI at night,\u201d he said, then smiled back at the theater full of faces from his old hometown. \u201cWe are definitely in San Diego right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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