Neil Zlozower
He was the trusted, inner-circle photographer friend
who captured iconic shots of Van Halen, Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses and
countless others on their wild rides to fame. Legendary photographer
Neil Zlozower joins us for a rollercoaster ride through his colorful
history, including early photos of KISS, Aerosmith and Rush, the heyday
of Hollywood’s glam-metal scene, an awkward meeting with Tom Waits and
how his unfiltered, high-energy approach always brings out the rock-star
attitude.
Created and Produced by Jared Tuten
what's up everybody metal Dave along with my co host Jason McMaster bringing you another episode of the talk louder podcast and yes I am still laughing because we just got done with world famous rock photographer Neil's Lowe's hour and if you don't know Neil you know his work but if you've never heard him talk or seen an interview with him he is high energy he's a motherfucker he is hilarious zero filter I will put if we need disclaimers and we don't really like sensor ourselves or anything so YouTube and any platform out there that is easily offended get ready this is this is kind of a disclaimer I guess he has no filter so be prepared to hear inappropriate commentary about people about other famous people for the most part but he is a great artist I would hate to be censored and in a way that people wouldn't get to hear this or watch this because he is a fucking true artist and his paintbrush is a camera yeah I mean we joined him we brought him into the room and he immediately spotted this faster pussy cat poster in my background he goes I took that photo and I know that over to my left is a shot of guns and roses that he took and we talked about the photos on the back of Van Halen 2 and he's got his own books I mean he's taken photos that you've seen a million times you just may not have known there is photos but he's been doing this for a long long long time he might be most famous for his Van Halen photos but it's hard to say because he's taken so many iconic images of so I would think it would be either Van Halen poison or motley crew because that's kind of his that's kind of his fire yeah you know I mean that's kind of what you're going to see his name on you know Van Halen 2 on and you're going to see his name on a lot of motley crew shit and definitely poison yeah he's based in Hollywood and he grew up around seeing it he even says in the interview he's drawn towards bands that have an image and an attitude so and he even says I liked all I like shooting all the bad boys anybody that's got a you know attitude and swagger and a look or whatever so that that basically means a lot of the 80s bands from Hollywood you know yeah but but but but not to not to just keep it at a Hollywood level but he's he's global he shot he shot Led Zeppelin yeah and de-purple and and it got his start doing Aerosmith and Ted Nugent so he yes but in the 70s kind of maybe some of his more well-known photos for example would maybe be the 80s stuff but yeah his career runs the gamut he's got 70s photos of 773 I think we talked about 1973 was his first magazine cover that's a long time ago I mean he's he's about 70 years old so and you wouldn't know it he's got the attitude of a pissed-off teenager and he just you know I don't want to say angry old man but I guess that's really what it is kind of it's kind of like this angst-ridden teenager guy when I think about it yeah well the thing is he uses that personality to pull you know pull personality out of his subjects so he gets great photos because he's basically barking and yelling and attacking the whole time and he gets if he gets the shot because the people are responding to his energy he doesn't have a filter he doesn't know when he's yelling he doesn't know when his his words that he's using are actually making the paint peel off the wall he doesn't realize it and so that's why I kind of gave a little kind of a shallow disclaimer that I hope people are not going to be easily offended by his if you will if you listen to eccentric eccentric eccentric eccentricities yeah you know if you listen to this show here you won't be informed it I don't think we've had guests with more of a filter yes but yeah I think Neil's saying anything you haven't heard at work or you know at the bar or whatever so yeah and you know what he's he's a decent he's I've worked with him enough he's a decent guy he's understanding he's not this he's a ball buster but he he means well he's got a big heart he's got kids he's he's just he just tells it like he sees it and like he wants it and there's nothing wrong with that I mean got to love him yeah obviously believe a person yeah very passionate about rock and roll and that's why he gets the good shot and and and we all benefit from it because my room is full of posters and the record collection has his work and he's got three or four books out now he's got three on Van Halen alone yeah one thing that we didn't really really and we need to really talk about his website and his documentary but I wanted to say we didn't really talk about his opinions on why he doesn't do photo shoot anymore why he doesn't shoot why he's not behind the camera anymore and I want to say I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth especially his you know photographers have a tough time because he comes from a place and time we got paid for your work and they bought your photos and that's how you paid your rent if you were an artist slash photographer and nowadays it's like when someone needs photos they just go on the internet and steal it well that's why he doesn't do that that's why it's and there's a lot of photographers from I'll say just back in the day not to give it put a date on it they are much like Neil they don't work a whole lot anymore but when they do the only way you can get those photos is buy them from that artist's website kind of it's a Napster thing right it's a file sharing thing if you go steal music steal a photograph hey it's the same thing that's still his intellectual property what he like squeezed out of that artist to put on film if you will I'll use the term film loosely yeah that's that's his property and that's what's going on that's sure it's the band's likeness but he's doing the work he's creating something he's using your the energy you give him to create something original for you in turn but yeah it's a shit business which is why photographers it's like become I want to be a musician do you really yeah we live in an age where all creative types are going to have their stuff unfortunately you know pillaged and borrowed and stolen you know as a musician I've seen some of my writing get you know taken and put on other websites or whatever and certainly Neil with all of his images you know over the years and especially when they're as good as they are yeah yeah I don't blame him he's had a long career and he's he's doing fine for himself so you know there comes a time you want to kick back and then and take it easy a little bit easier anyway and you know I started the interview saying how are you even still alive all those years apart well see he likes that kind of shit oh yeah yeah he's he will egg you on to talk about the darkness that he has walked through and survived yeah this episode is full of that stuff he's he's he's great with all the stories he doesn't mind sharing and we appreciated that so yeah he's a crazy son of a bitch man he's he's crazy he's he's and he's he's as dark as he is he's really bubbly and so you have to remember that when he's going when he's gone dark just wait the sun's gonna come out and and it's and it's in it's just as enjoyable for the for those of you who are just laughing at how fucking crazy dark you'll go for a second because he'll go off and tell you how he really feels is that such a crime for someone to tell you how they really feel no lies on how he's feeling see so that's real so yeah what a what a great personality and he's given a lot to the world his stories I mean we barely had to say anything I know yeah I've got this list of questions and I think we touched on half of it but he yeah but he you know I love people like that you know that you just wind him up and let him go and as long as what's coming out of their mouth is pure gold why interrupt you know he's like his stories were fantastic I might be wrong about this because it's not something that he talked about or that I that I even asked him or I even thought of but I want to say I don't think he does a shit ton of interviews with people especially like this I just don't think that he does yeah we need to thank Jared our producer Jared Tooten for hooking this up he's got a buddy out in LA that's tight with those are and and and and and Lowe's hour is a huge dangerous toys fan so yeah yeah he is and and yeah and back to Jared and back it's kind of there's a there's a full circle going on here because I asked Neil to do do to do our podcast and then unbeknownst Jared who also works for Smokey Robinson there's a guy that all that works for Smokey that is buds with Neil and so Jared is standing there and he's standing there with Smokey and with Smokey's you know crew and there's a guy hanging with Neil's Lowe's hour and Neil's Lowe's hour I think shot Pariah so there's this full little weird you know elixir of memories and going dude he's like dude and then and then I'm like yeah dude yeah I just talked to Neil last week on the monster's rock cruise and he wants to do it yeah well I got his number and I got his number on the cruise but I called Neil and he wouldn't return my call and he says it's because I called the house not the studio and I was like oh excuse me and then so yeah whatever it all came together and by by a little bit weird crazy turn of events but you know what when you're talking about Neil's Lowe's hour expect that kind of shit to be just normal day life it's gonna be a little topsy-turvy but yeah it all worked out in the end we were happy to have him what a great story what a great interview you're in for a good one folks hang on tight