“In all the years that The Ventures have been together--sixty!--there's never been a feature-length documentary about them,” says The Ventures: Stars on Guitars director Staci Wilson. “So we as a family decided that we should take it on ourselves,”
Staci Wilson is the daughter of founding member Don Wilson, who along with Bob Bogle, learned to play guitar, started a band and wound up selling more than 100 million albums around the world.
“It's almost unbelievable to tell you the truth,” says Don Wilson. “We outsold The Beatles 2 to 1 in Japan. I mean they just seemed to like instrumental music. There's no language barrier.”
It all began with the US #2 hit "Walk Don't Run". That set The Ventures off on a musical adventure that consumed their lives.
“The Ventures were touring machines”, says Staci Wilson. “My birthday is in the summertime and since The Ventures were always touring Japan in the Summer I didn't get to have a birthday with my dad until I was in my twenties.”
“We went out on the road for four months at a time. Not coming back. Just night after night after night,” adds Don Wilson. “We covered a lot of territory, I'll tell you that.”
And when The Ventures weren't on the road they were in the studio where they recorded more than 450 albums. From surf music to disco, soundtracks to Christmas. They even recorded instructional albums that taught generations how to play the electric guitar.
“They took other people's songs and made them way better,” says Heart guitarist Roger Fisher. He was one of many rock stars Staci Wilson interviewed for the film. Others include Jimmy Page, John Fogerty and Billy Bob Thornton.
We asked Don Wilson, now 87 years old, to sum up his lifelong musical adventure.
“It's a dream come true, you know? And so many other groups followed. We had influenced so many different musicians which is very gratifying you know!”
The Ventures: Stars on Guitars will be available December 8, 2020, on: iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Vudu, and Vimeo, and across hundreds of U.S. cable providers including Comcast, Spectrum, Charter, Cox, Dish, DirecTV and more. DVD retailers include Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and all other major online retailers.
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