PhotoSynthesis: Bo Diddley

New York, 1999: Bo Diddley was opening for Tom Petty at Irving Plaza, and a friend of mine was bartending there, and she got me into the gig, and I always bring my camera. She said, "You know, Bo Diddley's just sitting there by himself." Nobody really cared that Bo Diddley was back there; there were maybe one or two people back there who cared -- here's a pioneer of rock 'n' roll! I said, "Can you get me back there?" So she just walked me back there. I had heard that he was a little bit sensitive because he'd been taken advantage of so much in his career. So I hung out and talked to him for a half hour before I asked if I could take his picture.

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Posted by Danny Clinch on Sep 20th 2007 3:00PM
Filed under: PhotoSynthesis

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Rustyat 9-22-2007

back in 1980 i was a stagehand at six flags great adventure, we had an "oldies rock n roll " show set up for that night and i was helping to build pa stacks, this man walks onto the stage and just stands there looking around...i approached him and asked why he was there...he laughed outloud and said son don t you know who i am........i laughed and said i don t care........needless to say i tried to throw bo diddley off HIS stage......my pennance for the day was i got to "guard" his classic square guitar all day until he took the stage........he was a gentleman and i got to hang with him all day......the best part of the story was we had his music blaring thru the speakers when all this occurred........thanks for the memory bo