Neil's Lowe's our world famous rock and roll photographer today on the talk louder podcast so yeah Neil I'm surrounded by your by your work I didn't realize the faster pussy cat was yours that's one of my favorite posters I've had that since about 1988 or so how long we shot it yeah yeah and then I've also got over here a shot of guns and roses that you took and it's the shoot where axles were in the Sid Vicious t-shirt I don't know that one but can you flip the camera there for a second it may not be mine oh yeah I'm sure it's yours because I've seen outtakes of it in your book what book I don't have a gun book now I'm not a guns book but I'm sorry on your website where there's yes axles we're in a Sid Vicious t-shirt where Sid is shooting up and the shirts all ripped up of course and slashes we're in a too fast to live too young to die t-shirt or something how about the axle one does the axle have his hair poofed up now he's wearing a bandana blue bandana yeah blue okay I never paid attention to what he was wearing yeah that's not that's not really your job unless it's fucking up your job yeah well if he came with some leotard and tutu had me another story I go get the fuck out well you you when Aussie does that you don't say get the fuck out I don't work much with Aussie Sharon as a I I figured as much it's more you know the other guy yeah speaking of Aussie yeah speaking of Aussie Neil you and I have actually collaborated before and you don't know on what you don't know this but this is your shot yeah that is mine of Aussie and Zack on the cover of Metal Edge magazine and I'm the guy that wrote the story with that photograph so here's that 2001 I think it's 03 because I did the shoot the Friday in LA and then that Monday or that Tuesday was 9/11 so I remember you know Aussie was great man he he did everybody's like oh Aussie's brain dead he can't fucking thing everything at that shoot I asked Aussie to do he did he was a pleasure just that fucking cut Sharon's piece of shit well well I I've heard other people use colorful words to introduce her as well yeah well you know but like Vi says there's no stop valve on my mouth oh Neil I've got a we've got a couple mutual friends also one mr. Frank Meyer and a guy that lives here in Austin named Fritz is great Fritz is my biggest fan in the whole world yes yes Frank Meyer that sounds familiar and I can't pick I mean I know billions of people with Frank Meyer sounds really familiar but I can't picture it will so fill me in okay he's in a band called Street Walk and Cheetahs I never heard and he's currently the guitar player in fear and he he and Stephen Pierce he's been a wonder no no he wrote a book with Monty Melnick from the Ramones he did a Ramones book none of this sounds familiar at all he's listed in the thanks on your book that's why I brought it off well I yeah but the name sounds familiar but so I forgot you know what I'm gonna have to hold on a second don't go anywhere I want to see something I'm gonna type in F or a N me one I got his number had a lume along beach but I can't picture I'm gonna have to look at some of his old emails and see cuz I don't remember if I listed him in the special thanks that's good but see with me I got people come up to you Neil I made a really close friend years I'm like yeah who's that so and so who so and so I go I don't know what the fuck that is you know everybody's like you stepped right into well welcome to my world it's like a let's hope that wins people say my name tomorrow to Neil he's gonna Neil's gonna go wait who show you a picture of this fucking guy yeah oh and they say Jason McMaster oh dude I love dangerous toys I love dangerous I used to go see you at the back room before you ever signed it to my knee check checks in the mail now yeah okay so we're gonna start this we already did we already did this is how it's gonna be you're gonna start off with that fucking cut Sharon well that a if you if you say it and you're not begging us to edit you know we that's okay your opinions are okay I can use bad language on this yeah you can yeah yeah okay I fucking can yes you can okay I wanted to start by asking how you're even still alive after all those years of partying with Van Halen here we go let the interview begin okay well you got to understand like I tell people I'm gonna say it again because everything you I don't know what you're gonna ask me hasn't been said already but what do you got so I hung out with the bad boys Van Halen motley crew rat poison guns and roses I didn't hang out with sticks and journey and arios feedment wagon I mean those bands had great music not really my cup of tea but you know I like the bad boys I hung out with all the drug addicts and the alcoholics and the sex the hallics and everything like that so yeah I'm surprised I'm still alive too I mean when I was younger I never thought I'd make it past 30 you know yeah yeah at what point did you realize you were in the trusted inner circle of the van Halen camp what was the one moment because you obviously had a great long history with them and probably still do with the surviving numbers well I talked to Al all the time he's great and I've been smoking to Michael for a while and Dave you know he's dancing around the Borealis but I love Dave I'm not bad to say one of the greatest entertainers of all time and personally I love his vocals to a lot of people that Dave can't sing I think he's a great singer you know so but you know when I started working with them basically I shot a couple live shows and my friend was their publicist and he got me photo passes to the whole shows I mean they weren't big Van Halen one was already out Van Halen to was they were working on it but they were doing the two last shows of their how you know their tour in 78 and I went call my friend Bob Gibson asking if I could shoot the shows he goes yeah but you got to show the band the photos so Bob's office was probably you know mile from where I live now and so I went down there with the photos and I showed them and all four of the guys were there Mike and Al and Dave went showing the photos and up to that point I don't think they really had a real photographer shoot them so my photos were day and night compared to what they were used to seeing from fans what you what you was at 78 okay yeah 78 that's when I started shooting them and working with them but the first album was already out you know the first time I heard running with the devil and then it broke into eruption and you really got me I'm like holy fuck what was that and like I tell people we were coming off the disco error you know don summer village people all that stuff which was great music if you want to go out dancing and picking up chicks to bone them you know later and shit but you know I'm a rock and roller and hard that's what I like dangerous toys you know hey you know hey you know that's why I love your bed the first time I heard dangerous toys I fell in love with them well I appreciate I appreciate that so so you think 78 I mean there's you know the sex pistols came out 78 right the Ramones were happening the clash was happening were you into that stuff - I saw the sex pistols they did for United States show yeah so I'm up with the what was it was it winterland or the yes it winterland winterland exact there's one of the worst things I ever saw in my life and you know to this day no offense I just the Ramones army that's an East Coast thing and the clash you know London calling is a great song but they put some sort of poppy shit there that's not too cool and not too rock and roll if you asked me but I wasn't into that movement you know okay that's fair you know what you know going back I'm an old fuck so in my youth I like the first English invasion the who the stones what do you got the animals all that stuff I wasn't really in to the second English evasion T Rex what do you call it the motto who pulls way the suite the sweet that ballroom brook which was good it's just you know there wasn't my company the second I like you know the more bluesy stuff myself cream okay you know I like all that stuff but that's me but I'm old you know well that's cool and realize that all of that stuff is proto metal you know it's pro it's it's it's pre everything when you kind of think about it and I've and I've gotten into this these kind of convos with you about what you like and you like a lot of I don't recall if I can say Motown but you like a lot of like early R&B stuff I told you a couple days ago we were talking I listened to tons of muddy water yeah okay Elmore James and I listened to like smiley smiley Lewis and a whole bunch of guys you know Eddie Clearwater edit James love that a James Nina's mode I was listening to big mama Thornton yesterday yeah but I like you know by like Grand Central Station slide in the family stone James Brown sure temptations I love a lot of soul black music yeah oh yeah so we know that's that's where that's where rock and roll comes from in my book anyway you were in early with Van Halen but you but you had the distinction of not only were you one of the first guys to professionally shoot them and come up with good photos but you actually got into their inner circle and went on tour with you were basically a member of the band you went touring with them and traveling with them and all that stuff right that's a very unique perspective yeah in the US I did I mean we were all the same age you know so we all like the same things drinking doing drugs some of the members bone and hot chicks you know we all had the same thing in common you know so we were like we're sort of like a family I mean you know I'd be sitting in my apartment I'd hear a knock at the door to be Dave or Eddie would just show up when he made a little bit of money he bought a CJ5 GP come to my apartment building I had the front unit and he parked his Jeep on the lawn you know yes yeah so you know but they wouldn't call me a big load of it row I was very Van Halen and they just stopped by like friends do you know yeah I've seen that photo of that Jeep on the lawn yeah yeah yeah so there's