A musician stepping on stage to the roar of the crowd is just one piece of the concert experience.
So much transpires before the lights ever dim, but rarely do audiences see (or understand the importance of) the work of the crew and roadies who keep tours moving from city to city.
With the new documentary, Willie Nelson Presents: King of the Roadies, co-directed by Nelson’s daughter, Amy, and his great-nephew Trevor, the music industry’s first known roadie — Ben Dorcy, known to his friends as “Lovey” — finally gets his moment in the spotlight. (Dorcy died in 2017 at the age of 92. The inaugural National Roadie Day is set for May 19, on what would’ve been Dorcy’s 100th birthday.)
The film, which took nearly two decades to complete, will have its world premiere April 27 at the Texas Theatre, as part of this year’s Dallas International Film Festival. Amy Nelson will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
The film is an affectionate, shaggy and frankly mind-blowing peek behind the curtain of some of country music’s most iconic names. Dorcy’s charmed life even leads Texas country singer-songwriter Randy Rogers to call him the country music equivalent of Forrest Gump.
“I had already gotten Ben on camera for one of Dad’s videos,” Amy Nelson said during a recent conversation. “I just realized Ben had this kind of amazing star quality when the camera was on him — you never know until it happens. He was just a pro, and super talented and lit up the screen.”
I spoke with Nelson about the importance of crew for musicians, the wonder of Dorcy’s life and what it means to premiere his story in the city of his birth. The following conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.
Are you surprised his story isn’t more known than it is? He was present for such a huge chunk of country music history. And I feel like the music industry is losing personalities like this — everything is NDAs and locked down now, all that kind of stuff. His experience goes back to a time when it was just people hanging out.
He was a legend among the legends — nobody else knew who he was. … I think it’s one of those things where just roadies in general, stage crew in general, or production crew — they get taken for granted because they make the show run smooth, and nobody notices you when the show runs smooth, you know? The artists know when their show went right, and they know who to credit. But nobody else in the crowd knows that.
What is the value of remembering, the necessity of honoring that history? Was that on your mind as you’re pulling this film together?
More and more we realized how important that it was we were getting this story, because the story was unfolding, and we didn’t know what we were going after until it was revealed to us a little at a time. He was getting older and older, and then we were like, “Okay, now he’s definitely the oldest roadie.” It became a story about everybody who is taking care of him . It became a story about this man who outlived his family, but his road family, his music family is taking care of him. I think Ben lived so long because he didn’t retire. And probably, same with my dad — like, none of us are trying to get him to quit, right? Why quit doing what you love?
What does it mean to you and Trevor to premiere this film in Dallas, where Lovey was born?
We’re so excited. I even remember we were filling out the paperwork to try to get [the film] into South by Southwest, and we realized, “Wait a minute — he didn’t live in Austin.” It didn’t really dawn on me how much better it would be to do it in the town where he was born. It just unfolded where Dallas is the one that shows us for the premiere, and we’re like, it sort of felt preordained, absolutely.
World premiere of Willie Nelson Presents: King of the Roadies at Texas Theatre, Dallas. 1 p.m. April 27. Tickets are $15.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
