Renowned photographer Henry Diltz, whose work has appeared in Life, Rolling Stone and the New York Times, captured the Jackson 5 multiple times in the 1970s. He reconnected with their lead singer Michael Jackson, who had since become the biggest pop star on the planet, in 1985 to document the famed 'We Are the World' charity single recording sessions. He witnessed Michael the boy, the man, the transcendent genius and the troubled superstar, from two feet away.

Michael was always very quiet. His older brothers were a lot more loose and outgoing, always joking and laughing. But Michael came alive onstage -- almost like he lived for those moments.

In the early '70s, I went to a small concert at a school for blind children in L.A. I was sitting cross-legged two feet away from Michael with all these kids in the front row. His voice had such a pure quality to it that it just released something in you. I could see all the kids listening and moving, so enthralled by the music. He just sang so amazingly beautiful. It was so joyful and such an outpouring of angelic sound that it released something in me, and tears started rolling down my face.

World-class photographer Henry Diltz, to employ a lyric from his friend and Southern California neighbor Joni Mitchell, has looked at life from both sides now. Being a former musician himself, in the '60s group the Modern Folk Quartet, he has numerous friends in the California musical community, which has provided him with a varied pool of camera-ready subjects. In this photo essay, Diltz reveals, in his own words, the process behind his iconic shots of many of rock's greatest names and faces, as well as his uncommon access to them, which he has likened to being "a little kid who sneaked under the circus tent."

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Ray Charles, Los Angeles, 1980: This started with just a random call from a video company that was going to interview him at his studio in L.A. He had designed this whole building. He knew every inch of it. It was sort of like he could see in there, because he knew every room and step, and when you saw him sit at the board, his fingers were just constantly touching the knobs and the buttons and he just knew where everything was. We went out into the studio part of it and he just sat at the piano playing. I guess they were setting up the lights for this shot, 'cause I couldn't click while they were filming. Being a photographer on a documentary crew, you pretty much have to shoot pretty quickly just before and just after the camera rolls.



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Monterey, Calif., 1967: This is at Monterey Pop, and I was the official photographer. There were lots of photographers there, but I was one of the guys who got to stand onstage. I had never met Simon and Garfunkel. The thing about Monterey, it was the first big music festival and so a lot of people first got to see their heroes live here. It was electrifying to see just two guys and one guitar sitting out there in the lights at the end of the stage making this famous music, and I was just standing there over in the wings, you know, digging it, electrified like everybody else.



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San Diego, 1969: This was a CSNY concert at Balboa Stadium, and it was before they went off on the road. And there was only a stage set up at one end of the field, and there was no dressing room or no backstage or no curtain. So right before the concert, when the people were coming in, Neil was sitting at the piano changing the strings on his Gretsch White Falcon guitar, and I kind of just sat down on the stage, on the ground at his feet, and just took a whole roll. As he did that, he wasn't really looking at me, he was looking over me. That's one of the ways I try to be invisible. It's quite a candid moment with Neil -- you know, his mind is off somewhere.



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Los Angeles, 1969: A lot of the really iconic album covers I did in the late '60s and early '70s were done with a partner named Gary Burden. He was a graphic designer. So one day the Doors called Gary and me to talk to us about doing their cover and we said, "Well, do you have a title?" They said, "No, not really." We said, "Do you have any idea?" And just then, one of them said, "The other day I was driving through downtown L.A. and I saw this hotel that said 'Morrison Hotel.'"

We all trooped into the lobby, there was nobody there [but this] young kid behind the desk. I said, "We're just gonna take a couple of pictures. We'll just be a few minutes." He said, "Well, no you can't." I thought, "Well, I'll have them stand in front of the window." And just then, standing in front of the window looking through ... you see that light right under "-son"? That's the elevator numbers, and as the guy went in the little tiny elevator and pushed the button and disappeared, I just thought, "Whoa, quick, you guys -- run in there and just get behind the window and we'll just do this thing really quick." We took one roll of film and got out of there, and the guy never even knew we did it [laughs]!


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Los Angeles, 1971: Rolling Stone called me one day in Hollywood and asked if I would go to Motown Records and take photos of the Jackson 5, who were there for the afternoon answering fan mail. I think they told me to kind of concentrate on Michael, who was the lead singer. Now I photographed the Jackson 5 quite a bit in those days, and he was so young and he had just the voice of an angel, unbelievably pure, beautiful voice. And a very nice little boy, very quiet, very polite. I just said, "Hey, Michael, look this way for a minute," and that was it. I remember at one point he was playing with a lighter, he was kind of fascinated by the flame, you know, like young boys are.



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London, 1975: This was backstage at Wembley Stadium, when the Eagles and the Beach Boys were playing. He was backstage, standing around, and I had a telephoto lens -- I didn't know him at all, and I took this picture. The next picture I took, he had raised a Heineken bottle up, and he noticed me right while he was taking a swig and gave me this sort of stink-eye look. "Who the hell are you?" -- you know. So I put my telephoto lens on and I sneaked a couple of portraits and got caught on the second one. He was looking at me, but this is the one before he noticed me [laughs]. I've never talked to him, don't know him at all.



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