The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005) Movie Script

1
Hello. Hello.
Hello, I am the ghost
of Daniel Johnston.
Many years ago
I lived in Austin, Texas,
and I worked at McDonald's.
It is an honor
and a privilege
to speak to you today,
to tell you
about my condition,
and the other world.
(PIANO PLAYING)
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
MALE ANNOUNCER:
Ladies and gentlemen.
The best singer/songwriter
alive today,
Daniel Johnston.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
MAN: We love you, Daniel!
(SINGING SILLY LOVE)
I've come this far
and I know I can make it
(PEOPLE CLAPPING)
I've got a broken heart
and you can't break
a broken heart
I come knocking
at your door
You don't love me anymore
But I just can't give up
'Cause I don't know
what to do about it
You must be wrong
if you think
you don't love me
You could smile down
and put a happy ending
to my song
I come knocking
at your door
You don't live there
anymore
Is it just a memory?
Or am I a little
crazy for you?
MABEL: He was different.
I noticed that from the start
that Dan was different.
I had him on a crib
in our little bedroom
and I would go in
and talk to him,
change his diaper,
and I would squeal at him
and he would squeal back
at me.
That's a small baby
communicating, I thought.
Being, uh, six years younger
than his four brothers
and sisters,
he was pampered by them.
And, uh,
they nursed him along.
But we didn't notice
at that time
that there was
any special talents
involved or anything.
MABEL:
When he went to school,
they tested the kids,
and Dan was put
in the highest group
of the highest class.
His teacher was
really mad at him
and it's understandable
because Dan doesn't
follow directions.
You know,
when he was in junior high,
he suddenly lost
all his wonderful confidence,
and I guess it was
the beginning of his illness.
BILL: He and his brother
decided to make
their own movie.
And it was a collaborative
effort between the two
brothers working together.
And Dan had to change clothes
and pretend to be his mother.
Because his mother and I
weren't in the movie actually.
Tell about it, Mabel.
(RINGING)
MABEL: Dan is the director
and the actor
portraying himself
in parts
and his horrible mother
in other parts.
I think he was
having fun teasing me.
What do you think, Bill?
Yeah, he--he was
doin' it for humor.
You are real lazy.
Wake up.
Dan's hard to deal
with sometimes.
He thought, "I'm artistic.
I shouldn't have to do
those things."
(SCATTING)
Time to get up
and get ready for school.
Get up in there,
breakfast is ready.
He wanted to be comic
all the time. He just
couldn't get over it.
Okay.
They were having
too good a time.
(SCREAMING)
I don't think
his relationship
with me was typical.
Do you suppose he really
pictured me that way?
This is ridiculous,
what they're showing.
I think it's popcorn
and green Kool-Aid.
He was a trial.
I was sort of
the star art guy
at the high school.
DAVID:
Oak Glen High School.
And I started hearing
rumors of this new art guy,
the new art star.
You know,
the--the new kid in town,
I had to find out
who this was.
A friend of mine told me,
"There's this kid,
Dan Johnston,
"he can really draw,
he's a musician
or something."
So he kind of had one
up on me, he was a musician.
The guy is a natural,
an absolute natural.
He never even had
to learn to draw.
He just got better
from great.
You know, I had to
hang out with this guy.
I had to be around this art.
So we just started hanging out
and doing art together,
actually.
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
The eyeball thing
was sort of like
his intro calling card.
DANIEL: Did it
touch you emotionally?
It was
his mysterious entry.
GIRL: It's definitely
different.
GIRL 2: I'm speechless.
Everybody was,
"Who's the eyeball guy?"
You know, he was painting
these eyeballs everywhere.
He would actually draw
on walls all over
the high school.
GIRL 3: I thought Dan's
was very imaginative.
Daniel,
he just exudes art.
He--He can't stop
making art.
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
He never sits and thinks,
what am I gonna do?
He just grabs something.
(THE STORY OF AN ARTISPLAYING)
Listen up
and I'll tell a story
About an artist
growing old
Some would try for
fame and glory
Others aren't so bold
Everyone,
and friends and family
saying, "Hey! Get a job!"
"Why do you only
do that only?
"Why are you so odd?
"We don't really like
what you do
"We don't think
anyone ever will
"It's a problem
that you have
"And this problem's
made you ill"
The artist walks alone
Someone says
behind his back
"He's got his gall
to call himself that!
"He doesn't even know
where he's at!"
BILL: He wasn't buyin' them
for comic books,
he was buying them for
the artwork that was
involved on the comics.
And some of the artists
were his incentive
to try to be
an artist himself.
They were
an inspiration to him.
DAVID: Now talk about
the cinema of
Daniel Johnston, then.
He doesn't have influences.
He doesn't sit down
and consciously watch Chaplin
and then learn,
or this is my Keaton period.
It's not like that.
He doesn't even know
who these guys are.
(CHUCKLES)
You know, he gets a Super 8
and he makes a movie.
Dan took himself seriously.
He, for some reason,
thought he was going to be
an artist because probably
of the attention he got.
The family room would
sometimes be almost
full of kids
and one of them told me
that he's gonna be
famous someday.
And I thought,
that silly stuff, you know?
DAVID: He lived
in the basement of
his parents' house.
They got this perfectly
normal ranch house
out in the country
behind New Cumberland.
He's got this amazing lab,
like this amazing
factory downstairs.
He's turned a garage
and two sort of utility rooms
into a bedroom
and an art factory,
and he's just got
everywhere, magazines, tapes.
In fact, he's
recreated it in Waller,
where he lives today.
It's a duplicate
of the same room.
I was guilt stricken
to go away
She turned without saying
I could not stay
And all the while
she was smiling at me
Like I was a show
on her TV
They're sort of like this
Christian fundamentalist
Glass Family.
They're creative,
they're intellectual,
but there's this, like,
West Virginia, kind of
right-wing Christian thing.
Daniel wasn't
havin' any of it.
Spiritually he was
separated from them,
socially, every other way
he was gone from them.
But at the same time
he was of them,
in the sense that
he had certain material
to draw from.
Bill and I both thought he was
doing too much
concentrating on the art
and the music and he wasn't
having a well rounded life.
(PEOPLE SINGING HYMN)
DAVID: She would constantly
try to get him, "Go to church
and save yourself,"
and he just
would have none of it.
He'd go to church, even,
but he wouldn't participate.
He'd go to church
so he could
stare at the girls,
try to find a girlfriend.
Literally, all he cared
about was making art
and being John Lennon,
and his parents' rules
were in the way of that.
All he wanted them
to do was just
keep the lights on,
keep the power on
so he could draw.
MABEL: Dan was
getting to be a problem.
And he wanted to do everything
but he didn't want to
do any of his chores,
like help mow the lawn,
or wash the car,
or any of those things
that I thought he was
lackin' in training,
and I had to settle that.
(MABEL SPEAKING ON TAPE)
(DANIEL SPEAKING ON TAPE)
(MABEL SPEAKING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(MABEL SPEAKING)
(DANIEL LAUGHING)
(MABEL SPEAKING)
(CLICKING)
Every bit of the-- of the
supposed persecution
that Daniel portrays
in early music was there,
but, um, but I'm not saying
it was without provocation.
He did it.
He brought it on himself.
He--He would cause it
to tape record, to film.
Many, many times, Mabel would
open the basement stairs door
and she used to call him
an unprofitable servant.
"You're an unprofitable
servant of the Lord.
"You need to leave the house
and get a job."
He turned it,
he used to call himself
an unserviceable prophet.
(MABEL SPEAKING)
I really didn't like it
when he put...
He taped me
giving him what for.
I didn't think
he would do that.
She would really
harangue him and, uh,
and he--he, um...
It was hard on him. It was.
But he's this sort of like,
coal burning in the basement,
you know,
and it's heating up
the whole house,
and they're just
going insane from it.
So the whole place is
just going wild
because he's just
such a problem.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BILL: When the problem
became apparent
was when he first
went to college,
at Abilene Christian College.
And, uh, he wasn't
getting to his classes.
He was totally confused
and, uh, we thought,
well, this is home sickness,
you know,
and they sent him
to the local doctor
to see if he was complaining
about pains in his arms,
which are symptoms
of manic depression.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(CLICKING)
He's going around in a daze,
we said, "Well, we'd better
bring him home."
And immediately
he snapped out of it.
And then back to being
a normal person again.
And we thought,
"Well, everything's
all right."
So we sent him
to a local college.
DAVID: He goes
to art school at
Kent State University branch
in East Liverpool, Ohio.
And I am attending
the same school.
We found all these kind
of lethargic professors
and sort of
half-talented students.
And, Daniel, of course,
he just scoops them up
and he just mixes them
into his art form.
Like everybody's his subject,
you know, all of a sudden
he's interviewing people
with his little tape recorder
and then taking
little phrases from them
and cutting them
into his songs.
And he meets
the love of his life.
He meets Laurie Allen.
DANIEL: I was alone
in my life
with little to live for,
(PIANO PLAYING)
trying my hand at art,
thinking that maybe
I could save myself,
but in my desperation
all my hope would fly away
until there was
nothing left of me,
nothing left to say.
And in this nightmare
there was a dream
of a girl
so beautiful beyond compare.
