Spinner
@us

PhotoSynthesis: Bob Dylan With the Band

Previous | Next San Francisco, 1976: I flew up to San Francisco at the last moment to shoot the 'Last Waltz' concert featuring the Band. Beautiful, elegant set design. Everyone onstage looked fairly bleary-eyed to me ... except for Bob. It might have been my own set of bleary eyes I was peering through. I heard a funny story years later about an ...

Continue reading

@us

PhotoSynthesis: Stevie Nicks in Her Kitchen

Previous | Next Venice, Calif., 1982: That was earlier in the day [of the rooftop session]. The challenge when shooting for PEOPLE was to let the reader learn something about the subject that he or she didn't know -- that was more or less the magazine's "mission statement." I noticed the glasses laying on a counter in the kitchen, so of course I ...

Continue reading

@us

PhotoSynthesis: Stevie Nicks in Venice Beach

Previous | Next Venice, Calif., 1982: This was shot for PEOPLE magazine on the roof of Stevie's condo in Venice Beach. This was the first real one-on-one shoot that we did together. If I widened [this photo] to full frame, you'd see an assistant's hand with a light meter. The wind was blowing so hard up there, we almost lost her -- literally -- ...

Continue reading

@us

PhotoSynthesis: Freddie Mercury

Previous | Next U.S. Tour, 1980: That's just one of those moments that isn't that "private" but the public never gets to see. When I was working with Queen, I hung a lot more with Brian [May] and Roger [Taylor] and, quite frankly, the roadies. I truly loved working with those guys. I didn't spend as much time around Fred since he had his own ...

Continue reading

@us

PhotoSynthesis: Captain Beefheart

Previous | Next Palmdale, Calif., 1983: That's Palmdale, Calif., in the background -- I'm sure if you went to that same vantage point today you'd see about 10,000 condos and 50 Starbucks. I was going through a rough period around the time of this shoot, hence the world-class hangover I had that day. I knew that Beefheart (real name: Don van Vliet ...

Continue reading

@us

PhotoSynthesis: Marc Bolan

Previous | Next Los Angeles, ca. 1973: In my book, Marc Bolan should be considered a musical genius alongside people like Jimi Hendrix. Lived fast and died young, unfortunately. When Cameron Crowe and I walked into his room to do the interview and photos, he was sober. Then Bolan started drinking: Out came the vino, and out came the nipple. I ...

Continue reading

@us

PhotoSynthesis: John Lee Hooker

Previous | Next Mill Valley, Calif., ca. 1984: Look at the face -- it just tells so many stories. I do remember that the day before I was supposed to go up there, I got a call from Bruce Springsteen's art director, who wanted me to shoot his album cover on the same day, but I had already committed to the John Lee Hooker thing. During the two or ...

Continue reading