Jerry Garcia at the Oakland Auditorium, Oakland, California, December 31, 1979
I took this photo during my very first trip to California, when I took a Greyhound bus from New Jersey to San Francisco to see the Grateful Dead on the West Coast for the first time. I knew I wanted to be up front for the New Year’s Eve show to capture the magical beginning of the 1980s.
Deadheads at the Lewiston Fairgrounds, Lewiston, Maine, September 6, 1980
I've always captured what was happening offstage at concerts. Whether it was hippies twirling or punk-rockers stage diving, it has always been important to me to document this slice of the rock ‘n’ roll experience.
Bono at Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco, California, November 11, 1987
This was my very first assignment for Rolling Stone magazine. I had been submitting photographs to the photo editor, Jodi Peckman, so I was on her radar. When the free U2 concert was announced on the radio for later that day, I was preparing to leave my house and shoot it on my own. As I was walking out the door, my phone rang, and Jodi said, “I have your big break. I need you to go shoot the free U2 concert in downtown San Francisco.” I went on to shoot around 300 assignments for Jodi over the next thirty years.
Sammy Hagar, Marin Headlands, California, May 11, 1989
This was an assignment for Rolling Stone Magazine. At that point, I had only been shooting portraits for the magazine for a few months. Before then, it was all live concert photography and backstage candid shots. Getting portrait assignments was a big deal for me as I strove to move more toward portraiture as a photographer.
E-40, San Francisco, California, June 9, 1998
I took this photograph at my Clementina Street studio for The Source magazine. I had already photographed E-40 the previous summer for a cover story for The Source Sports magazine (with basketball legend Gary Payton). After these two shoots with E-40, his record company hired me to shoot his next two CD packages.
Sinéad O'Connor at the Gathering of the Tribes, Costa Mesa, California, October 7, 1990
The Gathering of the Tribes Festival was a two-day festival in California which is often cited as the inspiration for Lollapalooza. I had already photographed Sinéad two years earlier when her debut record came out. I believe she was just hanging out at the festival and not on the bill to perform, but I took this casual backstage portrait while on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine. Photographs like this become even more powerful once the subject passes away. Sinéad was often misunderstood, but the things she stood up for were important then, and now.