The girl of my dreams.
So wonderful.
So beautiful.
And I had her boots.
This was so long ago
in my idealistic dream
of so many songs.
Laurie.
Yes.
She inspired a thousand songs
and then I knew
I was an artist.
He wrote a lot of sweet songs
about Laurie.
And I remember something
from listening he wanted
to play one for me.
I remember it
and he doesn't have it.
It goes...
Walking down the road
I'm feeling lonely
But don't be sad
Be glad you're just
one step closer to the girl
you're going to meet
DAVID: He starts
following her around
with a tape recorder
and--and his little Super 8,
following her around,
making movies and
tape recording her
and begging her,
begging Laurie to say,
"I love you, Dan,"
into the tape,
which she eventually does.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(LAURIE SPEAKING)
She has no idea.
He's massively
obsessed with her.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
DAVID: This is the kind
of love he needed to have.
He needed to have a love
that he couldn't
really successfully
connect up with.
He had to have
the thing to chase.
He could never have
a thing he could catch.
So, when she married
someone else,
it was even better because
then he could really pine.
You know, she was gone.
And it's just God's
little joke that it happens
to be an undertaker.
So he really liked that event
even though
it causes him great pain.
Well, when Dan got depressed,
he took to playing the piano,
but I didn't understand
the depression.
(I HAD LOST MY MIND PLAYING)
I had lost my mind
I lost my head for a while
Was off my rocker,
out of line, out of whack
You see I had this
tiny crack in my head
That slowly split open
and my brains oozed out
It's lying on the sidewalk
and I didn't even know it
I had lost my mind
Why, I was sitting
in the basement when I
first realized it was gone
Got in my car
Rushed right over
to the lost and found
I said, "Pardon me
but I seem to have
lost my mind"
She said, "Well,
can you identify it please?"
I said, "Why sure,
it's a cute little bugger
"About yea big a little
warped from the rain"
She said, "Well then, sir,
this must be your brain"
I said, "Thank you, ma'am,
I'm always losing
that dang thing"
I had lost my mind
We felt that it was,
uh, wasting time
to keep him in college
because he was
never gonna graduate
the way he was goin'.
So we took him out of college
and sent him to, uh,
Houston to live
with his brother.
Mom and Dad were
trying to get him
on the right track.
In all of our minds,
that meant a productive life.
A well rounded life.
Not a self-absorbed life.
A job is part of that.
And in an effort to help,
I said, "Let Dan come down
for the summer,
work at Astroworld.
"And maybe this will get him
on his feet or something."
(DANIEL WHISPERING)
DICK: When he found out
that he had to go to Texas
and he would be
without his piano,
that put a wrench
in his plans.
So he got ahold of this organ
and he takes it into my garage
and he turned my weight bench
into a recording studio.
DANIEL: How are you doing,
Dave? How's it going?
I'm working on the album now.
On the new release,
Yip/Jump Music.
I sound like some kind
of MTV person, don't I?
I brought out the chord organ.
I just set it up.
I thought I'd play you
one of the songs
I played on the album.
So, I'll turn on
the chord organ here.
DICK: I knew he was recording.
I could hear him singing.
But I--I had no perception
that he was,
you know, in his mind,
making this masterpiece.
(CHORD ORGAN BLUES PLAYING)
(DANIEL SINGING)
DICK: I wanted to help Dan
and I thought I was giving
great prophetic advice.
I said, "Dan, you know,
someday you're gonna
be really good
"at something
and very successful.
"But it's not gonna be
your art and it's not
gonna be your music."
We had to say, "Look, Dan,
you can't stay up all night.
"You're gonna have
to go to bed at some
kind of decent hour.
"And kind of live life
with the rest of us."
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
Margie kind of
stepped in and said
that she could, uh,
you know, see what
she could do to help him.
And we packed him up
and off he went into
the distance.
I thought, well...
Uh, he needs a place to go
and I'm his sister,
and, well, he can come
and stay here.
So he came to live
with me in my duplex.
Now, I didn't have
extra furniture for him.
We got him a mattress
that was just on the floor.
But he seemed to thrive
in this atmosphere
because he was
allowed to make a mess.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
I thought everything was fine.
Then one day I came home
and he wasn't there, which...
I wasn't too worried 'cause
we didn't tell each other
everywhere we were going.
But, uh, when he wasn't there
in the morning when I got up,
and he hadn't
come home all night,
that was not typical.
MABEL: He made a decision
to buy a moped.
(ENGINE REVVING)
And he disappeared
on the moped,
right, Bill?
Yes.
And he joined
the carnival and
went with them.
We weren't able
to contact him.
It's the saddest time
in my life,
not to know where your son is
and he might be needing help.
(DANIEL SINGING)
DANIEL: When I was
with the carnival,
this little girl
at the carnival,
her name was Tricia.
She's a carnival girl.
She's grown up
with the carnival
and she's about
three years old.
All the time she would
come into the corndog stand
when we were open.
And it was slow, you know,
and we would pretend it was
a spaceship, you know.
I would bang on
this untuned guitar
and she started singing
this little song,
"Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut,
merry-go-round"
Yeah, I do miss home.
I'm down here and I'm okay.
Because wherever I am,
I got music in my heart.
MABEL: During that time,
I had a--a rock
inside my chest.
I thought he might be
in a shallow grave someplace.
He left the first part
of April
and I think it was
Father's Day when he called
and let us know
where he was.
DANIEL: Collect call from
Daniel Johnston, please.
(SPEEDING MOTORCYCLE
PLAYING)
Speeding motorcycle
Of my heart
Pretty girls have
taken you for a ride
Hurt you deep inside
The road is ours
The way Daniel ended up
in Austin is so incredible
that it really sounds
like an urban legend.
When the carnival came
to Austin,
he was going to the bathroom
in the porta-potty
and someone was upset
about how long he was taking
and they were
banging on the door.
And so when he came out,
it turned out it was like a
really big, tough carnie guy.
And he just hauled off
and like, socked him.
And really,
really hurt him bad.
And Daniel didn't know
what to do.
(HYMN PLAYING)
He just started looking
for a Church of Christ.
And, uh, he wandered until
he saw the University
Church of Christ.
And he went in and he just
asked them to help him.
And they ended up taking him,
you know, to the doctor
and everything
and leasing him an apartment.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(TRAIN HORN BLOWING)
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
KATHY: He had heard
the band I was in,
which was Glass Eye.
And we were just
getting popular locally.
And he saw
a poster for our show.
And he decided that this was
a really magical sign
and he really
needed to go to it.
And he came to the show
and he gave me a copy
of his cassette.
So the next time we played,
he came over to me
and he was so excited.
You could tell he was like,
screwing up his nerve,
like, getting ready to, like,
ask me what I thought
of his music.
And he came over and he goes,
"What'd you think?"
And I looked at him
and I couldn't,
I just couldn't
really let him know
how much of an asshole
I really was, that I hadn't
even listened to his music,
his most important thing
in his life. And I said,
"It was great.
"I loved it. You can totally
open for us."
And so I went home and I
listened to it and I was
blown away at
its incredible genius.
(DANIEL SINGING)
I met Daniel Johnston,
in kind of the classic
Daniel Johnston way.
It was a Saturday.
I was working
at the Austin Chronicle.
I was alone in the office
and I was sitting there
writing,
and I heard something
at the door. Not a knock.
But somebody like,
shuffling at the door.
Finally I went over
and I opened the door,
and Daniel was standing there.
And he was this skinny
little kid who looked
fairly demented.
And he had a tape.
And he said, "I just wanted
to give you my tape."
So I said, "Great.
You know, I'll give it
to a music person.
"If they like it,
maybe we'll review it.
"But I'm not
promising you anything."
And Daniel goes, "You know,
I wasn't really giving you
that to review.
"I just wanted you to listen
to it. I'm not trying to get
a review or anything."
So Daniel goes away.
And I put it on
the tape player
and it just blew my mind.
I mean, it was one of those
where I got it right away.
(URGE PLAYING)
Get attached
to a rolling stone
And you're liable
to get crushed
You're better off
to sit at home
And watch
the toilet flush
And so then he gives you
Hi, How Are You
and Yip/Jump Music.
It's like, you know,
imagine meeting,
you know, Bob Dylan,
and he gives you his
first six albums and saying,
"Here's some stuff
I'm working on."
So it's this body of music
where you're suddenly hearing
20 amazing songs
and--and they're
out of nowhere from
this weird little guy.
I played it for
a lot of music writers
and some musicians
and he was giving it
to other musicians,
and gradually over like
a period of weeks,
people began to talk a lot
about who this crazy kid was.
Daniel Johnston
and this really weird music.
The picture
gets all blurred
I see shadows
dancing on my walls
Thoughts scatter
like birds
Daniel, of course,
loves The Beatles,
worships them.
And, uh, I can see that
Hi, How Are You could be
like Meet The Beatles!
Come grab this
and start the new
Daniel Johnston mania!
And in his head,
of course, it was there.
He was The Beatles.
And it was from
deep inside here.
Hi, How Are You?
I'm Daniel Johnston,
and this is what scares me
and this is what I love,
and this is
what terrifies me.
