A.K.: Your most known project was John Lennon. You’re known because of your iconic photos of John. You were with him in his last years with Yoko. Tell us about your relationship. You know, your time together before his untimely passing, what it was like to shoot him. Since this covers a multitude of musicians, bands, and styles of music, the music / bands / musicians covered may – or may not – all appeal to every reader, but this is more about Gruen, and how he went from a young kid with an interest in photography to accompanying and / or photographing virtually every musician of note at one point in his career. Some of the photographs are ones I’d love a copy to put on my walls for the beauty of the photography, alone. His stories are epic, if sometimes crazily so, others heartbreaking, and his photographs always iconic. Deeply embedded within the communities they photographed, both documented a pivotal era in music when the industry’s focus shifted from established stars like Elvis Presley and John Lennon, to up-and-coming punk bands like the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols. Capturing the raw intensity and excitement of an era of possibility where stardom felt within reach of anyone and everyone, Legendary Moments brings us a rare glimpse into the lives of larger-than-life figures, from the viewpoints of those who knew them best.

Since 1980, Morrison Hotel Gallery has been the primary representative for Gruen's photography. His work is included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. [9] CBs was a very comfortable place. Hilly Kristal [was] unlike a lot of club owners. He just wanted a bar where he could have a beer and watch television. That way, if he had a nice bar, there would be enough people to pay the rent and make a little money. That’s all he wanted. Self-expression isn’t just what you say — it is also where and when you choose to tell the story. This can require you to travel off the beaten path and make a way for yourself. “To be independent, you wake up every day unemployed. It takes a lot to strike out on your own and not listen to your parents or get a job just because it’s comfortable and pays the rent — but to actually be in a situation where you can’t pay the rent and your phone gets cut off. But that’s okay because you’re pursuing what you want to do,” says Gruen, who started making and selling photos at the age of 11 while at summer camp.

the dinner

Elton John on stage with legs in the air at Fillmore East, NYC. April 9, 1971. Photograph: Bob Gruen A.K.: So is that something that you get when you’re just spending all the time with the artists? When you’re being the fly on the wall? Like a good model, John would change positions and his expressions while I took photos. I don’t give a lot of direction, I’m actually pretty quiet when I take pictures and I let my subjects find their poses naturally.

Allan Kliger: Hello Bob, It’s a pleasure to have an interview with you! It’s a great opportunity for Lens’ readers to get familiar with the man behind some of the most famous iconic photos of figures in the music scene during the past 40 years! Like any friends you make,” he says, “you learn how to get along with them, and both John and Yoko were very perceptive people. They were aware of living in the present and how to have a good time. They were very funny – not many people might be aware that Yoko is quite witty, but then you couldn’t live with John without having a good sense of the absurd. Whiting, Sam (November 9, 2020). "Bob Gruen recalls the time the Clash got stoned driving down Mount Tamalpais". Datebook | San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide. Archived from the original on 2020-11-10 . Retrieved 2021-04-20. Tina was just amazing. I was sitting right in front, taking pictures. And at the end of the show, a strobe light flashes and Tina kind of dances off of multiple images in the strobe light. And I just had a few frames left in the camera, and I thought, I wonder what will happen if I take a one-second picture and get a few of these flashes in the same frame? And I took, like, four or five pictures and three or four of them are useless — and one of them is one of the best pictures I've ever taken. And it just captures Tina in five images that just captures the excitement and the energy that's Tina Turner. Shortly after John Lennon moved to New York in 1971, Bob became John and Yoko’s personal photographer and friend, making photos of their working life as well as private moments. In 1974 he created the iconic images of John Lennon wearing a New York City t-shirt and standing in front of the Statue of Liberty making the peace sign – two of the most popular of Lennon’s images.After touring with Iggy, Leee concentrated on his photography and seemed content to continue documenting the Downtown scene, until Johnny Thunders who recently formed the Heartbreakers insisted he manage them. Although the band had a bad heroin habit, Leee proved to be a successful manager, securing them a good record deal and ensuring the band never missed a gig during the two and a half years he managed them. Importantly, managing the Heartbreakers put him at the very centre of the emerging UK punk scene, when Malcolm McLaren called from London and invited Leee to bring the band over to join the Sex Pistols on the infamous and historic Anarchy Tour. Of course, Leee didn’t forget his camera and his shots of the tour and the Sex Pistols are shot from an insider’s view as he was himself an important part of it. This book covers more than that, though, it is also about him, his life, how his early years as a young kid with a camera, and an eye that looked for more than the standard shot, wanting something that captured the feeling of the moment, the movement, the excitement, and occasionally the frustration and the dreams as well as the excess. There’s a whole controversy about where punk started. Was it CBGB? Was it in New York or London? Who was a real punk? New Yorkers still had long hair. When I got to England, the hairstyles were dramatically different. People paid attention to cutting hair in odd ways and putting safety pins in their cheek or whatever, stupid things like that. They didn’t really call it “glitter” music until about two years after it was over. But at the time, they didn’t say David Bowie was a glitter band. There was no glitter band. Punk wasn’t a word till the magazine [of the same name by Legs McNeil and John Holmstrom]. The last group I wanted to ask about is Green Day. You’ve had a special connection with them for a couple of decades now. Who introduced you to the band?

