Roadie (1980)

Interesting facts

Roadie is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Alan Rudolph about a truck driver who becomes a roadie for a traveling rock and roll show. The film stars Meat Loaf and marks his first starring role in a film. There are also cameo appearances by musicians such as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jr. and supporting roles played by Alice Cooper and the members of Blondie.

Production

In the 1970s Texan author James "Big Boy" Medlin regularly wrote pieces in LA Weekly about a mechanic called Travis Redfish who was Medlin's fictional alter ago. Medlin and fellow writer Michael Ventura were hired by producer Zalman King to write a script based on the last day of John Wesley Hardin. It was never made but Medlin then suggested a film based on Travis Redish and King was enthusiastic. This became Roadie.

The film was produced by Carolyn Pfeiffer who was a partner in a music management company with Shep Gordon. The company wanted to move into films and to make a movie of Roadie. Alan Rudolph, who had written a television special for the company, was hired as director. Finance was raised from United Artists.

Meatloaf was suggested for the lead role of Travis by Shep Gordon. Rudolph recalled, "Meat was fine, a high-energy sense of humour but where the energy came from I never asked. I didn’t know his music at all and I still don’t. He was the character of Travis to me, albeit less Zen."

Michael Ventura later wrote "The thing about the Roadie script that Alan Rudolph never understood was simply this: Cartoonish as it was, it was about us and people we loved."

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