KEN: You just hear that
and, uh, your mind will
turn around to his.
You start off hearing
this noise,
then eventually
you hear The Beatles.
You hear the whole symphony.
He actually didn't
just record a tape
and mass produce it.
He sometimes couldn't
duplicate, so he had
to sing the entire tape
from beginning to end
to hand you a copy.
Go back home. Start again.
Song by song.
Fill up the tape.
Hand another person a copy.
Fill it up. Go. And finally
write another album.
Start the whole process
over again.
KATHY: As far as I know
his very first, like,
public show that he did
was done opening
for Glass Eye.
And he was so nervous.
He literally was vibrating.
And he also had
recently decided,
since coming to Austin,
that he wasn't gonna
play piano anymore,
something he does rather well.
He decided that he was
gonna play guitar like all
the Austin guitar slingers.
And he really couldn't play.
That was scary for him, too.
All of a sudden
it quieted down like
it was church or something.
Daniel comes on stage.
It was very unusual
because anyone playing
their first show,
it's like you're lucky
to get anyone
to pay attention.
But everyone was
absolutely silent and
he looked so nervous,
he looked like he was
gonna vomit the whole time.
(TEARS STUPID TEARS PLAYING)
Time is a matter of fact
And it's gone
and it'll never come back
And mine
It's wasted all the time
Tears, stupid tears
Bring me down
LOUIS: So when you
saw him perform,
I mean, especially
in the early days, when he did
the two or three song sets,
sometimes
they were God-awful,
and sometimes they were
unbelievably brilliant.
I mean, sometimes
he just nailed it.
I mean, sometimes
it was so abstract.
I mean, some of it was
what wasn't there.
Sometimes there was
too much not there.
Tie my brain
Into a knot
Those tears, stupid tears
Bring me down
People in the audience
tended to be like,
"What? Is this is a joke?
Is this guy
supposed to be cool?"
And they would be looking
around at each other like,
"How am I supposed to react?"
Because he was so raw
and so real in a lot of ways,
that people couldn't take it.
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
LOUIS: He's got
a full shift
at McDonald's.
And as close as I can tell,
he can't do anything.
He can't cook.
He doesn't clean very well.
DICK: As in a lot of places,
you know,
they'll give him work,
but then he migrates to
the job with the least skill,
which was cleaning tables.
KEN: It was amazing that
he could keep his job
because everybody was always
coming in there wanting to,
"Hey, Daniel. Hi, Daniel!"
And, well, they don't
take well to that at,
you know, fast food joints.
But he was employed there
for a long time.
And you knew you could
find him there,
just in his little hat
and his little shirt there,
cleanin' up,
cleanin' up other people's
spills and stuff.
DICK: When I went to
visit him at McDonald's,
I think it was probably
the first time I
recognized that
he was spacing out,
you know.
That there was
a disconnection from reality
or something going on.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
1985 was just an enormous year
for Austin music.
It was like everything
was about to break,
and--and again,
Daniel just came in
right at that time.
MTV started sniffing around.
And they brought in
Peter Zaremba
and the show they had,
The Cutting Edge.
They lined up
all these bands
and they had
a big old barbeque
and Daniel showed up
there with his tapes.
This is Daniel Johnston.
Local man about town.
Musician.
Everyone knows who he is
but... Say hi to everyone.
My name is
Daniel Johnston
and this is the name
of my tape and it's,
Hi, How Are You.
And I, I was having
a nervous breakdown
when I recorded it.
He wasn't scheduled
to be on the show.
They had already
listened to tapes
and talked to people
at the Chronicle
and the music critics
and they decided who was
gonna be on this special
and everything.
But Daniel was unstoppable
at that point.
He was so full of confidence.
He always
presented himself like,
"I am a very incredible,
extraordinary human being
"and you're gonna be
really happy
you listened to this."
How you doing? We are having
a casual conversation
on national TV.
Daniel is on MTV.
You know, out of nowhere,
from my point of view.
And, uh, he's-- he's on MTV
and I actually do
get to see it.
And, uh, he says to me...
This is to David Thornberry
from Daniel Johnston.
And, Dave, here I am on MTV,
holding up my tape,
Hi, How Are You.
And they're recording me
tonight. I'm on MTV.
Remember when we used to
watch MTV back home?
Look, I'm on MTV, David.
And that was his dream.
I mean, literally, that's
what he wanted to do,
is be on MTV.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
(I LIVE MY BROKEN DREAMS
PLAYING)
(PEOPLE WHISTLING)
When I was out
in San Marcos
A year ago today
They probably would've
put me in a home
But I threw
all my belongings
into a garbage bag
And out into the worldness
I did roam
My hopes lay shattered
like a mirror on the floor
I see myself and I
looked really scattered
But I lived
my broken dreams
BRIAN: He always knew
where to be
at any given moment
and while this was
being filmed it was,
like, MTV...
He knew MTV is here in town.
And by far he became
one of the most memorable
things from the show
and he basically
just scammed his way into it.
The wildest summer
that I ever knew
I had a flat tire
down memory lane
But I came back
after five months
and a half
And now I'm just
trying to explain
And now I'm here
And here I stand
With a sweet angel
holding my hand
I lived my broken dreams
(PEOPLE WHOOPING)
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
LOUIS: Instantly McDonald's
expands his hours to, like,
20 or 30 hours a week.
They give him more shifts.
Not because he's doing
anything, but because
he's become a star.
And whoever the manager is,
thinks this is entertaining.
And then the other weird thing
that begins happening is,
there's all this
interest in Daniel.
So you hear record companies
are calling McDonald's
'cause that's the only way
you can call Daniel.
Daniel doesn't have a phone.
So SPIN is calling McDonald's
and music magazines...
So you get all these calls...
And in the beginning I think
the McDonald's people
were really kind of
entertained by this.
But after a while, when you'd
call to talk to Daniel,
they were not happy.
They had hamburgers to make.
And then in 1986,
he wins a bunch of awards
in the Austin Music Awards.
He wins Songwriter
of the Year and Best Folk Act,
which is very controversial
and, of course,
it goes to Daniel's head
in new and different ways.
In a town with a lot
of singer/songwriters
and a lot of folkies,
who can play guitar,
that might've not gone
over too well with
some people.
(CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOSPLAYING)
He was smiling through
his own personal hell
Dropped his last dime
in a wishing well
But he was hoping to close
and then he fell
Now he's Casper
the friendly ghost
In the spring of 1986, um,
I started helping Daniel.
The first thing I did was
set up his publishing company
with Bug Music.
I knew his music was great,
but I felt like for him to
actually make a living,
he would be better off
if other,
more well-known artists
were to cover his material.
He was always polite
to the people who'd tell him
That he was nothing
but a lazy bum
But goodbye to them
he had to go
Now he's Casper
The friendly ghost
I thought that he was
almost angelic.
And then I got to
know him better.
And we started being
really close friends.
And for a little while
I was his "girlfriend."
And because he was
very religious,
this was a very chaste
relationship.
But even within
the context of that,
it was undeniable
after maybe one or two weeks
that something was
dreadfully wrong with him.
Something that wasn't angelic
and pure and naive
and innocent and beautiful.
So I realized I can't let him
keep on thinking that
I'm his girlfriend
because his parents came
to visit him
and he introduced me
as his fiancee.
I realized that I was
going to have to say,
"Daniel, we're not
going out anymore, you know.
"We're just friends."
And I essentially spent,
oh, the entire summer
reminding him.
We broke up.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
DANIEL: Now you're filming?
RANDY: Dan, this is so wild.
JEFF: Daniel began
hanging out with his manager,
Randy Kemper.
And was smoking
a lot of marijuana.
And he would not perform live.
Everybody was bugging him
to play live, but he just
didn't want to.
There were some changes
in his behavior
and we didn't really
quite know what was
going on with him.
RANDY: You know, when you do
stuff like that,
you throw me off, Daniel.
KATHY: I always kind of
imagined Daniel performing
like Elton John
with costume changes
and Rockettes
and a big grand piano.
Just the kind of show
that's just ridiculous.
Almost like Andy Kaufman-esque
kind of thing.
But unfortunately,
he had his mental breakdown.
(SWEET LOAF PLAYING)
LOUIS: So he goes to
a Butthole Surfers show
and somebody there
gives him a hit of acid.
And the trip really begins
to change everything.
Again, one of the classic
scenarios of Daniel's life
is whenever anything
starts getting really good,
you know something
really ugly is gonna happen.
(MECHANICAL WHIRRING)
(GROANS)
GIBBY: The night in question
is September 11, 1986
on which Daniel
had a bad experience, uh,
and I guess, uh, he was
under the influence
of some sort of
psychoactive substance.
(WHIRRING)
You know, I remember
a little bit about seeing
Daniel that night.
I remember him being
sort of difficult
to deal with.
And then we had
our thing going on and
everybody started saying,
"Daniel's freaked out.
"Daniel's freaked out.
Daniel's freaked out."
I'm coming back
to tell you, man.
I'm serious like Billy Graham.
Nothing like Billy Graham.
Or nothing like that.
Or nothing like nobody you
ever heard tell about nothing.
But I'm coming back
and I'm telling you
there's a supernatural world.
There's a supernatural world
and Gibby,
Gibby knows about it.
