The Hilton Head Sea Pines singer inspires a documentary on Apple TV. Here’s a sneak peek

Gregg Russell has strummed his guitar in front of hundreds of fans at Hilton Head’s Sea Pines for more than 40 summers, and last month his audience grew even bigger thanks to a new Apple TV documentary.

“Gregg Russell: ‘If This Old Tree Could Talk'” tells the story of how Russell came to perform at Harbour Town. It follows Russell from his early performances at Walt Disney World to sleeping in a Chevy van at Coligny Plaza to his time as an island institution. The 1 hour and 21 minute documentary premiered on Apple TV on June 24.

“I’m not getting any younger,” Russell said of his agreement to participate in the documentary, produced by Fisher Films and brothers Daniel and Stephen Fisher. The brothers were “like a dog with a bone” when it came to asking Russell to take part, he said.

And although the brothers began production on the self-financed film a year ago, their relationship with Russell has lasted for over 30 years. That was when five-year-old Daniel climbed the steps under Liberty Oak in Harbour Town to Russell’s stage. To this day, children with cardboard posters compete for the chance to sing on stage. That day, little Daniel caught Russell’s attention and sang “This Little Light of Mine” on stage.

“That’s a classic,” Russell said, laughing. There are also classics that only those who have sat with Russell on a warm Lowcountry evening would recognize: the songs he wrote himself. Most summer evenings in Sea Pines, the kids sit for an hour and a half, singing about purple ogres and unicorns and taking the gumball vow to “drive their parents crazy.”

What these tourists and locals may not realize is Russell’s philanthropic work, which is detailed in the documentary.

“My wife and I have quietly enjoyed our personal lives for the past 20 years,” said Russell. They founded the Hilton Head Heroes Program, which provided vacations to families with terminally ill children at Sea Pines and Hilton Head Island.

“If I have a legacy – and I’m not saying I have one – it’s probably that,” Russell said.

Russell said it’s great to be silly, but he hopes he will be remembered for the children and families the Heroes Program has helped. “We’ve always tried to do it in a way that protects those families and protects their privacy,” he said. Russell said the documentary explains his philanthropy tactfully and in an uplifting way.

That’s another reason this documentary stands out, Stephen said: It’s not “heavy stuff” like the true crime that often makes the most watched movie lists. According to Stephen, the documentary was the No. 1 documentary on Apple TV when it was released.

“It’s a feel-good story about family,” said Stephen. “There aren’t many stories like that told these days.”