a photo that you shot a number of photos there's a photo a series of photos of David Lee Roth staring into a backstage window and you're shooting him from behind and he's wearing the assless chaps and in a couple of the photos there's a woman whose rear end is in the photo and she's got I believe it's an Austin Texas backstage pass stuck to her butt okay well hold on because you're getting your stories mixed up that's two different shoots so in 1979 they flew me out I think it was Midland's text not no wasn't Midland's it was some Corpus Christi or something like that and they flew me out and I guess that's my hometown Corpus Christi that's my water water street oyster bar I don't know if it's yeah yes yes I'm the wall is Shane there nice yeah I was I have a star I have a star I have a star on the Texas music Walk of Fame right there by the right there by the the restaurant you're talking about love that way so yeah so I get to Corpus and I go upstairs to the dress come here's this little fucking skinny hot chick probably weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet and I guess she was a clothing designer and she had her sewing machine and everything like that so she was back there with Dave and she was like Dave had his little bikini underwear on and he had his bathrobe and he's got a strawberry in his mouth and she was posed so you see Dave looking at the lens looking all sexy and hot and shit and you just see her from behind you can see her blonde hair she had little brown the hottest of the hot pounds her butt was basically hanging her little 90 pound ass which I love because I like my chicks looking like they came from Auschwitz the smaller the better so so what do you go so she's there and she's making clothes for Dave and whatever and then the show starts so it's funny because after the show I like to do these shots where I run up to the dressing room of the band and they just came off stage and the adrenaline's pumping and they're soaking wet and their hair's all and they're just conquered the fucking world and everything like that so I have to jam up these back stairs really fast and the same chick was looking all proper and everything like that I saw her as I was going up the stairway and she was like sitting there like really with her tongue hanging out of her mouth like she took about ten quail wounds oh no so she went from this proper professional clothing designer to miss fucked up looking like a mess chick that didn't look very far fall over her shit so that's one photo you're talking about the photo that we did where he's leaning over and he's looking at a mirror of himself not out of window but he's looking in a mirror and he's wearing these buttless chaps and the funny thing about that photo shoot is Dave used to want to prove all the photos so you know we could do later I come home get the film develop and I show it to Dave and he's like nah you can't see enough of my butt so he didn't approve any of those photos like zero a year later he's using one of the photos that he didn't approve this is merchandising poster to sell but that just goes to show you how everything changes one year he doesn't like any of the photos and the next year it's a merchandising poster that he sell for ten dollars a crap you know yeah that's the two different things you got your stories mixed up do you remember the venue you remember that it was Corpus Christi do you remember the venue was a Corpus Christi Coliseum now it was seventy nine they were playing smaller play they weren't playing Coliseum they didn't they weren't opening for black Sabbath and seventy and I'll tell you about that because see that they're with Van Halen their philosophy they were Dave was a genius okay Dave is really a genius so their philosophy is they would go out on that tour after Van Halen won and they would play the small venues and they'd sell them out and they could probably sell out another venue but maybe it was only half sold the second venue their philosophy is we're gonna play this and sell they sold it out within days okay I don't know if those hours or days in seventy nine but they'd sell it out instead of adding the shows they wanted the kids who couldn't get the tickets go oh fuck we want to see this band it sold out so next year when they come back in 1980 there was even more of a demand for tickets so everybody scrambled to get those tickets and then they sell out solid two sold out shows in 1980 instead of maybe seventy nine selling one and a half shows and it doesn't look good when you go to the second show and it's only half sold out you know yeah I know I've always thought adding a show is dangerous because if you sell out one and there's only ten people the next night I saw these fuckers last night they were assholes whatever I get that by the way all chaps are assless yeah okay well I write otherwise otherwise otherwise chaps that have the ass in them they're called pants yeah hey you or I didn't call him it was Dave I'm not I'm the one with the the the chaps feather in my cap I confess I used to have some chaps one of the other things about the van Halen photos is you know a van Halen was known for for smiling a lot so in your book full of photos there they're always smiling it's always looking like a good time it's always a party but obviously there was turmoil behind the scenes you as a photographer did you ever seize any of the inner riffs that were going on well let me stop you there because with van Halen first of all when Dave smiled he looked fucking horrendous okay so when I had to go out and do a shoot for Warner Brothers with the band and if you got my second book and buys Lowe's it has a comparison so the art director they wanted to mellow out the image of the band compared to the first album so the art director Warner Brothers like with me if we need some publicity shots of the band but you know they have this tough guy image we want to make them more accessible take them to the part get a frisbee play frisbee with them and throw frisbee and I looked at the guy like are you out of your fucking mind wouldn't me look I want buy when I do photos of bands and Jason who I shot many times with dangerous toys I never ask any bands to smile because first of all if you smile like I'm old and I got wrinkles but when you smile look at my face you get wrinkles here you get wrinkles here you get wrinkles here so if you're like you get no fucking wrinkles okay so in my advice Lowe's book there's a group shot from that shoot where the guy said you know take a mouth throw a frisbee so I said okay you guys come on smile even smile and here's Dave smiling like and he looked so goofy and geeky so there's a comparison the same thing smiling the same thing not smiling so no I never really asked him to smile now a lot of times if my shoots because I got a big mouth and I'm always trying to pull whatever I could pull out of people I'm shooting you know I'm making jokes and I'm yelling at them and I'm screaming at them and everything like that I mean once I was shooting a kiss shoot and I was shooting Jean and Paul and everything this is when Jean had the rug on his head and they were all kneeling down and I'm like come on you got to give me some attitude look here look at Jean fix your hair you look like you have PAS which is a Jewish thing for people who don't know what PAS is and Paul and Jean are going to do it oh my god we had to stop the shoot for like 10 minutes because Jean and Paul could not stop laughing after I made that call so with Van Alin a lot of time we were all goofing around and joking but I was never like okay guys come on smile for me look happy look like you're having a good time but no I'm more give some fucking attitude look like you're in a kick fucking ass you just sold like three you know platinum records you sold three sold out shows at the form you got 20 chicks after the show more like 200 and 20 chicks that want to come back to the room and suck your cocks after the show give me some fucking attitude that was more the speech I give the people I was sure the smiling and the laughing I feel like is a product of how crazy fun it is to work with you in the studio or in a shot and maybe the smiling photos Dave speaks of were some of those outtakes maybe it could have been I got shot today so I really I like Dave as the rock star because and their day Dave to me was the epitome of the rock god okay I mean you know he was a genius as far as publicity stunts and knowing how to promote an image which is really there's so many rock bands out there with no image at all you know an image is important like Motley grew they gotta fucking image I mean most of the bands I wear guns and roses they have an image rat had an image boys and had an image so that's what I liked all you guys had an image dangerous for you that Texas kick ass fucking no bullshit image that's what I like I don't love me you know no offense again you get a radio speed wagon or sticks up there they don't have any image you know there's no fucking image you know so I don't want a bag on you guys musically you guys are great I love you but you know I like I said I like the bad boys the bad boys have image yeah that that that makes sense when you when you think about it are you speed wagon and sticks it was a little bit like what do you what about UFO you ever shot you know what they're wearing and how they're standing and even though they're not smiling too much right there they're wearing they they're still wearing it they're not totally glammy but I remember in the 70s like sticks there would wear the one-piece leotard spandex suit and and you know that some of the guys would wear what look like their mom's blouse and some type I know I think they were just all trying to dress like Robert Platt I don't know it just yes sticks didn't have much image you know and are you I mean I shot those bands yeah you know what's his name the guitarist was sick he's a friend of mine I can tell me yeah Tommy's great I love Tommy you know the nicest guy in the world and Jay Yonder went for that yeah you know but but that