On Tour with Bob Gruen

Alice Cooper Retrospective

I first photographed Alice Cooper in 1971 when he played at the legendary Fillmore East in New York City. It was one of the most theatrical shows I have ever seen. Alice goes a lot further than just standing and singing into a microphone; he acts out each song with simple but effective props. During the show he was strapped in a straightjacket, tries to break out, and ends the show in an electric chair. In later shows the electric chair was replaced by Alice getting hanged by the neck from a gallows. Later came a guillotine, which remains part of his act today. Alice has said that his show is about being the bad guy punished for his evil deeds, like a real life horror movie with a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack.

By 1973 I was working more with Alice, who up to that point had several top 10 hits and was becoming a well-known act. The band had rented a mansion in Connecticut and I photographed them there. One of my favorite pictures is Alice looking very comfortable wearing a jacket with stuffed white rats running up the front and on the sleeves. On another occasion Alice came to my studio with the great radio DJ Wolfman Jack to make a Christmas picture with Alice as Santa Claus and Wolfman Jack sitting on his lap like a little kid.

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On Tour with Bob Gruen

Elton John Retrospective

IN 1970 I was hired to photograph a young piano player from England who was going to open a show at the New York City’s Fillmore East theatre for Leon Russell. His name was Elton John. I remember thinking how hard it is to get an interesting picture of someone playing piano. It’s a very large instrument and the player is usually just sitting behind it. But Elton John is not the usual piano player. He is one of the most exciting performers I’ve worked with. He doesn’t just sit at his piano. He jumps around it and on top of it. Sometimes he leaps straight into the air with only his hands on the keyboard. And he’s still playing! He also wears onstage the most flamboyant and colorful costumes and outrageous glasses.

I enjoyed working with Elton for the next several years. At the Fillmore in the spring of 1971 I got a nice and arty double-frame photo of him with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. Then I photographed him twice at Carnegie Hall, and later at Madison Square Garden. At Carnegie Hall, his mother made a surprise backstage visit.

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Go on tour with legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen, who is one of the most well-known and respected photographers in Rock and Roll.

I was 24 years old when I met Ike and Tina Turner, and they were the first well known band I worked with. A friend of mine told me I should go see them and I became an immediate fan. Soon after that I went to see them again at a club called the Honka Monka Club, and brought my camera. I took some good pictures that night and at the end of the show Tina danced off stage with a strobe light flashing. I didn’t know where to set the focus or the exposure, but I thought that maybe if I tried a one second exposure I could catch several images of Tina in the flashes of light. One of the pictures came out really well capturing the energy and excitement that is Tina Turner! A few days later when I went to another Ike & Tina show I brought the pictures to show my friends. After the show one of my friends saw Ike Turner and pushed me in front of him saying ‘Show Ike your pictures!’ Ike looked at the pictures and took me into the dressing room to show Tina. They both liked my pictures a lot and asked me to come and work with them.

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Go on tour with legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen, who is one of the most well known and respected photographers in Rock and Roll.

HELLO Japan! I am very happy to have been asked to make a regular feature column for the Tokyo Journal! I thought I would start with a few pictures that show where my career began.

Growing up in the 1950s, I heard rock and roll when it was first played on the radio and I was an immediate fan. After High School in the late sixties, I was living with a rock band and started my career by taking pictures of them. When they were discovered, their record company used my photos and hired me to photograph more groups.

Soon I was working for many record companies and in 1972 I was included in ‘The Photography of Rock’, the first book of rock music photos. The writer, who interviewed me for the book, liked my photos and the following week brought me to his magazine interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. John & Yoko liked the photos I took and used one in the package for their next record album. And I’ve been very busy ever since.

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