“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.” Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymor Hoffman), Almost Famous
It is the 20th anniversary of the cult film Almost Famous, and it has brought with it everything from Zoom interviews to podcasts to a host of retrospectives on the characters, the moment in time, the amazing story of Cameron Crowe and a nostalgic look at a project that did not do well at the box office but has lived on because of the story it told through the words and actions of such an amazing cast.
However, from our perspective the character of William Miller is an example of what remains important in any form of storytelling, especially the self-generated world we are in today. The 16 year old, played by Patrick Fugit, uses his own 1970’s version of hustle and grit, along with a permissive and worrisome mom in Frances McDormand, to find his way into a paid freelance gig for Rolling Stone Magazine as a fly on the wall for a rising band, Stillwater. The story for those who don’t know mirrors a good part of Crowe’s story for which he has become legendary.
While some have written wistfully that today’s era of media coverage would not let the William Miller character exist in terms of access, the basic skills young William had, and used so well, are seen in many young people today who are doing amazing storytelling on all forms of media, and are hustling themselves into influencer positions along the way.
I will speak from sports and media, where I have been lucky to be around so many young people…Peter Casey now doing great things at Slam and JDS Sports; Jeff Eisenband, who has worked his way into some amazing spots with NBA 2K and in the golf and even the sports gambling world; Buster Scher, who has built a large social following around his Hoops Nation Platform; JR Jackson, who never takes no for an answer and is now the sole national sports talk host of color of CBS Radio; Zach Weiner and his team at Overtime; Omar Raja who built House of Highlights with Bleacher Report and then moved on to ESPN…are just some of the folks who come to mind when I think of the William Miller’s of today.
Why? They did the same thing as the character: they saw an opportunity and married it with their passion. They realized that passion without dollars makes something just a hobby and not a business and found a way to do both. They used all means available to be curious and apply those means, and that media, to their trade. They have been relentlessly curious and engaged. They listen and surround themselves with good people. They know how to story tell and match the story to the right medium. And most importantly they are genuinely good people with tremendous drive.
Every time I think of them or reconnect with them, I see William Miller.
Now of course Almost Famous is fiction, but like any great work we can extract the realities and apply them as we see fit, and the lessons we can learn at any age from William Miller live on today in the form of new, smart, hustling content creators who are taking advantage of the opportunities they have in front of them. Do they always get Rolling Stone? No. but in today’s world the conversations we can have and the media we can use don’t always need the big platform. You can create your own audience and your own following globally, and in real time. It’s not easy, but the opportunity William Miller had may have been even harder then than it is today. whether the access is more of a challenge is up for debate…it again comes from hustle and opportunity…but there are many William Millers out there still, and we welcome them and can’t wait to see what they will be doing next, in sports, music, media, or whatever there storytelling choice is.
