Musician in Stones is in tune with trees

MILWAUKEE -- If any industry could use a prominent advocate, it's forestry -- because nothing grates on the ears of a forester like hearing someone say they won't buy a book because it'll kill a tree.

And few, if any, fit the role of forestry spokesman-at-large as well as Chuck Leavell, easily the world's most recognized tree farmer.

Leavell's tree plantation occupies 2,900 acres in Georgia. He has written books on woodland management, testified on logging legislation before Congress and likes to quote legendary Wisconsin conservationist Aldo Leopold.

And he has one other noteworthy credential:

He plays keyboards for the Rolling Stones.

Leavell has been touring, recording and singing backup with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards since 1982. The band has had a keyboardist since its first gig in London in 1962, but Leavell has held the role longer than all three of his predecessors combined. He also has evolved into the band's musical director, writing out each night's set list on tour.

Leavell missed the Stones at their countercultural zenith in the 1960s and '70s. But he wasn't available in those years anyway: The Alabama native owns a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering Southern rock work as a member of the Allman Brothers Band.

Ahead of a recent Stones' show in Milwaukee, Leavell took time for a series of email interviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The gray-bearded rocker shared his views on the economics of forestry; explained why he thinks Leopold is so revered; and addressed -- sort of -- whether the current Stones' tour will be the last ("until the next one").

"I never mind explaining to those that have misunderstandings about forestry practices that the U.S. is a great example of sustainable forestry," Leavell said.

Leavell champions the idea of renewable, working forests, an idea that Wisconsin foresters helped establish early in the previous century -- always planting more than they cut. He marvels at the thousands of "gifts of the forest," from timber for homes and churches to Keith Richards' guitars and his own maple-and-spruce grand piano.

Common misperceptions about tree farming often go unchallenged, an issue that Leavell addressed by writing the 2001 book Forever Green. According to his autobiography, he wrote that book during Stones' tour stops in the late 1990s after he "discovered how much misinformation there is in the general public about the forest industry."

To those who think that cutting trees is inherently bad, Leavell reminds that unmanaged forests are older, drier, less healthy and more vulnerable to forest fires.

"The native Americans knew that," he said. "Early Europeans and other earlier cultures and societies knew that."

And to those who discourage the use of paper for the sake of trees, Leavell also has a ready response, which he includes in green type below the signature line of his emails:

"Notice: It's OK to print this email. Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of Americans, and working forests are good for the environment, providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thanks to improved forest management, we have more trees in America today than we had 100 years ago."

Musicians' involvement with environmental causes is nothing new, but Leavell's interest goes far deeper than most. He and his wife, Rose Lane, were named National Outstanding Tree Farmers in 1999 by the American Tree Farm System, which honors renewable practices. He has been recognized by the Georgia Conservancy and the National Arbor Day Foundation, and was named an honorary forester by the U.S. Forest Service.

Leavell's midlife conversion to tree-hugger came after his wife inherited a large tract of land in central Georgia from her grandmother, whose family had held it for generations.

As it turned out, Lane's inheritance came at a time when Leavell was unemployed, "without a prospect on the horizon."

The Allman Brothers had broken up amid scandals and acrimony. Their recording company failed. A few of the Brothers joined Leavell's band, Sea Level, which won acclaim but struggled to break even. The call from the Stones, which came out of the blue, was still off in the future.

And so Leavell became a tree farmer out of necessity. He began with Christmas trees but advanced quickly into loblolly, longleaf and slash pines as well as some hardwoods. He took classes to become a certified forester and learned to repair the tractor. Along the way, he needed to understand wildlife, habitats and the balances of biodiversity.

It's all a jarring contrast to Leavell's more glamorous life of swank hotels and pulsating concerts in sold-out stadiums.

His bandmates, though, are well aware of his tree obsession.

"Oh, God, Chuck's talking about trees again," Keith Richards once said. And at the June show in Atlanta, Jagger introduced Leavell to 50,000 fans as an "amazing guy who's a local tree farmer."

At 63 and a grandfather, Leavell is young by Stones standards. Jagger and Richards are both 71. Charlie Watts is 74.

But Leavell played "Satisfaction' and "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown" in his high school band, which did so well he never went to college.

He found no end of studio work in Muscle Shoals, Ala., one of the South's recording capitals, and then in Macon, Ga., before the Allman Brothers invited him to join as the numerical replacement for founder Duane Allman, who died in a 1971 motorcycle crash.

There are three Stones left from the 1962-era band: lead singer Jagger, guitarist Richards and drummer Watts. Guitarist Ronnie Wood replaced Mick Taylor who replaced Brian Jones. Bassist Darryl Jones replaced Bill Wyman in 1993.

Leavell, sometimes called the "sixth Stone," is the heir to Ian "Stu" Stewart, who co-founded the band in 1962 when he was the first to respond to an advertisement in Jazz News posted by Brian Jones, seeking bandmates for a rhythm and blues group. Everyone else came after those two, including Jagger and Richards.

Stewart added a defining sound to "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar" and "Dead Flowers," among many others. Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston rotated into the keyboards role while Stewart increasingly became tour manager and glorified roadie until his sudden death in 1985.

For those last three years of his life, Stewart became a mentor to Leavell, teaching him how to sprinkle keyboard riffs into the Stones' anthems.

Speaking in his Scottish brogue, Stewart told Leavell, "Make 'em sound like diamond tiaras, Chook, diamond tiaras."

Stewart's guidance is a point of pride to Leavell, who quotes Richards in his book:

"Chuck is our direct link to Stu," Richards said. "Without that continuity, the Stones would not be the Stones."

SundayMonday Business on 07/12/2015

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