For many years, people have been saying, “You should write a book.” People are really interested in the ’70s. People are always asking me, “How did you do it?” None of my colleagues had the breadth of starting out with groups like Ike and Tina Turner and LaBelle and continuing going right into Elton John and John Lennon and Led Zeppelin but also coming to KISS and Alice Cooper. I did studio, live, record parties, nightclubs, everywhere. I didn’t visit the music scene as a journalist; I was part of it. I went to CBGB to see friends and take pictures. One of the major milestones in your career is your connection to punk. You were probably one of the first people to witness the early punk scene in New York and England, and your photos are definitely some of the most important documents of that period. I want to ask about a bunch of artists you were connected to, but the New York Dolls seem like a great starting place. For me, one thing led to another. I met John [Lennon] and Yoko [Ono] through an interview. They liked my pictures, and I started working with them and just spending a lot of time with them. When I first connected with them, they told me that they would give me total access, but they weren’t going to pay me. I would get paid by magazines and record companies because I had pictures that nobody else had. They were working with Elephant’s Memory, and they did a solo album with John and Yoko, and then I did a lot of pictures for their album cover. I got in touch with their management, who told me I should come down to the Mercer Arts Center to see this other band that they manage, the band called the New York Dolls. Well, I was kind of getting drunk in bars and she didn’t understand the point for a long time. You know, it didn’t really seem like an important job. It was hard to explain that I was capturing culture for future generations.And, perhaps unusually for the time, they ate very well – Yoko was very knowledgeable about nutrition and health, and she certainly made John well-informed of that. She also stood firmly for feminism and equality, and that was something John became quite aware of, too.” In 2014, his documentary film Ike & Tina On The Road: 1971–72 won the Living Blues Award for Best Blues DVD of 2013. [20] In 1971, Leee went to London as the stage manager of the Warhol inspired play ‘ Pork’ at the Camden Roundhouse starring Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County. Capturing the best images of these Warhol-inspired theatrical events including ‘Theatre of the Ridiculous’, there, he met David Bowie - the seminal person and moment of 1970s London. The absurd images and stage characters created by ‘ Pork’ inspired David Bowie to reconsider his whole look and attitude, leading the artist to ask Leee to be his tour manager and official photographer for his next show and asked Cherry and Wayne to come along too. And so, Ziggy Stardust was born. John enjoyed having his picture taken. He knew how to do it and posing came naturally to him. He saw it as part of show business, which it very much is. a b c d Gruen, Bob (May 21, 2018). "Bob Gruen's Electric Photos of Ike & Tina Turner". PleaseKillMe. Archived from the original on 2018-05-22.