Steve Wildsmith

Back in November, we caught up with local boy Robb “Storm” Taylor, a Heritage High School grad (class of ‘85) who’s been working for the past several years on a documentary of Jesco White, the famous “dancing outlaw” of West Virginia.

First featured in a PBS documentary in 1991, White grew to — and into — something of a rural legend: a hard-living, hard-drinking backwoods hillbilly who carries on the tradition of mountain dancing, a mix of clog and tap that’s native to Appalachia. Taylor’s documentary — “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” — raised White’s profile even more, and after being featured at a number of prestigious film festivals around the country, it’s getting a proper screening here in East Tennessee.

(Click here to watch the trailer. Or you can click here to rent and watch it online.)

It’ll be shown on Friday, June 4, at “The Shed” at Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson, 1820 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Maryville. It’s a limited-seating event — only $100 tickets will be sold. Those cost $15; get them here.

Despite his various ventures, Taylor has remained a Blount County resident. While at UT, he was part-owner of The Underground, a dance club where he served as deejay. During that time, he befriended P.J. Clapp, a South-Doyle high graduate who would go on to stardom as Johnny Knoxville. From there, he did some traveling with and production work for the MTV show that Knoxville made famous — “Jackass.” He had an idea for his own program, and after returning to Maryville to work in real estate and development, his idea was turned into a program on the Turner South network. “Yokel” ran for a season before Fox acquired Turner South and slowly killed the network.

Johnny Knoxville serves as producer for the White documentary; in addition to that, Taylor has recently launched a new pop culture publication, One Eighty Magazine.

I ran into him Friday at “The Shed,” and he said The Whites will likely be making the trip down from West Virginia to attend the June 4 screening.