For filmmaker Denny Tedesco, making the 2015 film The Wrecking Crew, about a renowned group of L.A. session musicians that backed everyone from The Mamas & the Papas to The Beach Boys, was personal. He’s the son of Tommy Tedesco, after all — a Wrecking Crew guitarist and one of the prolific axemen in history — and sought to give dad his due.
Now, Tedesco is shining a light on a new, underappreciated group of session musicians in Immediate Family, a group that backed the likes of Steve Nicks, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Linda Ronstadt. Comprised of guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, drummer Russ Kunkel, and bassist Leland Sklar, they now tour and release music as Immediate Family, a rock supergroup of sorts.
Magnolia’s Immediate Family will be released in theaters for a one-night only event on Dec. 12, and is out on digital Dec. 15.
Carole King, James Taylor, and Danny Kortchmar in ‘Immediate Family.’
Magnolia Pictures
In this exclusive clip, the legendary Carole King — one of Immediate Family’s longtime collaborators — and the band recall how, while they were backing James Taylor for his tour of the album Sweet Baby James, Taylor called on King, then a piano player and songwriter, and asked her to sing a few songs in what would be her first-ever live performance. When she sang the first tune, the crowd lost it, unleashing a deafening roar of approval. And then, it was announced that there had been a bomb threat and everyone must evacuate the venue immediately.
“Whether they were freaking out, I couldn’t tell,” King says. “Because I remember, before they filed out, the words that popped out of my mouth when he said, ‘They say there’s a bomb in here’ [was], ‘As long as it’s not me!’”
Director Denny Tedesco tells Rolling Stone that the story of the bomb scare is really about “the insecurity of what many artists go through at certain times in their lives.”
“At that point in Carole’s life, she was one of the great songwriters of her time. But she never considered herself an artist or wasn’t comfortable enough to go sing on stage,” he says. “At that point in time, Carole was a sideman in James Taylor’s band. She was the piano player. James started to push her to start singing at the gigs, songs like ‘Up on the Roof.’”
While King may not have been “in her comfort zone,” Tedesco explains that when she was around Immediate Family, she felt at ease.
“They became brothers and sisters with the artists as well as with each other,” Tedesco says of Immediate Family. “They grew up together in the studio and on the road. So, seeing Carole King, Keith Richards, James Taylor, Linda, Jackson, David Crosby, Neil Young, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, and others in this film says everything about the characters of the guys.”