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XO
Release Date: August 25, 1998
 On March 5, 1998 Elliott makes his network television debut performing "Miss Misery" solo on acoustic guitar on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in New York City.
KEVIN MOYER: Well, you know we had to include this song, you can't tell the story of Elliott's career without it. In the film we include footage of Elliott performing "Miss Misery" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien eighteen days before he would do it again at the 70th Academy Awards accompanied by the house orchestra. We did the opposite of what people probably expected by showing the Conan O'Brien performance instead of the Academy Awards. But we do show both in the film, we just hear this one and sit with it longer. NICKOLAS ROSSI: It felt important to include Elliott's first performance on television with this song, which is clearly one of the most well-known and popular of his songs. The live performance here on the Conan O'Brien show is incredibly haunting and raw. The way his voice cracks slightly during the line 'a man in the park, read the lines in my hand, told me I'm strong, hardly ever wrong..." KEVIN MOYER: Larry talks about Elliott bringing Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant into the studio late at night, when he wasn't there, to play Gus the song for consideration in the movie. This song and that movie were perfect for each other, and of course it led to the Academy Award nomination and Elliott in that white suit. LARRY CRANE: This song probably changed both our lives more than we could have ever expected. I was honored to get co-production credit with Elliott. Ironically, I never made one cent from my involvement on this recording. But it certainly helped my career. KEVIN MOYER: Here he is coming off an Academy Award nomination and he could probably work with anyone, but he goes back to his friend Ross Harris the guy who shot his very first video (for the song "Coming Up Roses") so many years earlier. I think that shows a lot about Elliott and his loyalty, not to mention the trust and respect that he had for Ross too. ROSS HARRIS (directed Elliott's videos "Coming Up Roses," "Miss Misery," and Heatmiser's "Plainclothes Man"): So while we were filming "Coming Up Roses" we used to go over to my neighbors basketball court and shoot a ball around and smoke joints. That's where we came up with our plan for whatever we wanted to shoot for the video. At the time my neighbor had been kicked out of his house by his parents but instead of getting a place he just moved into a rather large bush on the property down by the basketball court. So we would visit him in his bush as well as shoot the ball. A couple years later I ran into Elliott at a bar in LA. We hadn't seen each other for a while and we were catching up. The typical stuff. How's the family etc. Elliott asked me with great concern about my neighbor and if he was still living in the bush. I told him that he had patched things up with his parents and was living in the garage. No longer in the bush but not quite fully back in the house. Elliott replied with genuine relief "Oh that's great." This was probably days after learning he was nominated for the Oscar. The height of his career and totally concerned for my neighbor, a guy he had spoken to maybe a handful of times, well being. He then asked me to direct the Miss Misery video. KEVIN MOYER: You say in the film that he showed up with a lot of confidence and in his white suit ready to work, "I got this". Remind me the story about the cop in the video following him around? ROSS HARRIS: Instantly Elliott and I became fixated on a motorcycle cop that was on set to control traffic during the shoot. He just looked so amazingly cop like. Almost a caricature. I mentioned that it would be funny if we could get the cop to follow Elliott everywhere he went for the video. Elliott was instantly enamored of this idea. I asked the cop and he was totally game. I initially asked him to follow Elliott down the sidewalk on his motorcycle but he said he could only do it on foot. We were a little bummed by that but it was better than nothing and I think it was the right choice. Totally made the video and I couldn't imagine it any other way. Another instance where we just let present circumstances inform the narrative. Just like the fall in the video for "Coming Up Roses". That was how we worked. We believed in each other and knew that the oddities of very day life would present themselves at the appropriate time and make the video rock. I still like to work this way. I learned it from Elliott.
MARK FLANAGAN: This is another song that Elliott would play after hours at Largo. ROB SCHNAPF: This song was recorded in a b-sides session that we did for the album XO... "Happiness", "Independence Day", and a cool instrumental that escapes me. It was very clear that "Happiness" and "Independence Day" were not b-sides. So, while the album XO had already been completed and turned in, the song "Independence Day" was inserted into the sequence and "Happiness" was put on the shelf and considered the first song done for the next record. So the problem of b-sides remained... KEVIN MOYER: I think that this song was a great sentiment to end the film with, using footage from the benefit concerts that Elliott's sister Ashley put on in the four places that he called home for much of his career - Portland, NY, LA, and Texas. Each show was a gathering of friends and musicians performing Elliott and Heatmiser songs, and each city gave the proceeds to charities in the area - the proceeds from the Portland show went to Outside In (http://www.outsidein.org/), the proceeds from the Los Angeles show went to Free Arts for Abused Children (http://www.freearts.org/), the proceeds from the Austin show went to the SIMS Foundation (http://simsfoundation.org/), and the New York shows proceeds went to New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth (http://www.newalternativesnyc.org/). ASHLEY WELCH (Elliott's sister): For many years I wanted to do an event, to celebrate Elliott and honor him, that would raise money for charity. I knew that he might cringe at the thought of a night devoted to him, but I figured he would agree that the ends justified the means. He never said no to a benefit if he could possibly swing it.he was the single most generous person I've ever known, and he had a huge soft spot for anybody who needed help. When David Garza asked me if I had ever considered trying to put on such an event, I knew the time was right. David is an amazing musician, and knows so many talented people. By the time we'd sketched out our plan, it involved four cities, four great charities, and over a hundred musicians, friends, and peers. KEVIN MOYER: Elliott once said that there has to be a certain amount of darkness in his songs for the happiness to matter. And to me this song feels like that sentiment put to music, because this song kind of has both, like his life had both, like all of our lives have, and he is talking about the dark but then asking for it to be put away in exchange for happiness instead. And the chorus "What I used to be, will pass away and then you'll see, that all I want now is happiness for you and me"... I think that's a great closing sentiment and I think it's also a sentiment that Elliott perhaps would have wanted to say to us too, if he had the chance to somehow communicate it to us. I don't think he would want us to be bummed out, and he definitely wouldn't want to be remembered as sad either. ASHLEY WELCH: It was David's idea to end each show with the song "Happiness". That song ends on such a sweet, positive note. It embodies the big brother that I knew -- he was kind and sweet and gentle. He truly wanted the world to be better.for those he knew most intimately, and for those he'd never meet. The ending of that song also lends itself to crowd participation. David thought it would be a great note to finish on, and he was right. I didn't realize how special it would be until it happened on the first night in Portland.the love in the room as hundreds of voices, including many of his closest friends and family, sang those words.I still can't describe it. And I can't help but think that, wherever Elliott is now, he felt it, too.
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