(FEUERZEIG SPEAKING)
(CHUCKLING)
No. I didn't give
him any LSD.
I think at that point it was
pretty much known that, uh,
he was not necessarily
"an" unstable character,
but slightly unstable
"of" character.
So that's the kind of person
you really wouldn't want to
engage in the, uh...
In the LSD experience.
RANDY: Are you
Daniel Johnston?
I used to be Daniel Johnston.
And who are you now?
You know, I don't know.
I don't know.
JEFF: In December of 1986,
Daniel was taking
a lot of acid and was
just not himself.
Was very, very delusional.
And there was one violent
incident with his manager
in which he attacked him
and, uh, put him
in the hospital
with a concussion.
(POLICE SIREN BLARING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
Dan was imagining
all kinds of things
and he thought of himself
as God's man
to straighten things up
and so caused
a lot of trouble.
All the family met
together for Christmas.
Mom and Dad couldn't
come that year
and so we had decided
since all of the siblings
were in Texas, that we would
get together
and have Christmas.
So we're all making these
Christmas ornaments and
his Christmas ornament
is this black number nine.
We asked and said,
"Dan, that's not an
appropriate Christmas symbol.
"What does that mean?
And why are you doing black?
"That's not gonna look good
hanging on the tree."
DICK: I remember staring
at him while we were
talking and saying,
"That doesn't even
look like Dan."
His face doesn't
look like Dan to me.
He was in some kind
of manic state.
We get up for
a family portrait
and he would hang
a Beatles album on
a Christmas tree.
Well, I went to take it down
off the tree
and he came for me.
And he had super strength.
And in just
a very brief struggle,
he broke my rib.
So they were
rolling around
on the floor
and it was just
not the way
our Christmas gatherings
usually are.
He was talking
in different voices
and was accusing us
of teaching the children
Satanist practice.
And that whole night we
didn't wanna go to sleep
because if he believed
we were Satanists,
he might try to do
something to harm us
if he's the "Hero of Good"
or something.
DICK: He decided
to make a dash
to go up to the attic space
where the kids were playing.
And at that point,
Sally went to the phone
and called the police.
SALLY: We had to call
for some assistance and
remove him from the house.
And my husband took him
to the bus station
and then stayed and watched
to make sure he got on it,
so that we would
all feel safe.
DICK: I remember
going upstairs with Margie
and laying down on the bed
and we just both wept
like he was dead, you know.
Because we didn't know
who he was.
DANIEL:
Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer
You'll go down in history
Yeah!
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
I'm lying in bed.
I have pneumonia.
And the phone rings and I
have like a 103 temperature
and the phone rings
and somebody says, uh,
"Do you know
a Daniel Johnston?"
I go, "Yeah, Daniel
and I are friends."
He goes,
"Well, I think maybe
you should come here."
I go, "Well,
I really don't think
I should. I'm sick."
"No. I really, really think
you should come here."
I get to campus. I have
a 103 degrees temperature.
It's 1986 and it's Christmas,
so there's nothing there.
There's no cars.
There's no people.
This campus is
completely empty.
It's weird.
It's eerie. It's quiet.
These people I don't know
are leading me down
and we start walking down
to go towards the river.
And we look over
and there's the water.
And there standing
in the middle of the water
is Daniel.
And he's standing
in the water,
he's about knee-deep,
splashing the water,
and he's looking at us,
his eyes are like white.
At one point he looks up
and starts singing,
Running water,
running water
And then he's preaching.
And he's talking about
baptism.
And he's talking about evil.
He's really whacked.
We're tryin' to talk him
into coming onto the shore.
It's going on and on and on
and it's getting real weird.
All of a sudden,
we look over there.
A couple of police cars
have pulled up.
They forced me out,
they came...
People were...
People were afraid.
They were afraid
to come up to me.
They didn't want me
to splash them with water.
What was I doing down there?
What was going on?
I knew exactly
what was going on.
I wanted to take my life
only a few nights before.
I hit my best friend
over the head with
a lead pipe.
I thought there was
nowhere to go.
I thought the military
takeover was going to happen
over Christmas time.
But it didn't.
You know what I mean?
I thought, I knew, I saw.
I knew, I saw.
I went inside
the building of U.T.
I saw... I saw the things,
the programming,
the confusion,
the Coke, Coca-Cola,
the Snickers, all the candy,
and everything being used
as a drug, the confusion,
the mind control,
spiritualism,
the cultural upheaval, flip.
Man, yes, it's really
happening. They were
really doing it, man.
I'm talking, if you don't
know about it. I'm talking
like Nazi Germany.
All great artists are crazy,
but there's a difference
between the abstract
great artist being crazy
and this person doing
damage to you or to himself,
and how involved
do you wanna be?
We'd spent our whole lives,
we're those kind of people
who love the notion
of the crazy artist.
You know, Van Gogh
cutting off his ear.
And we've read those books
and we've, you know,
collected the art
and we've seen the movies
and we really loved
the crazy people
because they were
the pure people.
You know, they didn't have
any commercial sense.
And yet, he was
a real sick person.
And it was really,
"What are we gonna do?"
And so, I mean, we do
the most pedestrian thing
possible.
We commit him.
And you actually felt, I mean,
a certain amount of guilt.
I mean, it was like,
if I was around Van Gogh...
You know, I've always had
contempt for those people
who didn't understand genius,
and here I am given my shot
and what I'm saying is,
please put him in the hospital
'cause we don't wanna
have to deal with him.
We don't know what to do.
When I went to see him
in the hospital,
they wanted to know
what my relationship
with Daniel was.
And I had been working
informally as his publicist.
But, um, I needed
to tell them something
a little better than that.
And I assumed
that Randy Kemper,
after having been
beat over the head
with a lead pipe
did not wanna continue
managing Daniel.
So I said I was his manager.
JEFF: I helped get Daniel
out of the hospital
because I didn't
fully understand
why he was there.
All I knew was he needed
to get out of there.
And as soon as I did get him
out, I began hearing from
other people asking me,
why did I do that.
But it seemed like he was
doing well enough.
He was back in his home.
And it seemed like
everything was okay, although
it was very borderline.
It's like true
in science fiction
and it's the new
supernatural age,
you know, they spoke
of in Revelations.
And Number nine, number nine,
The Beatles' song,
Number nine.
JEFF: He was obsessed
with the Devil and Satan.
DANIEL: Do not
get that number, 6-6-6.
Do not get 6-6-6
imprinted on your hand.
JEFF: I had never really
heard him talk about
the Devil before,
and he became so obsessed
that it was all he could
talk about.
You must not give in
to the Devil,
ladies and gentlemen.
The world in confusion,
ladies and gentlemen.
Somebody is
manufacturing these.
They're spreading
those around.
They might be
mounting them up around.
Evil, ladies and gentlemen,
evil.
JEFF: Over the next few days,
he began to throw literally
everything he owned away.
He threw all
his drawings away.
He threw master tapes away.
And he was down to just
three of four possessions
the last time I went
to his apartment.
He still had his tape deck.
He still had his guitar
and maybe one or two
other things.
And as soon as I saw this,
my immediate fear was that
he's gonna kill himself.
It's better to die,
ladies and gentlemen.
And live forever.
And that is
what I intend to do.
JEFF: I went home that night,
not knowing what to do.
DANIEL: The world is
turning to hell.
I did not know very much
about his relationship
with his family,
but I figured
they need to know this.
And I called his father
that night
and he was in Austin
within 24 hours.
He was thin as a rail
and losing weight
and, uh, all kinds of things.
His depression finally
caught up with him.
Evil!
BILL: Because he,
he was losing it.
Number nine.
JEFF: When Daniel's father
took him back
to West Virginia,
Daniel announced
his retirement.
And instantly became
a living legend in Austin.
He pretty much spent
the entire year of 1987
on medication.
(FEMALE INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
A little tired.
BILL: Haldol is
a control drug, and at times
he was a vegetable.
MABEL: And we finally talked
to the psychiatrist
and she said she would have
a psychiatrist examine him.
BILL: They wire your brain up
and make sure you got
what your brain activity is,
and check if there is
any brain damage or anything.
And he checked out okay.
But, uh, we took
him to the University
of Pittsburgh...
MABEL:
Psychiatric Institute.
They had, uh,
seven people interview him
for a whole day.
The reason...
Um...
They said he's
on the wrong medicine.
Yeah.
Every medicine
he reacted different to.
And we kept trying,
and we tried,
and tried different ones.
(FEMALE INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(SINGING)
JEFF: He literally spent
the entire year in bed.
He calls it
his "lost year."
During this period,
I was continuing to work on
building his relationships
with bands like Sonic Youth
and Jad Fair of Half Japanese.
I had become friends
with Steve Shelley
of Sonic Youth.
Steve turned a lot of people
on to Daniel's music.
And as Daniel finally started
to show some improvement,
Steve invited him
to New York City
to check out a recording
studio, just basically
to hang out a little bit,
get to know each other
and have some fun.
DANIEL: We're on our way
to the studio.
JEFF: One day he's scheduled
to do some recording
at Noise New York,
with Steve and Lee
from Sonic Youth.
And he's just as happy
as can be, joking around,
talking about making movies.