lead singer at the time he's hasn't been in the band for years Dennis Dennis yeah it's just like the band yes you know the original singer I forgot his nail I never really liked yes I mean they were great musicians but I just I mean that lead singer it come out like it was like a little fairy and was gonna fly away you know you know just that image you know and yeah whatever that's okay that's all right and famously shot this as well there are some of the photos on the back of Van Halen some of the photos and on the inside as well and you guys you apparently had some fun with the nurses is that is that fair well I didn't bone any of them if that's what you mean but one of the nurses Valerie London the one next today I was in love with that girl I thought she was like back in 78 I mean she was just incredible and then the other one if I'm not mistaken I forgot her name with the curly hair she was John Waits girlfriend I forgot her name and and then the other one actually I got John Waits girlfriend and Valerie London to be the nurses and then someone else found the other one she actually worked at the Roxy I think the other one is a waitress or in the ticket office I didn't get her but yeah that was a fun shoot you know all my shoots are pretty fun did you take that did you take that shot of Dave doing the splits and the high no you you get didn't get that this it here this is the story which once again in my end by Zlo's book I tell the whole story okay people who don't have the book so look the guy who shot Van Halen one was hired to shoot Van Halen two okay has the record company picked up I thought the photos on Van Halen one were incredible insane trend setting the band told me they never liked those photos okay yeah how did you not like these photos I mean Dave doing that and but so anyway they hired him to do Van Halen two and he rented this huge sound stage it must have been 20,000 feet at some big you know rehearsal all and he had tons of assistance and probably had five thousand dollars with a rental camera gear and lights and everything so first he shot out with the drumsticks on fire and when that was going on they called me and said hey Neil we're gonna do our second album cover shoot you want to come hang with us while we're doing this here I'm like sure so I brought a camera with me so when they were doing now me Dave and Ed were hanging in the parking lot and I was just doing some casual shots about then it's Dave's turn to do Dave Al's done they called Dave to do Dave so the guys in there and I'm now with Al and Mike and Ed in the parking lot and he shooting Dave and I guess the guy had Dave jump off the drum riser like 10 times to do the splits and on the 10th time he comes down breaks his app at his ankle and let's just say when Dave's in a bad mood you want to be around so he broke his ankle he called the whole session awash and that's it for the day they didn't do Ed they didn't do Michael so about a week week later the band calls up the guy says look we want to see what you shot and the guy brings in the photos I don't want to 10 the photos were about a minus 50 okay I have some of those photos downstairs that somehow I ended up with the worst piece of shit amateur looking things I've ever seen in my life so the band saw this shit fired him on the spot so they still got to do Ed Dave you know well Dave they got the back cover and they got to do Michael so that's when I was getting in really good with the band and we were all hanging and so I think it was Pete Angela's calls me up he to me is like the fifth member of Van Halen a genius amazing guy just one of the smartest guys in the music industry I've known in my whole career so Pete calls me now he was an L.D. back then he's a lighting director he goes and you know so we got Al and we got one shot a day but we still need Ed and we need Michael and we came up with this new thing where we want to have Dave with his broken ankle sitting on a chair inside with these nurses so would you like to finish the project and I'm like yeah so what I had to do is look at the backdrop and the lighting that this guy did for Dave and Al on the back that I had to match the backdrop and sorta even though I hated the lighting matched its low style to what that guy did on the back cover photo so I shot all the shots at Ed on the inside and back or mine of Ed all the shots of Michael or mine we shot a day sitting on the stool on the inside my and all the shots of the nurses for mine so that's how that came apart so most of its mind except for the shot of Dave on the back cover Al on the inside and Al on the back that is a serious history lesson yeah man that's good stuff we've all been staring at that album since 1970 what eight nine whatever yeah all right so there you go there's the story behind those book yeah and I'll tell you something else they were getting ready for the 79 tour and they used to rehearse at Dave's father's house in his basement so it was probably about 40 feet in length but it was probably 15 feet from this wall where Al set up to where I was standing Dave was here and I was 5 feet from day and the first song they did that day at rehearsal in the basement was you're no good the Linda Ron's that song ever Carol King whoever wrote the song I don't know I didn't like you Linda Ron it they started doing that here I had chills running up and down myself I had tears in my eye yes they did the best version of you're no good I ever heard of my life you know and then and then to me when then out came out one of my least favorite songs was out of love now it's one of my favorite Van Halen songs of all time yeah after what I learned from my mentor Buddha everything changes nothing stays the same I don't like that song back that now out of love when I hear that that's just fantastic out of love the beats and the words and everything like that oh yeah who have you worked with obviously you know Van Halen Marley crew boys and rad those guys strike me as being very comfortable in front of the camera who have you worked with that was uncomfortable that you really had to work with because being having their picture taken just wasn't very natural to them well two things you got to understand something musicians or musicians they are bottles so they don't know what to do I mean a lot of times I get these bands in front of the camera and they stand up with me what do you want me to do you know you know so I got a sort of telling you do this with your hands and you do this and put your foot here and but it's more mentally what's going on in your head so I've done shoots with bands where five guys would walk in I could always tell the drummer they'd walk in hey I'm Mick and I'm George and I'm Leroy and I'm Vaughn and and Avon are you the drummer yeah how did you know oh believe me I can fucking tell and then it was all over for Vaughn because I just pick on him the whole day because my favorite people in the world to pick on urge rumors whether it's Bobby Blotzer Tommy Lee Steven Adler even now I pick on how nice but the thing is it really doesn't matter like obviously in this on this planet you got hot looking chicks and you got ugly dogs and you got good looking guys and you guys guys that like oh fuck what happened to him so it but it doesn't matter how ugly or how hot you are it's your attitude in your mind so I would do these photo shoots with this band and you know one band comes to my mind you probably like them Jason laws rocket did you know them yeah yeah okay well they're all friends of mine and you know they were banned and you know they were they were around when Metallica started but the drummer Vic who passed away in a nice guy he was the best looking guy in that that back okay and we shoot them and I named him sleepy Vic because he always looked like he's falling asleep he just had no attitude or anything like that and then the ugliest guy in the band who may have been fat and had ten chins or whatever you know he had the attitude like yeah we're gonna be big fucking rock stars and we're gonna kick ass and we're gonna conquer the fucking world and that guy wouldn't look amazing even though he was overweight and fucking bags under his eyes or whatever but he had the attitude going so yeah man you know some photographers especially nowadays in the digital age these photographers will do shoot and this is how it goes like click click click click and there's no interaction and there's no feedback and there's no vibe and like for instance with slasch I love slasch I've known him before he was ever in Guns N' Roses but he's not the greatest poser in the world so you know what do you got I get to see someone under slasch and slasch just stand there he goes like this and usually got a few chins and shit like that you know I'm like I stick your fucking chin out in my face you know but then you're gonna kick my fucking ass so I try to portray and get these guys going and get a little attitude out of them so like you could tell by this interview I got a big mouth I could talk forever and ever I could yell and scream at anybody I don't fucking care who it is a policeman or if I saw Donald Trump I'd be yelling and screaming at him or whatever you know I don't care it's like I'm trying to pull out whatever I can so I can usually get these people to look pretty good even when they have no vibe or no attitude you know yeah yeah did you ever have anyone just refused to do like a shoot for or you know either refuse a certain location or a prop or a wardrobe or anything like that just adamantly just said no I'm not doing that no but a few times you know when I was doing album covers for people you got this art director from the record company comes up with this fucking concept that's totally ridiculous the stupidest thing in the world and then it's time for the band to shoot that day the art director comes in and he's like okay you guys I want you to do this so we came up with this idea and the band was like what I fucking do that that's the stupidest thing I ever heard of my life and they're like slows you know what we want just work your