And then I had given him that T shirt, the New York City T shirt about one year earlier. So, when we were sitting there on the roof with the beautiful skyline all around us, I asked if he still had that shirt a and he knew which one I was talking about. So I knew he still had it with him. I knew he liked it and he knew where it was and he looked comfortable in it. We took the series of pictures. We had no idea at the time that it was going to become as popular as it did. It was just one more of many photos that we had taken, but that one seems to stand out. People really like it. So how would you do things, say for example, Green Day, you’re going to do this shoot, and work with them. What would be different today, aside from not having to stay awake for seven days straight? 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. Bob’s “Sid Vicious with Hot Dog” photo was acquired by The National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1999 for their permanent collection.

Bob’s “Sid Vicious with Hot Dog” photo was acquired by The National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1999 for their permanent collection. The Experience Music Project, Seattle, acquired his “Clash Live in Boston”, “Tina Turner Multiple Image”, and “Bloody Sid Vicious” photos for their permanent collection in March 2012.More recently In the past year Bob Gruen photographed Maneskin, Nile Rogers for Downtown Magazine’s cover and Ryan Adams at Carnegie Hall. 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? Unfortunately, some of those stories get lost to the sands of time (or copyediting) as a visual artist is forced to put pen to paper in an art form he has no experience working in. Like many autobiographies, Right Place starts to slide around its midpoint, its control over Gruen’s career timeline slipping as he affords large chunks of space to his work with a select few artists. Certain months or years are skipped over in mere sentences, while artists like John Lennon and Yoko Ono are afforded chapter after chapter, at the risk of making the book sound like a biography of someone else rather than him. The 80s are hardly a blink in the reader’s eyes, and the Roadrunner race through time in the last few chapters gives off the distinct impression that Gruen grew too bored to afford anything after 1981 more than a paragraph’s worth of space. 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?

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.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.

So the CBGB’s bands were experimenting, they were practicing, they were learning how to be good. And most clubs don’t let you learn. Most clubs want you to bring a crowd right from the beginning. But CBGB, this was a place where people could come in and learn how to play in front of an audience, learn what works and what doesn’t. And I remember that night with Blondie, I thought, “Wow, this is all coming together. I didn't think I was impaired. We kind of thought that was improving our performance. It was getting us in the mood. It was getting us to enjoy the feeling. A.K.: And what about some of the other artists, like Led Zeppelin, Dylan and The Rolling Stones? Anything special comes to mind about those times? 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]

AWARDS

Gruen's 1974 photo of John Lennon on a rooftop in New York City was later used for Lennon's memorial. 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.

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.K.: At least you inspired people with his pictures. You captured some beautiful moments of your friend’s life. 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.Lavish and beautiful, mirroring the deeply personal design of the original volume given to Yoko herself, See Hear Yoko brings into focus an extraordinary woman and one of the most memorable periods in modern history. 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! I always want to create, to make art, but you do have to pay your rent. So I always wanted to have something where I could make art and make something that people relate to their feelings, but at the same time to get paid and pay my rent.