Cameron Crowe

Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American filmmaker and journalist.

He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Tony Award.

Because Crowe was a fan of the 1970s hard rock bands that the older writers disliked, he landed a lot of major interviews.

He wrote predominantly about Yes, and also about Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, the Eagles, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Linda Ronstadt, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Fleetwood Mac, and others.

Former colleague Sarah Lazin described of the youthful Crowe: "He was a pleasure to work with, a total professional. He was easygoing and eager to learn. Obviously, the bands loved him."

Then-senior editor Ben Fong-Torres also said of Crowe: "He was the guy we sent out after some difficult customers. He covered the bands that hated Rolling Stone."

Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1972 at the age of 15.

On a trip to Los Angeles, he met Ben Fong-Torres, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine.

He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a contributing editor and became an associate editor.

During this time, Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Eagles, Poco, Steely Dan, members of Led Zeppelin and more.

Crowe was Rolling Stone's youngest-ever contributor.

Crowe's first cover story was about the Allman Brothers Band.

He went on the road with them for three weeks at the age of 16; he interviewed the band and the road crew.

Crowe started his career as a contributing editor and writer at Rolling Stone magazine in 1973 where he covered numerous rock bands on tour.

When Rolling Stone moved its offices from California to New York in 1977, Crowe decided to stay behind.

He also felt the excitement of his career was beginning to wane.

He appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax, but returned to his writing.

Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned his attention to a book.

Crowe has written two books, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1981) and Conversations with Wilder (1999).

He also adapted Almost Famous into a stage musical on Broadway in 2022, for which he received a Tony Award for Best Original Score nomination.

Cameron Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California.

His father, James A. Crowe, originally from Kentucky, was a real estate agent.

His mother, Alice Marie (née George), "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions."

She worked as a psychology professor and in family therapy and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers.

Crowe's grandfather was Greek.

Crowe was the youngest of three children with two sisters; one died when he was young.

The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio, California.

Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs".

His family finally settled in San Diego.

Crowe skipped kindergarten and two grades in elementary school, and by the time he attended Catholic high school, he was quite a bit younger than the other students.

To add to his alienation, he was often ill because he had nephritis.

Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by the age of 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door.

He began corresponding with music journalist Lester Bangs, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus.

Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego.

Later, he wrote and directed the romance films Say Anything... (1989), Singles (1992), and Jerry Maguire (1996).

Crowe directed his seminal work, the autobiographical film Almost Famous (2000), which is loosely based on his early career as a teen writer for Rolling Stone.

For his screenplay, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

His later films have received varying degrees of success.

He directed the psychological thriller Vanilla Sky (2001), the romantic comedy Elizabethtown (2005), the family-friendly We Bought a Zoo (2011), and the romantic comedy Aloha (2015).

He has directed the music documentaries Pearl Jam Twenty (2011) and The Union (2011), produced David Crosby: Remember My Name (2019), and created the Showtime series Roadies (2016).