TRAVELER'S TALENOVEMBER 5, 2011

By CHUCK LEAVELL


Illustration by Hadley Hooper for The Wall Street Journal

Rolling Stones pianist Chuck Leavell is a tree farmer.

As the most recent Rolling Stones tour, "A Bigger Bang," drew to a close in the summer of 2007, I started to ponder what I would do afterwards.

We had toured for exactly two years, playing some 147 shows across the world. There'd been the halftime show at Super Bowl XL in Detroit, the concert with more than 1.5 million attendees in Rio de Janeiro. We had filmed "Shine a Light" at the Beacon Theater in New York, with Martin Scorsese directing. Our last three shows, at the O2 Arena in London, the Stones' backyard, were completely sold out.

By all accounts, it was a wildly successful tour, and having it come to an end was pretty sad. Over the years we—musicians, technicians, stage hands and the crew—had formed strong bonds; our families had even grown close. Now we would be dispersing to parts unknown and might not be reunited for years.

But it was time to move on—and I have to admit that the prospect of not having to pack a bag almost every night was mighty appealing. While I was road-weary, I wasn't, however, quite done with my rambling. I had arranged to do my own short tour of Europe, "Green Leaves and Blue Notes." I was jazzed about shifting to my own groove. The tour would take place mostly in Germany, and I wouldn't just be performing; there would also be a media outreach effort on behalf of local forest landowners.

It may seem like an odd fit for a rock 'n' roll piano player, but my wife, Rose Lane, and I are tree farmers. Decades ago, she inherited about 1,000 acres in Georgia from her grandmother. The family has been connected to the land for generations, farming, tending forests and raising cattle, so I took our responsibilities seriously—and discovered a passion for it. Our forests give us so much: materials for homes, schools, books—my piano! In the mid-1980s, between Rolling Stones tours, I found myself studying practical forestry, and we've grown Charlane Plantation into a 2,500-acre family forest.

So call me crazy, but I was excited to be talking trees in Germany. I played a concert at Bundestag, the German parliament, meeting afterwards with ministers and politicians to discuss forestry and environmental issues. I visited the property of Mathias Graf von Westphalen, a farmer who was experimenting with growing trees for biofuel and powered his farm equipment with oil made from his own rapeseed. His wind turbines generated enough energy for his needs—plus enough extra to power a small village.

The more time I spent in beautiful, carefully tended family forests, the more I thought about the resources we have in America, and of the environmental challenges we all face. I recalled the metropolises I'd visited with the Stones—places like São Paulo and Mexico City—heavily populated, clogged with traffic jams and mostly devoid of green space.

In recent years, America has replaced some 2 million acres of natural land annually with buildings and other structures, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Once concrete and asphalt are poured, it's near impossible to go back.

We're not going to stop putting up homes and stores and offices. But the Germany trip opened my eyes to the possibility of well-managed growth. I saw homes made from renewable materials, neighborhoods sprinkled with bike trails and green spaces, thoughtfully designed communities.

When I returned to Charlane Plantation, my first priority was spending time with family and on my own soil. But my thoughts kept returning to my German epiphany. I started reading books about smart development; I investigated innovative transportation options and green energy sources. I recruited my friend J. Marshall Craig to help me with a book about how we can grow in wiser ways. Then my old pal Joel Babbit reached out to me about starting an environmental website, the Mother Nature Network MNN.

I never thought I'd be a tech entrepreneur, but rock 'n' roll can take you on some very unexpected journeys.

—Mr. Leavell has played with the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, John Mayer and others. He is the author, most recently, of "Growing a Better America."

5th Stone? Please. Give me a break.

He's a good man but has no feeling whatsoever in his playing.

Way too standard of a piano player.

Chuck Sux

I'll never forget his counting !

i hope  he was pay for this instead of being the 5th Stones ....

You are right. I feel better now.

Now i just think of his little shuffle and bow when Jagger introduces Leavell.

Argh, i hate him again!

Edith Grove wrote on Nov 5^th, 2011 at 1:17pm:

That didn't work out too well for him saturday night did it?

He HELPS with the setlist. It doesn't say he picks all the songs. Besides, he probably helps because he gives more of a toss about what songs they do than Mick or Keith.