John wanted to make sure the gnarly truth was told, as he put it, but at times he'd back away,

I think John would have thought (this premiere) was really cool. He loved movies. He would have been the fan tonight.

We had a very deep spiritual connection.

I loved their honesty, their humility and their graciousness. They were fiercely loyal, especially to me. Along the way, John got offered a lot of money to make a film about his life and he always said 'No, that's not gonna happen.' He knew I'd protect the story, make the film he wanted made. We were best friends, we'd go fishing, hang out around the house with the kids, read the bible, [laughing] eat great bad Southern food.

June was best friends with Robert Duvall, and I was directing a movie with Duvall and they were constantly talking about me among themselves. Soon John and June kept calling me to do a movie about John's life. When we started the whole project it really was more about John, but as we got going, we all realized there was no way this film could not be about the two of them. A lot of people knew who June was, but I'll bet you very, very few of them knew what a big influence she was on his career and his life.

I think so. I can't think of anything that requires more finesse than comedy, both from a verbal and visual point of view.