magic and let's do you know work together I don't we don't like this fucking idea that's lame you know so you know when you're a photographer like Van Halen they liked me they trusted me they knew that I knew when to put the camera down backstage when they were having fun if you know what I mean but you know what he called a lot of times they just you know that with the record companies once a year a band will come out with their album and this was the record company's chance to hire the photographer they wanted because normally they'd go for like the in-crowd photographer that year like you know I've seen so many photographers come on the scene and they rise up to the top really fast but within two years the back down you never hear of them again okay and the record companies like those you know people like you know that so or so cool and in-crowd at that moment but if you know how many times the record companies so the bands you can't make waves with the record companies only to certain degree because let's just say the record company says we want to use this photographer and then the band's like well we want to use lows and then what we don't want slows for this is especially against the record and we want Joe Schmoe because he's so cool and in crowd and you know he's got an earring in his ear and an earring in his eye brow so that's cool does so we want to use him you know so if you're a band and you make too much waves with the record company they're like okay go ahead use lows and then as soon as they get their way the record company internally goes around everybody look these guys are a fucking pain in the ass and they don't want to listen to us so we are going to promote their record and we are going to plug their record and we are going to give them any love so fuck this band so when it came time I never really specialized in doing album covers I was more a magazine even though I did album covers for Motley and Poison and Rat and Alice Cooper and I don't know I lost track of all of them I got a lot of fucking album covers but you know I never pushed to do album covers you have the band say look it's loves you know we want you but you know someone doing Joe Bloog's doing our thing is the record company and then the record company would call me up like a month later and go hey Neil you know we did the shoot for the album cover we got amazing shots for the album cover but they aren't really good for publicity use because they're too hardy and they're you can't really see their faces too good and they're all moody and the lighting is really artsy but you know for publicity we need to see the band and you know we got to give him to the newspaper and pigs knuckle ark and saw it and shit like that so we want you to do a photo shoot again with the band but we don't have any budget because we spent it all in this hot shot Huy Poloy photographer and we we shot our wad so we don't have any money really to pay you can you do some of this no sorry you know you should call me to do the album shoot so that's the way it is you know those artsy parts you guys maybe it's okay for the album cover but for everything else it doesn't work you know I get it hey before we get any deeper in and all of this awesomeness is there if somebody wanted to go like buy a print photograph of some of your incredibly famous infamous both prints of fucking anyone and everyone that you've worked with where would they go to do that easy this is a ZLOZ dot com perfect whole printing with Motley van Halen Led Zeppelin Divo AC DC Bon Jovi you name it everybody if you're looking for Beatles or Grateful Dead never saw Grateful Dead not my cup of tea or Elvis never shot Elvis everybody else is pretty much up there more rush you got some rush I got some great shots of you know Neil was a friend of mine we never we never talked about rush it was always cars of motorcycles but I have these shots from Alex Watson and getting neither from like 77 78 get he's got this double neck rickenbacker yeah and Alex you know the hairs all along they look fucking cool and shit like that but yeah that's that's the rush I like yeah I may I may have to go to ZLOZ dot com and buy me some more photos take a look at them they're really good those two shots I don't have a lot but they're really good shots of Alex and getting well I know we were talking the other day I'm sorry Dave hold that thought we were talking the other day and I know that you you mentioned that you hung out with Neil Peer quite a bit but and you never talked about rush because you're not you don't like rush yeah well I like one rut song and that's working man and Neil wasn't even in the band yeah but you know I've seen rush many guys that Tom Sawyer and all that stuff it just you know rush is a band like you need a you you see LA or a USC graduate scholarship to listen I like songs like white snake like slide it in yeah yeah I don't know yeah I repeat teas and pleasing sport and woody yeah I don't I don't want to have to think what I'm listening to music you know you don't want to take the dictionary to the arena no not at all you'll have to think with his crotch that's what all good rock and roll yeah he's below the bell buckle so I wouldn't call Eddie James and Nina Simone and that stuff her muddy water money maybe think of with your crotch sure you know some of those girls you know so but there's a photo that you shot of Steven Tyler's one of my favorites and there's a there's an image that you took I don't know if he's holding a cigarette or a joint but he's holding it like this and he's flashing his teeth and he's it looks like he's almost exhaling whatever it is he's I don't think that's mine I don't know I know it's not yours I thought I saw that on your website no but I do I did a shoot with Steven at the Beverly Hills Hotel Hotel California and we were on the grounds there and there was one of these plants I don't know because I was like when I was a kid my mother used to have these snap drag and plasma you'd squeeze the thing in a wood pop so they used to have these big long stocks so Steven got on to this plant and he had one of those stocks sticking out from between his fucking you know crotch where his cock is and he's got it like he's jerking the thing off he he was great I mean I had a lot of fun with those guys when they were all drugged out you know and Brad and Tom they're great love them you know Brad you know me and Brad we back in 76 we were all car fanatics they were rolling in the dough Brad and I think a Ferrari Daytona Roadster back there and I had an old Porsche I remember we were in San Diego and instead of him driving in the limo but the rest of the band he wanted to drive with me in my Porsche and he let my friend who later became Van Halen CPA and Eddie Van Halen's business manager but that was four years later driving the limo with the rest of the band so Brad was great you know Tom was cool too back yeah I'm a big I'm a big Brad Whitford fan he he wrote the seriously weirdo dark almost like proto heavy metal riffs super dark on toys in the attic rocks oh my god rocks and toys in the attic are I saw you know one thing about being a successful photographer is you got to pick out the bands before they get big so because so for instance Aerosmith I saw the mobile for motto who pull at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and I saw them I'm like this band's gonna be fucking big I want to work with them because once a band gets big whether it's motley or van Halen or poison all the parasite maggot leech photographers want to come out of the woodwork and work with the bands okay but when you're small and unknown you know and you latch up with them then when they go up the stepping stone ladder you go up with them I did it with Nugent I did it with black oak Arkansas which don't laugh and their day black oak Arkansas could do no wrong so I did it with black oak I did it with by Tom Betty I started shooting Tom 76 77 he was chasing back that I did it with quiet riot I did it with quiet riot once Rudy and Carlos and Frankie got in the back did it with poison did it with rap did it with guns and roses yeah all those bands when I latched up with them they weren't huge bands they just like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and the Stones they's tooled around for years and years before they ever made it to you know super startup you know people think these bands just one day they're at their mother's house you know with and their bedroom and the next day they're you know fucking multi-millionaires it doesn't work like that no I knew that was your strategy because you said so in your book that you you had an eye for bands that you believed were gonna be huge and you sort of worked your way in and became friendly with them was there ever a band or two that you felt that way about and then for whatever reason because we all know how the business works that that they didn't you know become huge but you had you thought that they had the goods they were gonna be something yeah I actually found this band by accident that I managed for a while and I thought they were gonna be huge the problem is they wrote some songs and the songs are fucking incredible they have one song love parade I'm like if YouTube got a hold of this it would be one of the biggest hits ever but the problem is I found this band in 2001 well that's when corn and limp biscuit and all those bands like that were making it big and this band wasn't like that so all the record company idiots back then their mentality is we need the next corn we need the next limp biscuit they had no you know foresight to go yeah this band writes great songs and everything we had a showcase from everybody was there Billy she and David Lee Roth warranty martini all the my friends I invited to this thing and the funny thing is two of the guys worked at SIR and so they get all this free gear so they brought all this PA and everything into this little club and within one minute of first song I'm like oh my god it was so fucking loud I couldn't hear it it sounded like shit because it was 20 times