He says he's gonna
make a movie someday
and all he has to do
is act naturally.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
JEFF: He's there to become
famous. That is his one
and only goal in his mind.
How has New York been
for the last two days?
It's the greatest city
on the Earth.
This is day number three
for you here.
Yeah, it's happening for sure.
If I can make it here,
I can make it anywhere, right?
That's what they say.
JEFF: There were two
primary goals of this trip.
One was to, uh, meet Kramer
and check out
the Noise New York
recording studio,
with the possibility of
recording for Shimmy Disc.
And the other was
to do some recording
with Moe Tucker,
the drummer for
The Velvet Underground.
This session was
put together by Jad Fair.
And this would allow
Daniel to meet Jad
for the first time.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
As Daniel's manager, I'm
in touch with Steve Shelley
on a nightly basis.
And all of a sudden,
one night I get a call
that Daniel has been
arrested that day.
It seems that they decided
to take him to
the Statue of Liberty.
And while Daniel was touring
the Statue of Liberty,
like any tourist
would want to,
he apparently was
drawing graffiti
inside the stairwell.
Christian fish.
Hundreds of them,
from what I understand.
I guess it's
the anti-Satan symbol. Um...
(POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
JEFF: A couple days after
that, there's a bizarre gig
at Pier Platters.
I say bizarre because he's
proselytizing the audience.
Trying to force
his religious beliefs
on the audience, basically.
Jesus Christ is
number seven.
Satan is number six.
Number eight is eternal death.
And number nine, number nine,
number nine,
is the human number.
Remember these things
and don't listen to the lies
that people will tell you.
Number seven is Jesus Christ.
JEFF: When Daniel performed
at Pier Platters,
it was like the cream
of the crop of the New York
underground music scene.
During the song Funeral Home,
he actually gets the audience
to sing along with him.
So you've got everybody
singing along about going to
the funeral home and dying.
I'm going to the funeral
and I'm never coming back
Sing along with us,
won't you?
ALL:
Funeral home
Funeral home
Louder.
Going to that funeral home
Got me a coffin
shiny and black
I'm going to the funeral
and I'm never coming back
Got me a coffin
shiny and black
I'm going to the funeral
and I'm never coming back
(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
Funeral home
Funeral home
Funeral home
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
JEFF: It became more and more
fanatically religious
as the show went on.
He has a bit of a breakdown,
starts crying at one point,
and is just obviously
right on the edge.
And it was my belief
and the belief of others
around him
that things were getting
a little bit out of control.
You'll be called
to meet your God
Careless Soul
Oh, heed the warning
For your life
will soon be gone
JEFF: The concert made
everyone feel very awkward.
And after the show,
walking back to Steve's place,
Daniel and Steve had
a bit of a falling out.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(STEVE SPEAKING)
He told Kramer that if he
can't get anywhere, he was
gonna sleep in my hallway.
LEE: Yeah, but that's
just an idle threat.
THURSTON: When's
the next train to...
I mean, I can't
imagine him staying
in the bus station,
and actually getting
on the bus all by himself.
JEFF: I know the members
of Sonic Youth were
looking all over for Daniel.
He had been spotted
in various places,
and they just felt this
responsibility to his parents
to get him home.
LEE: Keep an eye peeled
for Daniel.
He might just be a...
If you see a wandering guy
in white.
JEFF: Steve didn't
really want to deal with it.
So Lee and Thurston were
driving around,
driving around.
They finally spotted him
in a hotel parking lot,
I believe in Jersey.
THURSTON: There he is.
LEE: Really?
Yeah. He's walking over here.
Let's go get him.
Steve is totally,
totally pissed off.
DANIEL: He's freaked out.
Yeah, he's freaked out
and he's not gonna...
He was gonna call my parents
and my parents will put me
in a mental home.
LEE: The best thing to do
at this point,
you have a bus ticket,
I think you should
use it.
I'm not going home.
I'm on a mission from God
and I have two more weeks
to spend in this town.
The situation here
for you now is not
the best that it could be.
And we really don't know
what to do,
I mean, you're
a long way from home,
and we don't...
Listen, I called
my manager
and I started to
talk to him about it
and was I going to...
Jeff?
Yeah, I was
going to warn him
not to say anything
to my parents.
I was going to say,
"If you say anything
to my parents,
"I'm gonna fire you."
And I was saying,
"This is a warning
and this is a threat."
And he says,
"I don't wanna hear
any of your damn threats."
And he hung up on me.
My manager.
Now, don't you see the Devil?
The Devil Satan
is trying to stop me
from staying in this town?
Don't you see
how clear that is?
JEFF: He just would
not go home
and was determined
to stay in New York.
He ended up on the Bowery,
in a men's shelter,
where he was assaulted
once or twice,
lost some possessions.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
JEFF: At this point, Daniel
is homeless and hungry and
having the time of his life
while everybody else
is completely freaked out.
His parents, myself,
his hosts.
We don't know what to do,
whereas Daniel doesn't even
realize there's a problem.
Finally, a couple of friends
made arrangements to take him
to the bus station,
to buy him a ticket
to go back home.
They thought they saw him
getting on the bus.
The next thing they know,
two days later, Daniel is
spotted back in New York City.
He'd spent some time
in Bellevue, a day or two,
was released due to
a clerical error and actually
opened for Firehose
at CBGB's that night.
(DANIEL SINGING)
JEFF: After the CBGB's gig,
he did his two songs and left.
All anybody could
think of was we've got
to get him home
before he either kills
somebody or gets killed.
His goal in New York
was to become famous.
And I think he accomplished
his goal by the time he left.
PEOPLE:
At The Cross
At The Cross
JEFF: When Daniel returned
home from New York,
he was hospitalized
almost immediately and let out
way too soon in my opinion.
(MABEL SPEAKING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
JEFF: Just a few weeks later
he traveled to Maryland
to record with Jad Fair.
DAVID FAIR: Putting Jad
and Daniel together
was--was...
I mean, I think
they're both geniuses.
So if you put them together,
you know, I don't see
how that could miss.
I think you get like two,
you know,
two giants together
and, um, it's gigantic.
If I'd only known
I could have said
something sooner
But I didn't, so I didn't
and now it's done
The last thing I'd do
was the first thing you did
What we once had
is all gone
DAVID FAIR: He had
a white T-shirt on
or white painter pants
maybe or something, he has...
Actually he was dressed
all in white.
All white.
During that time period.
He--He thought it would be
the Christian thing to do,
to dress in white.
Yeah.
JAD: David invited Daniel
and--and me to his home
to have dinner.
Back then, the movie, uh,
My Dinner with Andre
was very popular.
And we decided,
well, let's have
My Dinner With Daniel,
and film that.
And we'll just be
talking during dinnertime.
DANIEL: So I went to college
right across the river from
where the funeral home is.
There was this girl there,
and as soon as I saw her,
you know,
I swear to God, it looked like
she was glowing, you know.
JAD: Daniel wanted to,
uh, direct.
Stand right there,
the cameraman,
and you sit in the chair.
He had very
specific ideas
for everything.
DAVID FAIR: You know,
he would figure out shots,
he'd change angles.
I mean, at the beginning
of the evening it was
a film I had in mind.
Very soon it became,
you know,
somebody else's film.
Film the--the chair, okay?
The highlight
probably, though,
was when Daniel
started playing the songs.
I mean, at one point
when he started weeping,
you know, this is...
You know,
wh-where are you gonna see
a performance like that?
I saw my own heart laying
Black with blood
Don't play cards
with Satan
He'll deal you
An awful hand
DAVID FAIR:
When we dropped him off
at the bus station,
I--I don't think anything
really seemed strange.
I don't think
he seemed different
from how he had been
all week long.
JAD: He had a ticket
to go to his parents' home,
in Chester, uh, West Virginia,
which is only about
a five-hour, uh, bus ride.
And we--we thought
he'd be fine.
(INSTRUMENTAL OF
DON'T PLAY CARDS WITH SATAN
PLAYING)
JEFF: Just some great,
great music and art
came out of this week.
But unfortunately,
he went off his meds again
and had problems
when he left.
He took a bus back
to West Virginia,
got off a little too soon
and was completely delusional,
thought that everybody
was possessed by Satan.
It was very early
in the morning, maybe 6:00,
7:00 in the morning.
He was making noise
in the street.
An elderly woman
came to her window,
asked him to be quiet,
and that set off
another major incident.
DICK: And the next thing
she knew,
he was coming up the stairs
in the apartment building
and pounding on the door.
And whatever he was saying
and whatever his demeanor was,
was enough to terrify her
such that
she felt like the only thing
she could do was jump out
of the second story window.
And, of course,
she broke both her ankles.
(DOG BARKING)
And she was an elderly woman,
from church.
(FOOTSTEPS PATTERING)
The law pretty well takes over
when he gets into trouble.
The law stepped in and, uh,
took Dan away from us.
(DANIEL SPEAKING ON PHONE)
(LOUIS SPEAKING ON PHONE)
JEFF: He was quite busy
during this time
writing me audio letters
with all sorts
of instructions.
DANIEL: Earth
to Jeff Tartakov,
ten four come three.
This is a message from
Daniel Dale Johnston.
