Film Legend Meryl Streep Giddily Learns Guitar From Rock Legend Neil Young

Meryl Streep stars as Ricki Randazzo, a singer-songwriter eking out a living in Southern California as a grocery store employee by day and barroom rocker by night.

Rick Springfield has chatted with Entertainment reporter Donna Demaio about why he just had to say yes, when offered a role in the latest Meryl Streep film, Ricki and The Flash. The Academy award-winning actress enlisted the help of none other than Neil Young to help her unleash her inner rocker.

Filmed at New York’s Jacob Burns Film Centre, this magical behind-the-scenes video shows Young teaching Streep the noisy art of distortion.

I would ask Young why all of his dials say 11 on them, but it is probably a bit too on the nose. Streep responds by bowing to him.

Not that the excellent cast doesn’t give it a try: Streep, no stranger to singing on screen, sells Ricki as a self-described “broken person”, while Gummer, Streep’s real-life daughter, works to overcome her thinly written role. She never told her she was working on this project based on her until Streep was signed to star in the film, and Jonathan Demme was on board to direct. Streep’s Ricki And The Flash covers include U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I Was Looking For”, Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”, Tom Petty’s “American Girl” and Pink’s “Get The Party Started”. But it’s one that became a reality for Rick Springfield. As if you needed another reason to go out and watch it.