louder than it should have been in this little room and I like they blew it they just fucked up what was the name of the band or they call the time they were called floor FL O O R I mean I loved them I still listened to them to this day and then they broke up and the lead singer went on and did a little bit more now he does country which I'm not a big country guy at all that's okay I'm not a big country guy one of my favorite shoots of yours is the is the Motley crew with the the red pain it looks like blood yeah well the the stuff on all them is imitation theatrical blood but it's the highest grade theatrical blood you can get okay because if you ever back then saw these photoshoots that blackie Wallace did he had blood in a lot of them but it looked like red water okay it just didn't look that blood I bought cost a lot of money and it looked fucking if you ever saw those slides in reality I don't know if you have my Motley crew book but that's really good printing in that book and that blood on down looks fucking great but the stuff on the background was red lacquer paint so I bought some red lacquer when you could buy lacquer paint in California and we put it in little cups and we were just throwing at the backdrop because Nikki wanted me to get some pigs blood and I'm like we're gonna get fucking pigs blood you know I don't want to fucking smelly ass pigs blood yeah you know was that was that yours or was that the bands are a combination to do that that theme if you will well Nikki wanted to do something with what okay and like I said Nikki's like yeah I want to do something with blood but I had even a better idea than that after that shit because that's one of my favorite shoots I ever did in my life and back then six was one of my closest friends in the world so so was Robin and Crosby from Rhett so me Nikki and Robin were sort of inseparable back in those days we actually went to Club Med and Martinique in 1984 that's what Vince got in that accident and killed Razzle from annoying you know we were down there causing you know human destruction and everything you can imagine me Nikki and Robin and then we come back but what do you got so so you know Nikki was one of my closest friends in the world so we did that shoot and that was just over the top so then I had an idea that we had to top that so in 1985 the Olympics we're gonna be in Los Angeles so everybody was all Olympics all Olympics all dead if you gave me a front row seat to the Olympics I wouldn't go that means absolutely zero to me in the Olympics it's going on right now I think in France so my idea was okay Nikki let's go get some Olympic shirts and everything and let's fucking rip them up and set let's buy an Olympic flag and set it on fire and everything like that because we had the top the blood session but Nikki said hey slugs I think that's too over the top we better not do that I thought it was a great idea myself I mean I'm sort of even in my old age I'm still sort of a sick puppy if you know what I mean well it's a little bit it's a little bit punk rock to you know middle finger to the establishment the I mean the Olympic flag is to burn that is some would say un-American well I would never think of burning the American flag okay that I will yeah you I said the Olympic flag yeah I know that doesn't mean shit to me I get it I love the fact that the photographer is being censored by Nikki six yeah well I wasn't censored but you know I have a I have a documentary out I don't know I told Jason in my documentary I'm talking to my old partner I used to shoot photos with one or 16 17 years old and I go hey Oliver remember when you're dad when we were younger he thought we were two fags dude in my own documentary they bleeped out the word fags I mean you can go watch all in the family any day of the week which is one of my favorite TV shows along with Sanford and son and on the family Darje talking about fags and fruitcakes and spicks and coods and whoops and everything you can't say that anymore but all in the families on every day in my own documentary but you were talking about yeah you got to make it so every platform all around the world to play you don't want it to play in India or some Muslim company and you say the word fag and then they're gonna come over here drag me there and put me to death you know because I use the word fag or something but it's it's important to me for the art and the artist to be recognized and if it if it costs you an edit here or there just because you know you're you're free-thinking and open-minded and an open-mouthed like you are you free-speaking I would rather have people learn about your you're this don't feel weird because it's me telling you you're great you're greatness you know your accomplishments you're you're the the scrape upon the earth that you've left when you're low no longer here to speak your fucking mind like you like you do so well yeah yeah you do you're a bad motherfucker at that he's gonna be here forever yeah you are who have you worked with that surprised you maybe someone you weren't really familiar with and certainly not personal friends with but somebody that you know you ended up getting a job doing a shoot and you kind of like the music you were willing to do the shoot but you didn't really know anything about them and then you were really pleasantly surprised at how cool they were how how much you know you learned to respect them or any surprises in your line of work I mean yeah I could think of I'd have to think really tell us the tell us the story about Tom weights well so magazine I was working for they hired me to do Tom weights know nothing about him don't know what he looks like nothing about that so I have to go down to sunset like ten blocks from where I'm sitting here and go shoot him so I go to his management office and knock on the door go in there hi my name is Neil I'm here I'm supposed to be shooting Tom weights for this magazine oh yeah well Neil Tom's not here yet so why don't you have a seat you know and we'll let you know when you come so I have a seat over there in the corner and you like some tea coffee water and on cool and then all of a sudden I see this guy walk in the front door and it looks like some fucking homeless person and I'm like what's that homeless guy doing here I go and so I'm sort of watching to see if they're gonna call the cops and get them thrown out or whatever I see someone go up to them and then and then about three four minutes later the girl goes to me oh Tom just got here you're giving a couple minutes in all in our duty and I'm like Tom just got here I didn't see anybody but this homeless guy walk in here so I'm sitting there and back then they didn't have homeless people like they do now they're all over you know right outside here they didn't have him back then so so all of a sudden she goes like this like she goes oh Neil let me introduce you to Tom so all of a sudden I get up he takes me over to the homeless guy and I'm like hey Neil this is Tom Waits Tom this is Neil I'm gonna do the photo shoot like I got to do a photo shoot with I'm like oh hey Tom how's it going I go listen man I'm doing this a long time I'm pretty easy painless it'll be fun I go so I'm ready to shoot I go you know you want 10 or 15 minutes go get ready and shaving or anything he's like oh Neil I'm ready he's going to work right now he's going to start this thing he's gonna work like this so I mean I knew nothing about his music already so we went out into some alley in the back and I shot him there he has a little berry cab he's some wokeness here he's sort of like looking like this you know what he got so I shot some shots and then he had this like 1955 Cadillac in the back at the back seat was all just full of everything he must have been living in the car because everything was in this car like you couldn't even see the back seat or the front seat and I shot some photos of him in front of the car and you know probably did some close-ups really like looking you know whiskers like I should talk you know I don't shave too often but so we go so he was great he's fun to work with I like the guy a lot you know I didn't know what his music was like then I heard him I mean ain't my cup of tea the thing I liked best about Tom when I saw him live he was just getting up in the microphone but by the time he was done with the set there's a whole pile of trash around the microphone they were like cigarette butts and maybe empty wine bottles or booze bottles on the ground and just garbage there so I worked with Tom right of times after that okay and he used to have like there was this there was a place called the Tropicana motel where a lot of bands used to stay when they came into town like Patty Smith stood there and this band the alarm and they had like four units that people lived in and Tom lived there and had to go shoot him there once and he opened the door he had like a little path in his place that was this big room to because it was just junk and garbage everywhere along so you could not wander off that path so I love working with Tom which I don't work with him probably since 81 82 you know but he was fun to work with and quite a few people like Steve I one day I'm like hey but you want pictures of anybody you want any picture they're clapped in or anything anyway good Neil I'd love to get a Tom Waits photo from you so I've had other artists do really love Tom Waits yeah yeah it's not my cup of tea because I told you I'm a rock and roller but he's a pretty respected guy yeah oh yeah we're working with eccentric people you being eccentric yourself you're gonna you're going to attract that kind of artists I think whether you dig their music or not you know weirdos the weirdos in Rush Tom Tom Waits could be considered a weirdo depending on what your definition is but you're a bit of a magnet so what was your best guns and roses shoot well I didn't do that many I mean I did one in eighty seven where they came in to my studio and like I said they changed the 80s music scene before all the bands used to go to clothing designer like Jackie King