Watch Neil Young Give Meryl Streep a Guitar Lesson

For Meryl Streeps new film Ricki and the Flash, the actress actually spent six months learning how to play guitarfor the role of the titular rocker. Streep also had an impressive teacher aid in her transformation from Academy Award-winning actress to guitar goddess: Neil Young. In this video from the Jacob Burns Film Center, Young teaches Streep the noisy art of distortion.

The rocker first tells the actress prior to every filmed performance to turn the amps knobs to their max setting, both for sound reasons and for realism. Young then shows Streep the power of distortion and feedback, as one simple strum turns the instrument into a roaring beast. The guitar does all the work, Young tells Streep. The lesson concludes with Streep bowing in appreciation to the Godfather of Grunge.

While its unclear how the meeting between Young and Streep was arranged at Pleasantville, New Yorks Jacob Burns Film Center, its likely that Ricki and the Flash director Jonathan Demme facilitated the guitar lesson. Demme is also a longtime collaborator of Youngs, teaming with the rocker on three concert films: 2006s Heart of Gold, 2009s Trunk Show and 2012s Journeys. Demmes 2008 film Rachel Getting Married also featured a scene where a character (played by TV on the Radios Tunde Adebimpe) sang Youngs Harvest Moon cut Unknown Legend.

Although Streeps Ricki covers nearly a dozen songs in the new film, including tracksby Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Lady Gaga, her character a grocery store clerk by day, a rocker by night doesnt perform any Young tracks on the big screen. However, the Ricki and the Flash soundtrack does feature a cover of On the Beachs For the Turnstiles performed by Streeps son Henry Wolfe.