The new documentary Peter Asher: Everywhere Man traces back to May of 2012 when filmmaker Dayna Goldfine received a call from an old high school boyfriend. His housemate, the retired singer Linda Ronstadt, had an extra ticket to see a new cabaret show by her former manager Peter Asher. Dayna said yes to going even though she’d never heard of Peter. “I went because I wanted to meet Linda.” She left the show eager to tell her husband and filmmaking partner, Dan Geller, all about this British Invasion pop star and producer who’d been at the creative center of rock and roll for decades. She wanted them to tell his story.

Dayna and Dan have been married for forty years. They met while Dan was finishing his graduate film thesis at Stanford. Dayna, herself a Stanford graduate, had been interested in film and had also hoped to one day do something creative with whoever became her life partner. So that they would work together as peers and not with him as her teacher, Dayna took film courses at De Anza College in Cupertino at Dan’s suggestion. Their collaboration has produced acclaimed documentaries including Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (2021), The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013), and Ballets Russes (2005).

Peter Asher: Everywhere Man weaves scenes from Asher’s “musical memoir” cabaret show, archival footage of the London scene of the 1960s and Los Angeles of the ’70s with present-day interviews with Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Carole King, Kate Taylor, Natalie Merchant, Lyle Lovett, Steve Martin, Eric Idle, Jane Asher, Twiggy, and Marianne Faithfull (among others), plus excerpts from Paul McCartney’s interview tapes for his 1997 biography by Barry Miles—in 1963, a twenty-one-year-old McCartney moved into the Asher family’s London house after meeting and falling in love with Peter’s sister Jane. He stayed for more than three years.

Years before the McCartney biography, Barry Miles and Peter Asher were part of London’s counterculture scene. From 1965 to 1967, along with John Dunbar, they owned the Indica Bookstore & Gallery. Indica was where Yoko Ono had a show in 1966. John Lennon, an Indica regular, came by to check out the show, and as such, Peter Asher played a role in what would become a most famous introduction. Peter Asher became head of Apple’s A&R (Artists and Repertoire) in 1968, charged with scouting new talent. After signing an unknown James Taylor, he left Apple to become the singer’s manager and producer in 1969.

Directed and produced by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller with executive producers Michael Drews, Robin Sagon, Morgan Neville, Caitlin Rogers, Keith Putney, and Jonathan Dana, the film features an original score by Laurence Juber and Jeff Alan Ross, with editing by Darren Lund. Distributed by Greenwich Entertainment, the feature-length Peter Asher: Everywhere Man opens in New York City on June 19, 2026.

D.Z. Stone (Rail): Who had the idea to do a documentary on Peter Asher?

Dan Geller: That came through Dayna’s high school boyfriend, who remains a friend and a friend of mine as well these days. He’s a housemate of Linda Ronstadt’s here in San Francisco and he had a plus one for Peter’s show.

Dayna Goldfine: About ten minutes into the show, I was like, “Oh, man, I wish that Dan was here, because this is someone worthy of a documentary.” Just how often do you come across someone who you’ve never heard of, but you realize you should have because he’s been literally integral to every creative and artistic thing that you’ve been interested in for your whole life?

Geller: At the time, we heard someone else was already making a movie about Peter. But along the way Dayna and I got to be friends with Linda, and every time we would go over to her house, we’d ask, “What’s happening with that Peter Asher movie?” Eventually, Linda told us it had been dropped. Around that time (December 2019), we were in postproduction on our Leonard Cohen movie and Peter was coming back to town to perform his show at the historic Bimbo’s 365 Club. So I got to go with Dayna, and Linda was there to sort of be a matchmaker. The show was everything Dayna had said. It was fascinating from beginning to end. Peter said yes to the documentary right after the show, while we were all still at Bimbo’s. Bimbo’s is where we ultimately staged the show for our film, because the show would be the spine of the movie.

Rail: You staged Asher’s cabaret show at Bimbo’s for the movie?

Geller: We did. We went back to Bimbo’s and rented the place for a weekend. There were probably 250 people at each show. We staged it because we needed to have a whole bank of cameras, and it really needed to be our auditorium.