and Ray Brown and Fleur Thermaier and they get stage clothes made and they have clothes made to do the photo shoot and then guns came in and they were about a streety black leather coat ripped up jeans fucking t-shirts like that's what I am you know I mean I basically maybe I took after Tom Waits because most of the time when I'm sitting here I look like a homeless person I like my t-shirt with holes and up and usually my pants have to tie my butts hanging out my kids like yeah you got this fucking rip in the back of your pants you're old fucking butts I go I don't fucking cares that maybe I go maybe I get lucky you know maybe maybe you're fucking lucky little movie so here my hands get off there so yeah I think that's I think that that's pretty cool that you're you're kind of a realist and probably have a little bit in common with the artist that you work with that's why yeah well some of them because I've worked with everybody but after guns when they came out and you know I heard guns that was another band this girl I know are let Vareke she was into guns pretty early and she was like a publicist sword and everything and she went to the UK with them when she came back she brought me a tape that was what they didn't even have CDs back then 87 CDs were just starting so I was working on one of my cars and my mother's backyard and I stuck the tape in the tape layer first time I heard welcome to the jungle I'm like oh my god this band's gonna be huge and when I heard Paradise City it was all over I thought this is gonna be huge so I told her let our let I wouldn't do a photo shoot with the band so they came in here and they came in and see before them to like eat you rad or you shoot boys then are usually a band halo you know they're looking in the lens trying to be rockstar and they came in there and the five guys are on the backdrop and they're just sort of talking to themselves more or less ignoring me and they're sort of giggling and not paying attention yeah I like the bands looking in the lens I'm not one of these guys you know where I want the artsy like one guy's here one guy's here one guy's here one guy's I want them to look cuz I want the chicks you know the girls like when they saw a shot of mine they'd be looking through the bag and they'd see this idiot photographer shoot you know whoever quiet right and I want the band's dad that's I called the suck me fuck me look okay so when the girls came across one of my photos they'd be I want to fuck that guy if you know how many rock stars came up to me and said slows you know of this chick I met this chick in Japan and she had one of your photos of mine I just fucked your brains out or whatever so I've gotten a lot of musicians laid in my day but so the thing is when you're all giggling and talking I mean you know I don't want to sign a slash his face or I don't want doff you know picking his nose or whatever so finally I said to now listen you guys let's work together on this okay try it my way because they were sort of ignoring me and doing their thing and so they finally after about half an hour they started listening to me and doing what I told them and looked in the lens and they were still fucking around and you know doing their thing and whatever you know they they saw the photos and once again at that point in their career they really had no real photographers except my friend Robert John was actually actual spread you know Robert did a lot of stuff but he wasn't back then a great photographer but he had access and he was actual best friends we had access to the bed and so when they saw the shit I did in the studio and they saw the lighting I used and everything I worked with them for the next three years till 89 you know a good friend of mine is this guy named Mark Canner his parents own canner's deadly on Fairfax which is the same deadly yeah Mark brought slash to my apartment in 1983 because they wanted to buy some rock and roll magazines okay and Mark lived a couple blocks away so he calls me up on the phone hey Neil Mark Canner here he's like hey you must have duplicates to some of your rock magazines I was wondering maybe I could come over and buy some of your duplicates I'm like okay fine come on by so he comes by knocks on my door I'm like hey come on in and I didn't see but right behind Mark was this guy he's like oh Neil this is my friend slash and I looked at slack he had temples all over his face he had this top hat with his hair in front of his eye you couldn't see his eye he looked like he crawled right out of the gutter and I looked at him and then I gave Mark this look like Mark okay so they're looking through my magazines and then after they got done they're like hey Neil there's this cream magazine from 1973 with Jimmy Page on the cover he goes would you happen to have that I go Mark that was the first cover of any magazine I ever fucking shot of my life I have one copy can we see it we've never seen it you know so I go find it I chose another like drooling on it and everything like that hey Neil can we buy this I'm like you guys I have one copy it's my first cover I can't sell this okay so they do me like 40 bucks for the magazines they bought and then they split so then I have to go to my library in other words I gotta go upstairs and take a dump so I'm like let me find that pre-magazine I want to look at it this is 73 was 10 years ago you know I've come a long way that was my first cover let me see what I did back then I'm looking all over for the magazine I can't fucking find it okay so I walk over to Mark's house after I finished my business knocked on the door made answers hey is Mark yeah oh you know come in so Mark comes to the door I go hey Mark I can't find that magazine I'm gonna come back at 5 p.m. you better that magazine or I'm gonna knock all your teeth out of your mouth holy shit so I come back at 5 p.m. knock on the door made answers again well Mark come in so hey Neil you'll never believe this but you know I was looking through the magazines I bought and that magazine by accident got stuck in one of the page you know fucking magazine I walked up okay wow so about 10 years ago I had this chick living with me and she was gonna write the Neil's Lowe's Hour biography and she needed the publisher wanted someone famous to write the forward so I asked last to do it I don't know what he's gonna write you know this is already after I you know this is probably in 2004 2005 2006 so he wrote you know me am I from war Tanner went to Neil's Lowe's hours I was packing famous for I'm not 1983 with the intentions of buying some magazines but when he wasn't looking we were gonna steal a few little did I know Neil was too sharp and too saw they to allow that to happen and so he wrote the whole incident and the book never came out but I still have it all you know well that's like a true slash confession yeah and but at the end he wrote you know Neil's one of the greatest rock photographers everybody in sweetheart so I couldn't that ask for a better forward you've had the book never came out but I will you one day you know and Mark Tanner you know his family's passed away so I go to Tanner's and I was called Mark on the cell phone a mark you at the restaurant and he hangs out and he he actually got some really early photos and guns and roses because he knew slash from Fairfax High School and we have actually on my photo agency we have photos a slash playing at lunchtime at Fairfax High School playing a BC ritual was in a bitch or a mockingbird yeah so yeah slash must be 14 15 years old yeah I think those I think those photos from him playing in his high school cafeteria or whatever or the these are outdoors the ones I'm talking oh okay okay but anyway I think those are those young slash photos you can you can find them online this hair is sure yeah yeah everybody steals everything online these days you know but yeah one of my favorite I could email slash right now within five minutes he'll email me back the guy's great he's one of them this guys in the world so soft but I love slash he's fantastic to work with me yeah I bet I'm a big fan of of slashes his attitude everything that he's kind of done he's just got yeah he seems really earthy and he seems to come from a good background and yeah well you know his mom used to go out with David Bowie and you know blah blah blah slash you know he didn't always haven't so good but you know I mean you know he's just great can't say enough good thing my friend slash guitar tech I don't know you know Craig the Falco we call him datehead but he's with slash every day pretty much he never stops working he's either in this blues project or he's on the road runs and roses or he's in with this rock band with Miles Kennedy the guy you know slow down slash yeah he's in a commercial or a movie or cameo of some kind yeah you know the night that that me and the toys played the whiskey just a few weeks back he was playing the Greek that night no no you were in pain but yeah I had an MRI last night at 720 I had another one I bet three and two week I've had two and three weeks to MRI well do you let's let's I mean if you're willing to talk about it are you gonna be all right yeah I'm fine you know okay I was running across the street here I used to go every morning get three oranges and eat them and one day I don't want to wait for the light so I'm running across the street the cars were stuck because the light was red but I got to the left turn lane and some guy that lane was wide over so some guy was barreling down and I saw at the last second all of a sudden I put my hands down to sort of block it it sort of hit me the oranges went flying the ambulance comes you know they take my blood pressure it's okay they take my pulse they go to the hospital I'm like nah so I hobbled across the street picked up my oranges out of the gutter across the street took them back or ate them like I tell my friends it takes more than 2,000 pounds of metal to put me under yeah I did eventually go to the hospital and they said I had my had some blood on my brain so they kept me overnight but I was okay well