Paris Barclay Gives Icon His Due with “Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It”

Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It (Paris Barclay, 2024) 4½ out of 5 stars

If you’re familiar with singer/songwriter Billy Preston, you probably know him for his collaborations with the Beatles, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, and many more. But how much do you really know about Billy Preston as a person? That’s the question Paris Barclay aims to answer with his new documentary, Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It. Like many artists of his generation, Preston was brilliant but struggled with addiction and personal trauma before his passing. Barclay chooses to highlight why Preston mattered and why he deserves to be remembered.

Structurally, That’s The Way God Planned It is similar to other music docs like Sly Lives! or Luther: Never Too Much. Barclay assembles hundreds of archival photos and videos, presenting them like a giant scrapbook of memories. He then uses talking-head interviews with Preston’s closest friends, family, and collaborators to help fill in the blanks around his history. These include Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Eric Clapton, Billy Porter, and many others. Barclay anchors them all around rare clips of Preston’s live performances throughout the years, demonstrating the musical prowess that his friends could only describe.

Barclay spends much of the doc recapping Preston’s career accomplishments, with some of them genuinely making my jaw drop. Born in Houston, Texas in 1946, Preston grew up in the church, but he idolized R&B singers like Ray Charles. He heard the gospel influence in their work that would shape the rest of his career. After years spent honing his piano skills, Preston got to go on tour with rock-and-roll star Little Richard at the age of sixteen. He then spent the rest of the 1960s working alongside legends like Sam Cooke, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and even his hero Ray Charles. As the 1970s began, Preston continued working as a songwriter, eventually becoming a longtime bandleader for A&M Records in that decade. For a while, he was seemingly immune to making a bad song.

However, the most interesting revelations about this era come from two unlikely sources: gospel singer Gloria Jones, who was part of a youth choir with Billy called the COGICs, and Keni Burke, bassist for Chicago soul group The Five Stairsteps. According to them, Preston was a kind person at heart, but incredibly private. Eventually, we learn that Preston was sexually abused as a child and lost his brother in a freak accident. This trauma was only compounded by Preston’s other burden: his sexuality. Only those within his inner circle knew he was gay, and even then, he rarely spoke of it.

As a gay man himself, Barclay takes great care to show the weight of Preston’s secrets throughout his life. In one interview, Billy Porter remarks that there are countless closeted queer people like Preston in the Black community, especially in the church. But discussing that has always been taboo, which leads to people being torn between their identity and faith. In that sense, music became an escape for Preston, with the stage being the only place where he seemed happy. Unfortunately, as musical tastes began to shift in the 1980s, Preston found it difficult to adapt to the times. Decades of substance abuse eventually led to an eighteen-month prison sentence in 1997 and his eventual passing in 2006.

What really stood out to me about That’s The Way God Planned It was how much genuine empathy Barclay has for his subject. In the wrong hands, this doc could have come off as hagiographic, but Barclay doesn’t shy away from the darker sides of Preston’s life. He instead shows the kind of circumstances that would drive a kind, sensitive man to such extremes. Barclay shows us the burden of Black genius and the weight of living with trauma.

George W. Campbell

George W. Campbell is a director/screenwriter/editor from Bowie, Maryland, whose films focus on themes of family and personal relationships. As a Nicaraguan-American filmmaker, he aims to highlight specific parts of his culture and personal experiences (songs, dances, foods, and language).