Here with a few ideas
I'd like to do.
First of all I wish
that The Beatles
would reunite
and back me up as a band.
He continued to want me
to get in touch with people
like Yoko Ono.
But he also had
some additional ideas.
He wanted to be a spokesperson
for Mountain Dew.
DANIEL: This is
Daniel Johnston speaking
from a mental hospital.
They tell me
I'm crazy here,
because I love
the Mountain Dew so much.
I can't get enough
of the Mountain Dew.
DANIEL:
I was sinking deep in sin
Far from Mountain Dew
I had problems out within
Nothing that I could do
But the Mountain Dew came
to me and I drank it all up
Now I'm happy as can be,
oh Mountain Dew
We drink Mountain Dew
We drink Mountain Dew
We have nothing better to do
but drink Mountain Dew
We drink Mountain Dew
We drink Mountain Dew
No thing better to do
than to drink Mountain Dew
Yahoo! Mountain Dew.
It's the new sensation.
The best, the greatest,
the most fantastic.
The most sensational soda pop
in the cosmic universe.
Mountain Dew!
(WHOOPING)
Out come the demons.
Demons, demons, demons,
drink the Mountain Dew.
I sent that off to
the Pepsi Corporation,
but unfortunately
never got a response.
So it's 1990,
we hear Daniel's better.
We hear he's gotten...
Put on a lot of weight.
But we hear, you know,
he's doing his meds,
he's under control.
So we invite him to play
the Austin Music Awards show.
And to come and play
South by Southwest.
And everybody's
very excited about this.
Now his rep has really,
really grown.
Tartakov has really been
getting those tapes out there.
Tartakov's really working it.
Daniel sends me a comic,
about how Daniel's
coming back to Austin
to play the Music Awards.
How he's gonna get laid.
How all the girls should be
ready for him.
And the last page is this
whole thing about the Devil
being really excited
that Daniel's coming back
to Austin,
'cause of all the mayhem
he can cause.
Whenever Daniel was gonna
perform, starting around now,
he went off his meds,
for a couple of weeks
before the performance.
Because he knew
the performance would be
better the crazier he was.
The more real he was,
the better the performance
would be.
But nobody really knew this
at the time.
(PLAYING WORRIED SHOES)
I took my lucky break
and broke it
Try it again.
As a professional,
you know, performer,
I haven't performed,
you know, for two years. So...
(PEOPLE APPLAUDING)
I'm barely doing it now.
JEFF: He flew to town
with his dad.
Did two in-store appearances
at record stores.
Hundreds and hundreds
of people turned out.
People were coming up
for autographs
and he would give them
so much more than just
an autograph.
He would take a full sheet
of paper and draw a frog,
an entire scene.
This was really
the highlight of my career,
up until that point.
Because I was able to see
an audience, a large audience,
respond to Daniel.
Palmer Auditorium had
3,000 people there that night.
(RUNNING WATER PLAYING)
Never knowing where you go
Always running
Never stopping to see
where you're at
Never looking back
Nothing seems to
slow you down
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Running water
Running water
What are you running from?
You always seem to be
on the run
You always seem to be
on the run
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
JEFF: Daniel was scheduled
to play about a 15-minute set,
but he's not
a very good judge of time.
So he walked off the stage
after three songs.
GIRL: Oh, my God...
Daniel.
Dad?
BILL: Yeah?
MAN: You wanna do
another, Dan?
They want me to do
another song?
BILL: You wanna go back?
Okay.
JEFF: When he finally
came out, it was as if
The Rolling Stones had
come back on stage.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(DO YOU REALLY LOVE ME
PLAYING)
But if this really is love
then let's get it on, on
JEFF: During the song Do You
Love Me? the chorus goes,
Do you love me now?
And you could hear girls
in the audience screaming,
"Yes!"
It was Daniel mania.
Tell me now
Do you really love me?
Do you really love me?
Do you really love me?
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
JEFF: The audience was
stomping and screaming.
You could feel
the entire floor shaking.
When they said that
love was dead
They were just playing
with your head
Love is real
That's the way that I feel
I love you
Do you really love me?
Do you really love me?
Do you really love me?
Tell me now
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Thanks a lot.
BILL: He was
the hit of that show.
He got standing ovations.
Nobody else did.
But then,
he was feeling funny.
And right after his
last performance we left.
We passed up interviews
and we left.
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
(SOBBING)
(FEUERZEIG SPEAKING)
Well...
It shouldn't have happened,
but Dan was secretly
duckin' his medicine.
I was giving it to him,
but he was chuckin' it.
(FEUERZEIG SPEAKING)
Captain America?
(CLEARS THROAT)
No, he thought he was Casper.
He was reading
a Casper comic book.
There's a picture
on the front of the book,
of Casper and a parachute.
And Dan decided,
"Let's-- Let's bail out.
"Let's jump out."
I said, "No. We can't do that.
"We don't have
any parachutes."
So his mind was gone.
Eventually,
he took the key out,
turned the engine off,
and threw the key
out the window.
FEUERZEIG: How did you
recover the flight?
Well, he grabbed the controls,
took the plane away from me.
He's stronger than me.
We were kind of
going straight up
and then straight down.
But he kind of let go
in time for me to get it
out of the spin.
Nothing down there but trees.
(CLEARS THROAT) But I'd had
training on ditching in trees,
so I didn't stall it in,
I flew it into the trees,
between two big ones.
And we got out safe.
But the plane was
a total loss.
The family came
and got us, got me.
We put him in a hospital
and left him there
for five months.
There's Dan.
He's had a good time,
because he thought
that was great,
coming down in a spin.
He was all mixed-up.
He felt like he did
something good
and he wanted us
to be proud of him.
There's Dan being rolled into
the emergency room.
They passed
a Church of Christ,
and to Bill and Dick's
amazement,
this sign was
on the Church of Christ
bulletin board out front.
"God promises a safe landing
"but not a calm voyage."
(SPIRIT WORLD RISING
PLAYING)
In the sky
The number seven
The Devil defeated
The new Jerusalem
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(PEOPLE SINGING HYMN)
JEFF: The Johnstons moved
to Waller, Texas in late 1991
and I believe Daniel began
having some problems
fairly immediately
and ended up back
in the Austin State Hospital.
During this time
his career continued
to, uh, reach for the stars.
Bands were covering his songs
left and right.
Kurt Cobain of
the band Nirvana wore
his T-shirt on MTV
at the MTV Music Awards Show
which was seen
by millions of people.
He had had the shirt
for a few months.
Apparently, a writer
that I had given the shirt to,
a guy named Everett True,
had given it to Kurt.
And the next thing you know,
he's wearing it
not only on national TV
but everywhere he goes.
And over the next
several months, every
single photo shot he did,
he was wearing this shirt.
And just a tremendous amount
of publicity came Daniel's way
due to this.
Suddenly everybody knew
who Daniel was.
It was just incredible
that a--a T-shirt could
fuel this kind of a frenzy.
The T-shirt had many, many
thousands of fans
that wanted to know
more about the T-shirt.
And wanted to
hear the T-shirt,
and see the T-shirt
and get to know
the T-shirt.
Meanwhile, Daniel's
in a hospital and has
no idea who Nirvana even is.
And within a matter of days,
I get a call from a guy
named Terry Tolkin,
who's an A&R executive
for Elektra Records.
And we got into
a long conversation that
ended with him saying,
"Well, I'd really
like to sign Daniel."
Terry and I met for
a couple of days, hung out
and discussed, uh, everything
that needed to be discussed.
And then it was time to
take him over to the hospital
and meet with Daniel.
And we sat
in the waiting room,
Daniel came out, and we had
a business meeting for
about 30, 45 minutes,
and it went as well as
a meeting can possibly go
in a mental institution
between a vice president
of a record label
and a patient.
We were trying to
structure a contract
that took his
delicate situation
into consideration.
It's not every day that
a major label signs somebody
who's in a mental institution.
They were looking out
for Daniel's best interests.
There was a clause in there
about his mental health,
about providing a doctor,
about how he would
never have to tour,
about how he could
never be dropped for
failure to promote a record.
And they looked at it
as a long-term project.
It wouldn't be
just one record,
it would be a career.
It was probably the most
one-sided contract in
the favor of artists' rights
that had ever been drawn up,
up until that time.
We obviously had to
get Daniel well, get him
out of the hospital.
And over the next few months,
Daniel continued to improve,
but it was very slow.
We bided our time,
did what we could for him
and just kept waiting
for the day
when he would be released.
Yves Beauvais of
Atlantic Records contacted me
around that time,
wanting to know
what was Daniel's situation.
And I told him,
"Well, we're fairly close
to signing with Elektra."
His boss, Danny Goldberg,
who was the head
of Atlantic Records,
formerly worked with
Kurt Cobain as their manager.
And he, uh, wasn't familiar
with Daniel's music,
but he certainly knew
who the guy
in the T-shirt was.
And the next thing you know,
I've got a bidding war
on my hands.
Daniel's in
a mental hospital
and I've got two major labels
trying to outbid each other.
Suddenly, we're looking
at a $100,000 possibility.
Once Daniel was released
from the hospital, I was
trying to get help for him.
