When I enrolled at Texas A&M it wasn’t until I heard about "The Last Concert of the Last Weekend of the Last Summer of the Seventies" that I realized part of my fish-out -of-water disorientation was due to the fact that the ever-present twang of country music had somehow supplanted the rock music I loved. I drove to the Cotton Bowl, slapped down my $15 for a “Texxas Jam” all-day pass and proceeded to have one of the best concert experiences of my life under some of the most miserable conditions I’ve ever endured. It was broiling-hot, we were packed-in so tight that the only people that weren’t standing were those that had passed out. Between acts they would turn a firehose on us from the stage to cool us down so by the time Boston and Heart had played we were standing in a soup of god-knows what. I remember hiking back to my car not caring when or where I had lost my shoes and shirt. It was fantastic and the first time I saw Van Halen live.
Eddie at the Texxas Jam - The Last Concert of the Last Weekend of the Last Summer of the Seventies
Flash-forward just a few short years and I had graduated, broken my parent’s hearts by pursuing a career in photography rather than engineering, had relocated from NYC to L.A. and landed an advertising gig photographing Alex Van Halen for Paiste Cymbals. I got to know Alex pretty well riding shotgun as we drove around L.A. for a few days scouting venues to shoot the campaign. Ultimately we decided to do two days, one at my studio with Alex and his complete tour kit (an event that marked my first experience of groupies trying to crash my studio and my realization that my neighbors weren’t fans of impromptu marathons of high-decibel, cymbal-centric drumming. Go figure?) and a second day with the band on stage at Pasadena’s Perkins Palace. Van Halen called The Palace “home” in the early days and I thought it would be nice to photograph them there one last time before it was refurbished and repurposed into residential and retail.
The venue didn’t have any security so my assistant and I took turns “guarding” the rig all night, sleeping on the band’s road cases and playing drums to an empty auditorium. When the band showed up we made pretty quick work of the shot for Paiste as the guys were more interested in seeing the Palace one last time. They took me a tour of the venue where they shared stories and we shot some fun, loose images.
It wasn’t long before I got the call from Warner Brothers to photograph them for their album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” and we were off to the races. Over the next few years our paths continued to cross as I worked with them in the studio, on location and on the road with both Sammy and David Lee Roth.
All really great, generous guys.
