Cameron Crowe used a composite of the bands he had known to create Stillwater, the emerging group that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. "Stillwater" was the name of
a real band signed to Macon, Georgia's
Capricorn Records label, which required the film's producers to obtain permission to use the name. In an interview, real Stillwater guitarist Bobby Golden said, "They could have probably done it without permission but they probably would have had a bunch of different lawsuits. Our lawyer got in touch with them. They wanted us to do it for free and I said, 'No we're not doing it for free.' So we got a little bit of change out of it." Seventies rocker
Peter Frampton served as a technical consultant on the film. Crowe and his then-wife, musician
Nancy Wilson of
Heart, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two, with
Mike McCready of
Pearl Jam playing lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs.
Patrick Fugit, then "a complete unknown from
Salt Lake City,
Utah", was cast late in the process after Crowe and casting director Gail Levin watched Fugit's self-taped audition. The character of Russell Hammond was originally set to be played by
Brad Pitt. However, during rehearsal prior to filming, Crowe and Pitt mutually decided that it was "not the right fit", and Pitt dropped out of the project. The line "I am a golden god!" in the pool-jumping sequence, as well as numerous references to Russell Hammond being unusually good looking, were written for Pitt but remained in the script after Billy Crudup was cast. In a 2020 interview with
The New York Times, Crowe confirmed that the "golden god" scene was inspired by
Led Zeppelin lead singer
Robert Plant, who had uttered the sentence on a "
Riot House" balcony. Crowe based the character of Penny Lane on the real-life
Pennie Lane Trumbull and her group of female promoters who called themselves the "Flying Garter Girls Group". Though they were not in the Flying Garter Girls group, various other women have been described as Crowe's inspiration, for instance
Pamela Des Barres and
Bebe Buell.
Sarah Polley was originally cast as Penny Lane, but, when Brad Pitt dropped out, she dropped out as well and was replaced with Kate Hudson.
Natalie Portman was also considered. The character of William Miller's mother (played by
Frances McDormand) was based on Crowe's own mother, who even showed up on the set to keep an eye on him while he worked. Although he asked his mother not to bother McDormand, the two women ended up getting along well.
Meryl Streep was also considered for the role. Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members
Jimmy Page and Plant. After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use one of their songs on the soundtrack—the first time they had ever consented to this since allowing Crowe to use "
Kashmir" in
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)—and also gave him rights to four of their other songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to "
Stairway to Heaven" for an intended scene (on the special "Bootleg" edition DVD, the scene is included as an extra, sans the song, where the viewer is instructed by a watermark to begin playing it). In his 2012 memoir
My Cross to Bear,
Gregg Allman writes that several aspects of the movie are based on Crowe's time spent with the
Allman Brothers Band. The scene in which Russell jumps from the top of the
Topeka party house into a pool was based on something
Duane Allman did: "the jumping off the roof into the pool, that was Duane—from the third floor of a place called the
Travelodge in
San Francisco. My brother wanted to do it again, but the cat who owned the place came out shaking his fist, yelling at him. We told that story all the time, and I have no doubt that Cameron was around for it." He also confirms that he and
Dickey Betts played a joke on Crowe by claiming clauses in their contract did not allow his story to be published—just before he was to deliver it to
Rolling Stone.
Ben Fong-Torres, who was the senior editor of
Rolling Stone when Crowe worked there, would refute the notion that the magazine would reject an article for publication after the subject denied its contents, similar to what they did to William after Stillwater discredited his article in the film. Fong-Torres stated that the editorial staff would have checked the journalist's notes and tapes, and confront the band as to why they were changing their stories. However, he said he understood why Crowe made that storytelling decision as he needed a crisis at the end of the film's
second act. Crowe's book
The Uncool reveals that it was Jimmy Page who did not want to grant Crowe an interview because of his disdain for
Rolling Stone, which had given Led Zeppelin a bad review when they were starting out. Filming of the movie lasted 92 days. Some of the filming locations include
Ocean Beach, San Diego and
Sunset Cliffs. == Soundtrack ==