I was working with his
parents, trying to make
doctor's appointments for him.
And Daniel thought he was
fine. He did not want to
see the doctor.
And Elektra wanted him
to sign this contract
and Daniel was
paranoid about that.
He was afraid that
Elektra was Satanic.
Um, they had a band
on their roster
called Metallica.
He was concerned that
they were going to
beat him and kill him.
And, uh, he could not be
convinced that he was safe.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
His delusions would
just not go away.
He was convinced
that Elektra was evil
and that I was evil.
Elektra had to be evil
because they were tied to me.
And so the deal died.
And this was the deal
I had been working
for seven years for.
This is the deal
I had been working for
30 something years for.
It was what I had been
building towards
my whole life.
Jeffrey Tartakov is
really a lot like
Broadway Danny Rose.
Have you ever seen that movie?
This guy loves his acts.
Never took a lesson.
KATHY: He lives to
make them successful.
And that's the way Jeff
always was with Daniel.
Jeff literally was like that
old time kind of manager
you hear about,
and you read about,
and people make movies about.
This sort of person who lived
for the good of his client.
The man would be
perfect for your room.
KATHY: He literally
devoted his life 100%
to Daniel Johnston,
for all the years
where nothing was happening.
And then right when
Daniel was poised
to get an
international bidding war
on his-- on his career,
he just completely dropped him
like a hot potato for
absolutely no reason.
I gotta make a few changes.
What kind of changes?
Like management.
What do you mean
"management"?
(STAMMERING)
Like, what do you mean
"management"?
I was fired so many times
over the years,
and over these months
specifically,
that it's hard to tell
which one actually counted.
But I continued trying
to work things out,
until I received
a call one day
from a guy named Tom Gimbel,
who informed me
that he was Daniel's
new manager.
I felt like a failure
at that time.
I felt like I was
the biggest failure
and loser in the world.
(CRAZY LOVE PLAYING)
I love that girl so much
I can't get enough
of her love
Crazy love
She walks on
down the street
(PIANO PLAYING)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
BILL: Living with Dan
in the same house is
something that is not easy
to get along with at times.
We have kind of worked out
a system that works
a little bit for us.
It's past noon
and Dan has been asleep
since we got up this morning.
We get up about 7:00
and he's still sleeping.
That gives us that
half of the day without Dan.
And we appreciate that
as a relief because
the minute he gets up,
he'll want us to make him
some tea, he'll want
something to eat,
he'll wanna go...
"Are we goin' shopping today?"
Every other day
he wants to go shopping.
We try to take him
somewhere every week.
And we take him
to church with us
at least once a week.
And we take him to the mall
or to a local Wal-Mart
once a week.
And then his friends come
to--to see him,
and take him to practice.
The band that he's working
with now will practice
once a week.
DANIEL: Yeah, I think...
You wanna do it one more time?
Turn the...
Okay, that's good.
Testing! Okay.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
Imagine a world
without rock 'n' roll
There'd be no
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
I can't hear my vocal.
JASON: We moved here from Ohio
about two and a half years ago
and then we were
driving down
the road one day,
toward my grandma's house,
who lives here,
and, uh, we saw this guy
being attacked by dogs.
And I told Bridget,
"Man, this looks like
Daniel Johnston.
"I--I think this is
Daniel Johnston."
And, uh, she's like,
"Oh, no. That's not
Daniel Johnston."
So we... What we did was, um,
we stopped anyway, you know,
to help the guy out.
And Bridget got out of the car
and she kicked the dog
right in the face
and it ran off.
And then, um,
Daniel was like,
"Hey, do you guys
play guitar?"
(MAN OBSESSED PLAYING)
He's a man obsessed
He couldn't be a lover
So now he's a pest
He played the game
But he failed the test
And now he's a pest
He's a pest
He's a pest
He said,
"Well, how about, um...
"How about I come over
some time?"
And I said, "Yeah, yeah.
Are you Daniel Johnston?"
He's like,
"Yeah. I'm Daniel Johnston.
You know who I am?"
And I thought, well,
this is amazing, man.
Daniel Johnston in Waller.
I had no idea that
he even lived here.
The only way you could
get her to look at you
is to die
Why don't you die?
JASON: We got his number
and we called him up
the next week
and he came over
to the house
and we recorded
four songs with him
in, like, one hour.
He's a man obsessed
He couldn't be a lover
So now he's a pest
We were wondering
why we moved to Waller
to begin with, you know, we...
Now we know why
we moved to Waller.
You know...
Because, you know,
it was heaven sent.
He's a pest
He's a pest
Man obsessed
Daniel started listening to
The Beach Boys, like, after
we played Pet Sounds for him.
I think.
He said he never heard
Pet Sounds before,
but we played it
for him one night
and he was floored by it.
And so he went out
and bought like
every Beach Boys record
you could possibly imagine.
JASON: I don't know
if Brian Wilson and Daniel
are very much alike.
Every time I read
something about Daniel
in a magazine or something,
it mentions Brian Wilson.
I honestly think Daniel is
far more brilliant than
Brian Wilson is.
Of course the Beach Boys'
music is really far-out,
but, um, it's not quite
Daniel Johnston.
I read the story
of Brian Wilson
that he wrote himself.
And he tells that his father
was not a fair manager.
Bill is a fair manager
and is not after
the money for himself.
He's after it for Dan.
BILL: Brian Wilson had
a lot of the similar
characteristics
and infirmities that Dan has.
And he went through
the same stages of development
that Dan has gone through.
And reading his history,
it smacks a whole lot of
exactly what's happening
to Dan.
We're learning from it.
We don't want to make
the same mistakes.
Uh, he did well
actually in the end.
And we'd like Dan
to do well, too,
because he needs to.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
His new songs for the movie?
(FEUERZEIG SPEAKING)
It just depends on when
he's in the mood, he will.
Yeah, I don't
even know my old songs.
Now that's the thing.
He doesn't remember
the tune and he doesn't
remember the words.
I had a dream about you
You were the queen
of quite a few
And I was there
but you didn't care
I didn't matter somehow
KATHY: By the time Glass Eye
broke up in 1993,
Daniel was still
in the mental hospital.
And he'd been there
for a long time
and I rather thought,
the possibility existed,
sad as it was, that he might
never produce anything again.
And a lot of the music
that he had recorded
was, to the general populous,
unlistenable.
And I felt like people would
maybe never get him
and he would just be
like a flower that
bloomed in the desert,
you know,
and was forgotten.
So I thought that I would
do some of his songs,
some of my favorites.
And do them in such a way
that they kind of bloomed
and became from like
say a ballpoint
and notepaper sketch,
they kind of came into
more of a full color painting.
So, I decided to
make the record.
And it was so fun
working with material
that was so good.
And it's probably
the best thing
I've ever done.
And, if I'm remembered
for anything ever,
it will be for that record.
JEFF: After the FUN
and Kathy McCarty release,
Daniel and I did not talk
for four years.
I went into
such a deep depression
that I just wanted to have
nothing to do with the guy.
I really could not even
listen to his music.
But I still had
this fascination
with his artwork.
I continued to compile
my collection purchasing
drawings from other sources.
How's it going?
MAN: How you doing today?
Pretty good.
Seen Daniel lately?
Actually, he came by
a few months ago.
We're almost out
of what he brought us.
I'll take what I can get.
The black and white ones.
Oh, yeah, not bad at all.
JEFF: I was
occasionally contacted by
galleries around the world,
wanting to show his art,
and if it sounded like
a good thing,
I would help them out.
We had shows in Berlin,
Eindhoven, Paris, Barcelona,
London, Manchester,
New York City,
Washington D.C.,
Los Angeles.
There were really
more than I could count,
during these four years
that Daniel and I were
not even talking.
He was beginning to get
reviewed in art magazines
and his art was becoming
as well known as his music.
(PHONE RINGING)
JOHN: Zero One.
Uh, do we know for sure
what time Daniel's
actually gonna play?
I sort of said around 9:00.
Yeah, okay. Yeah, 9:00.
We're at the corner
of Melrose and La Brea.
He's here right now.
You wanna get some tape, Don,
and we can get started?
JOHN: The hardest thing
to find in art
is somebody that comes up
with something new,
somebody completely original.
DON: No, it's double stick,
so you can put it on the back.
Oh.
I'm not looking for people
that are part of movements
that much.
I--I'm more interested
in people who are
their own movement
or they're moving
beyond any movement.
Or, you know, are doing
things that no movement
has thought of.
I think Daniel Johnston
is his own movement.
He's doing things
as original in his way
as Joseph Cornell
did or Westerman
or even going back
to Marcel Duchamp or Man Ray
or somebody that just
comes up with stuff that,
you know,
who would've thought it?
Well, I think it's wrong
to put him in that
outsider art thing.
He's as much as an inside
as any major artist.
He's just going in his
own direction,
doing his own thing,
which more artists should do.
An unidentified collector
has just bought
98% of the show.
And the show has
not even started yet.
We've sold practically
every drawing that he brought,
except for four.
That's what happened so far.
(STAMMERING)
And the show has just, uh...
You know, we haven't...
Nobody's showed up yet.
You know, we're gonna
have to start taking orders,
I guess.
