Magazine Covers

This was the biggest moment of my life, career wise. I had sent them a bunch of images, based on the premise that they were going to do a big story on Bruce. It was a complete shock to get the call asking me how I wanted the cover credit to read!

This was a special moment as my father was one of the founders of Ebony and their first staff photographer. So my world came full circle.

Here are my two People Magazine covers- one an assignment (Jenny Jones) and one a stock photo usage (Prince).

While photographing Live Aid in Philadelphia, there was a break in the action and I turned around to look at the crowd and saw this cute girl sitting on her friends shoulders. I took a few pictures and completely forgot about it till I got home the next day. Imagine my surprise when I went out on a Sunday morning in January and saw my picture on the cover of Parade. I am guessing the girl in the picture was surprised too!

I took this photograph while waiting for the band to gather to do a group shot. I figured that I might as well get some individual shots of the guys while I was waiting.

When I got in the business, one of my main goals was to work for Creem Magazine. Through a chance meeting with the photo editor at a show in Chicago, I started contributing to the magazine and I thought my life was complete- UNTIL one day he called and asked me to shoot a cover of the band Rockpile for them. THEN my life was complete!

Judas Priest is one of my favorite bands to photograph because almost everything that they do is a photographable moment!

In late 1986, Bob Guccione, Jr., the son of the publisher of Penthouse Magazine decided to get into the music business by starting a magazine. He wanted to put ZZ Top on the cover and they were in the area, so he sent me to Rockford, Illinois to shoot the cover of the first issue. later, when the magazine had grown and I was on the road with the Rolling Stones, he contacted me and I ended up with both the front and back covers.

Downbeat Magazine is like Rolling Stone if you are a jazz guy. They are also local, so I have gotten a lot of assignments from them over the years. Here is a sampling.

Japanese fans love the Rolling Stones. They also love Living Colour. A match made in heaven.

When Garth Brooks made country music the most popular music in America, country publicists started calling on photographers who were shooting rock. I lived right up the road from Nashville, so I was given great access to country stars. This photograph was taken on her tour bus right before Tammy passed.

During the country music boom, magazines started sprouting like weeds! The best of them was New Country Music Magazine.

Early in my career, I noticed that there were many musical instrument magazines- and I started contacting them. Guitar Player is the granddaddy of them all, and great to work with. Every guitar player on the planet wanted to be in the magazine.

Many more in many languages. They all wanted my pictures.

Once again, the gift that keeps on giving. Magazines cant help wanting to put Randy on the cover.