I mean, last year
his stuff sold pretty fast
but not this fast.
DANIEL: Yeah, there are
some themes. You know,
I mean, with the artwork.
I do some Captain Americas,
you know, some ducks.
I do a lot of ducks
and they're like my armies
and sometimes I use them
in my battles against Satan.
JEFF: Daniel's art mirrors
his songwriting in many ways.
The same characters,
the same themes.
There are plenty of drawings
that refer to unrequited love.
You'll find the same
characters such as Casper
The Friendly Ghost,
Captain America.
Frankenstein appears
quite often.
You have Joe The Boxer
and the Eternal Struggle,
the Eternal Battle.
For two years,
all Daniel drew were
fight scenes
of a boxer fighting
a creature in the ring.
The boxer clearly
represented Daniel while
the, uh, creature was evil.
This was Vile Corrupt
from the Hi, How Are You
album.
(BELL RINGING)
(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
The piece titled
Daniel Johnston's Symbolical
Visions is in many ways
the Rosetta stone
of Daniel's art.
It has all the figures
and symbols that appear
in so many of his drawings.
From Kathy McCarty's glasses,
to a baby block,
to the man with
the sawed-off head, to torsos.
All of the familiar figures
are there,
666, eyes, the pyramid.
If you listen to
all of Daniel's music
and know the songs
and then look at the drawings,
they have added meaning.
BILL: Sometimes it's
very hard to fathom
what goes on his mind.
I can see what he's thinking
just day by day
in his drawings.
He will, uh, put captions
on his drawings
that are coming
right from deep inside.
And, uh, by looking over his
shoulder every day,
I can get a little bit
of what goes on in his mind.
A friend of mine that saw
his art that's in the mental
health field said,
"I know Daniel's going
to heaven, he's already
been to hell."
She was lookin' at
the artwork and she said,
"This is hellacious.
"I mean, someone tortured..."
And I don't even see it
that way.
A lot of his artwork I see
as very happy
and he really
believes in love.
I think he looks for
that superhero idea
of someone's gonna rescue
or save and be the good guy.
It's not really
a coincidence but,
I did a tribute album
of Daniel's songs
and later I went on to marry
Daniel's best friend.
The very first time I went
to Daniel's apartment,
Daniel handed me
a book of poetry and said,
"Oh, you might like this.
"These are my friend Dave's
poems. Why don't you
read them?"
And I loved them.
He was instantly
my favorite poet.
Two or three years after
Dead Dog's Eyeball
came out,
Dave emailed me and said,
"Hi, this is Dave Thornberry.
"Do you remember me?"
And I wrote him back like,
"Do I remember you?
"I read your poems
all the time, still."
And I went to visit him,
and as soon as we were
together,
it was like, we have to
get married. And we did.
And it was very romantic.
We got married two days
after we saw each other
for the first time
in 13 years.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
KATHY: Daniel never really
talked to me directly
about Laurie.
But, of course,
I knew that all the songs
were about someone.
I mean, I knew that he had
loved and lost, you know,
in his life.
And I don't think I even
ever really thought that
all those songs
were about the same person.
But after we had broke up,
so to speak,
I began to know
more about Laurie.
He talked more about Laurie.
And I began to know like,
how huge an obsession,
his obsession
with Laurie was.
Love could save me somehow
But I just can't make it
DANIEL: Most of my songs
are about her.
You know, because she does,
did, and hopefully
will love me,
you know, it keeps me goin'.
I'm always thinking about
another angle about it
when I'm writing a song.
I think art has always been
inspired by beauty.
I think there have been
many artists, uh,
throughout history
who had a major inspiration,
whether it was a girl,
or even just a philosophy.
That's what I like
about life and about art.
Is that when you write a song,
it's just the way
that you saw it
or just the way that it was.
I think art is
the greatest frame of mind
to express a certain feeling
and you'll always
have that feeling.
It's always there.
So magical
DAVID: Laurie is--is
his muse but in a completely
passive way.
Laurie is the 17 syllables
of haiku
for him to hang his
creativity on.
That's what she is.
She's a structure
for him to build on.
She's not
the love of his life.
I mean, but she is.
LOUIS: When I first met
Daniel in '85, he was
burning with her.
I mean, she was in his eyes
all the time.
I mean, when he
talked about her
it was just intense.
And what's so weird about
Daniel is that went away
and it came back
more intense later on
because he realized
it was a really good story.
True love will find you
in the end
You'll find out
just who was your friend
Don't be sad,
I know you will
But don't give up until
True love will find you
in the end
This is a promise
with a catch
Only if you're looking
can it find you
'Cause true love is
searching too
But how can it
recognize you
Unless you step out
into the light?
The light
Don't be sad,
I know you will
But don't give up until
True love will find you
in the end
KATHY: For as much as
Daniel has expanded
the myth of Laurie,
it really wasn't
that big of a deal,
except in Daniel's mind.
But what happened with Jeff
really was a big deal.
And as far as, like a story
that breaks your heart,
that's the story
that breaks my heart
about Daniel's life.
Daniel told me that
he was sorry about the way
he had treated me
and he admitted that
I had been unjustly fired,
and he told me
that he was not right
mentally at that time.
And he really said
all the things you would
hope to hear from somebody
who had behaved
the way he had behaved.
He was very sincere
and I believe
he truly felt bad
about the way things went down
between the two of us.
Even though I wasn't
his manager, I still had
the back catalog
and I couldn't just stop.
It just made no sense.
I didn't know
what would happen
with this music.
It would have disappeared
forever. It wouldn't
exist today if I stopped.
Stress Records is my baby.
It's a company I started
about 23 years ago, and today
it exists for the sole purpose
of spreading the word
of Daniel Johnston
to the masses.
I do that by dubbing
his cassettes and
distributing them myself.
I advertise them
over the internet.
I take mail orders daily.
I work the telephones.
I send them out to people
I know. I do everything I can.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
I do it because
people need to hear
this music.
The music of Daniel Johnston
is something that I think
everybody needs to
at least be exposed to.
There's really nothing
to even to compare it to.
It goes way beyond
Dylan's basement recordings
or early Robert Johnson
or any other body of work
that I can think of.
Daniel's been so much better
these last few years,
it's a miracle.
It's even difficult for me
to grasp the fact
that he's playing
internationally and touring.
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(PEOPLE WHOOPING)
(PEOPLE WHISTLING)
(ALL SINGING)
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
(DANIEL SPEAKING)
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
KATHY: In Daniel's life,
everywhere he's gone,
he leaves this incredible
wake behind of creation
and destruction.
He's done all kinds of things,
both bad and good,
but they're all mythic.
And they're all
barely believable,
yet they're all true.
And the kinds of things
that he's done in his career,
are the kinds of things
someone would only do
if they were
so self-sabotaging
that it was
completely mystifying.
But in terms of
creating a legend,
he's done
absolutely everything right.
(CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOSPLAYING)
He was smiling through
his own personal hell
Dropped his last dime
down a wishing well
But he was hoping
too close
And then he fell
Now he's Casper
the Friendly Ghost
He was always polite
to the people who'd tell him
That he was nothing
but a lazy bum
But goodbye to them
he had to go
Now he's Casper
Is Matt Groening here tonight,
in the audience somewhere?
And somebody said,
"You gotta listen
to this guy."
And I said,
"Which tape should I get?"
And, uh, I was told,
"All of them.
"And it's right.
They are all fantastic."
There's more comics now
than there have
ever been before
and The Simpsons comic
looks great.
Thank you.
I love that.
And the superhero, the guy
turns into a superhero.
There should be
a Daniel Johnston
comic book.
Yeah, there should.
I wanna do,
I wanna do comics.
That's what I'm shooting for.
Good to see you.
I'll see you around.
I've got to go see your film.
Fantastic. Keep up
the fantastic work.
Call me.
I wanna do some music
for you. Okay?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay. It's a deal.
All right, then.
See you.
Bye-bye.
Good luck.
MATT: You, too.
Okay.
Yeah!
And so the legend grew
And all the people
that he knew
Go and spread the news
of Casper
The Friendly Ghost
Thank you.
Good night.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
MAN: More! More!
More!
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
More! More!
BILL: I don't think Dan
would have gotten as far as
he did without our help.
And he, uh, his own words was,
"I don't know
what will happen to me,
"if you don't help me."
So we have, for years.
MABEL: He does love us,
I can see that.
I guess I want the impossible,
I want Dan to be whole.
And be able to
take care of himself.
And we're worried now,
we're running out of time.
(HELD THE HAND PLAYING)
Oh my lord
I am so bored
Held the hand of Satan
Oh, Laura
What has happened to you?
Held the hand of the Devil
I was on MTV
Everybody was
looking at me
Held the hand
of the Devil
(SOME THINGS LASA LONG TIME PLAYING)
Your picture
Is still
On my wall
On my wall
The colors
Are bright
Bright
As ever
The red is strong
The blue is pure
Some things
Last a long time
Some things
Last a long time
Your picture
Is still
On my wall
On my wall
I think
About you
Often
Often
I won't forget
All the things
we did
Some things
last a long time
Some things
last a long time
DANIEL: Bye-bye, Dave.
(GUITAR STRUMMING)
(WHISPERING) Bye.