that's a concussion yeah well I don't know if a concussion is just a crack skull or bleeding are they wouldn't let me go until the bleeding stopped on my bruise on your brains you know you got you got shook up in there yeah I'm right motorcycles I broke this pelvis I broke this shoulder I've broken this you're the evil can evil of rock and roll photographers he was one of my items of life I would I big big fucking surprise yeah not because of his writing but he didn't take shit from anybody and he was just yeah motherfucker like people asked me who haven't you really worked with that you would have liked to work with and I say Jerry Lee Lewis because first of all I love his music and he was a badass motherfucker Jerry Lee did yeah and he was a fucking rocker wait is a matter of fact right next to my desk here's a picture of Jerry with his autograph right there that my friend who's a TSA guy at the airport yeah for me and he personally got it signed by Jerry because if you go on eBay there's so much phony bullshit autographs at Eddie Van Aylen and Paul Stanley Gene Simmons you name it all that fucking autograph shit on eBay's all fake 99% of it's all well it's a it's a racket hey I have a this is kind of a guilty pleasure that I want to ask you is have you ever have you ever did you work with kiss in the 70s yeah yeah for magazine shots right well the first time I ever shot saw kiss and I have a quote in their book history yeah which I will go all my books after history but what do you got so the first time I saw a kiss they used to have this thing and you maybe too young that a show called in concert yeah I was on Don Kersoner don Kersoner that was that was no this was in concert that was rock concert I think but I used to go to those when they filmed up okay show her you could watch on your TV and you could turn your stereo on FM and listen to the sound on your that's cool so this lady comes up to me you know I'm about ready to shoot I'm in front of the stage you know it's a TV thing so it wasn't like a show it all lights are blackers this lady comes to me hi my name someone's own I'm with Bill the coin management and we have this new band called kiss and I was wondering if you'd like to do some photos and back then like I said I'm a rock and roller when I heard the name kiss I thought like bread remember David Gates's bread yeah oh kiss that's such a nice pretty name isn't that sweet oh so soft and everything and then they came on stage and here they are with these outfits with the makeup and Jean sticking his tongue out they probably didn't blow the fire back because it was a TV TV right yeah dude I looked at him and I said to myself this is a fucking joke are you guys the real you know the boots and the makeup I go this bands in the last one month and be out of the music and I think I did a shoot with them backstage believe it or not well they are one of the longest running bands in the whole history of music what you were wrong about yeah I was wrong about them all you know so I mean I love Jean and Paul and you know musically you know not my cup of tea actually I like that song a modern-day Delilah that I don't know if you know that when it was on their last sonic boom out okay that's one of my favorite kiss songs and it's like I don't really listen to kiss not my cup of tea I love Paul love Jean Eric Singer is you know a good friend of my Tommy there I've known since the black and blue days sure and musically they were so much better with Tommy and Eric than Ace and Peter you know well those are those are fighting words in certain circles but yeah that's it that's okay that's okay you you probably don't know I don't know if you know Ryan Cook he lives in Nashville yeah yeah yeah so so cookie as I call him he plays with Ace now is for Jeremy yeah you know yeah we do we both not know me you know Phil who's in except yes I did you know that I I fronted except for a week yeah you told me what I worked I worked with Philip I work with Philip it was such a joy those guys are great Mark Daniel is one of my idols yeah it was great I don't know well he's he's the he's the the new singer he was not new anymore he's been in the band 15 years or whatever but for except yeah okay well just a little's Lowe's Hour history I went to Japan with accepted 1985 wow when they recorded that live and outside those are all my photos yeah with the udoh yes and the funny thing is before I went on the trip I was a little worried about except I had these sort of thoughts that like I didn't be sleeping in the middle of the night and udoh I thought was gay at the time which I don't think he is but I thought that they were gonna jump into hold on a second let me see you this is well I'm waiting for a doctor to call me okay that's okay yeah this is this is Andy how are you now hey Angie I'm doing a zoom podcast right now can I call you back when I get at it or when I'm done with this before it's like a little quick one yeah Dr. Lamani doesn't need to speak with you sit on Monday I'll be speaking with Pennenberg right now okay and the supposedly Michelle from Pennenberg's office call me they're trying to set me up with an Earl Bryan to look at me Dr. Earl Bryan correct okay so we're all fine right now we don't need to talk on Monday correct correct okay and ask Lilani what Brittany wants okay have a good weekend okay bye bye sorry sorry so that's fine so I went on tour with exhibit 85 and I had that in the middle of the night udoh was gonna like barge in my room and try to write me or something like that why why why were you so worried about something as ridiculous as that well because I didn't know them and actually wolf who's a great guy I just saw a monsters a rock he's fantastic yeah he's great Peter the old bass player when we went to Japan everybody thought we were brothers because we both had the Jew growth early hair and then I think your was the other guitars back then and there was session yeah but you know London leather boy that songs about you know that's well did you did you know that wolves ex-wife and my gerry Gabby wrote those lyrics yeah yeah I know but yeah that's what I hear she wrote all the song but yeah that's his ex he was with the new chick on the last cruise yeah who's super nice who's super great super great yeah he's really nice and it's funny we were watching that band the darkness yeah and certain people said I was gonna love them and other people said I was gonna hate him and wolf came in he was right in front of me and I was just whispered and I forgot what I asked me he was like here but believe it or not but I am really not a big metalhead I like listening to opera or or classical that's yeah yeah that's cool here listen to metal he's you know I like classical I don't like opera but I like classical music - I don't listen to but sometimes when I'm in the car I'm sick of listening to AM news oh yeah put on that film and I have one opera station I'll listen to I'm the same I like opera I like jazz I like yeah I like jazz and just like simple a lot of space I like a lot of airy kind of music as well I write country songs I'm a little it's in my blood a little bit right yeah yeah but the thing is is I don't sit around and listen to one kind or this kind or that kind of music it's like sometimes when I'm driving in the car you know what I listen to silence yeah yeah but where you are there's probably plenty of that I'm in Hollywood slash Los Angeles yeah arms honking and cars everywhere yeah I live I live rural now so it's easy to get out and and listen to nothing so you can probably just go out your back to one sit in the woods and drink a beer or whatever you want I wish it was that rural but it's not quite that rural so but listen I what about Tommy Bolin you know Tommy Bolin you should did you do any shit yeah that's what I thought off stage I never shot Tommy I shot okay when he got into deep purple yeah okay and deep purple is one of my all-time favorite bands I mean I saw them open for cream in 1968 that was with the original singer Rod Evans on base yeah and then it's funny because I didn't know that they got rid of them and I went to see it was this show Fairport convention Deep Purple and Rod through in the faces at Long Beach yeah and then Deep Purple gets on they were the middle band they only did four songs I got a bootlay from that show it's insane and all of a sudden you know I want to see Kentucky woman in Hush they didn't do that now it's Speed King and child in time strange kind of woman in Mandrake route and I saw them and I remember that year I had about four earaches it was summertime and then he's doing child and I'm he's like you know killing oh my oh we were in the fourth row I couldn't take it they were amazing yeah when the faces came on unreal back then the faces could do no wrong I mean they wrote that was just a fun party man yeah so but then Tommy got into Deep Purple and the funny thing is I had to go shoot Deep Purple when they were rehearsing with Tommy Bolin at SIR so here is Deep Purple with Tommy Bolin and the room right next to Deep Purple with Tommy Bolin is Blackmore's rainbow with light right next door you walk at the door areas Blackmore's rainbow with this so I'm shooting Deep Purple you know and you know and the funny thing is I remember they were trying to teach Tommy that riff and highway star did live there live there live there live there live there yeah he couldn't get it right he just not get it like Richie played but he's Tommy Bolin who says he's got a play yeah but the thing I remember most is this black dude showed up this brother showed up and next thing I see Tommy leave with the brother about 20 minutes later Tommy came back he was so fucked and next thing he invasive like okay guys rehearsal is done let's go to the rainbow and they all left the one to the rainbow you know buddy dirty you know he had his vices but Tommy Bolin I love that album come and taste the band I don't know yeah listen to that album yeah you keep moving so on that that's such a fucking great song in gypsy but not only gypsies on that's Coverdale singing well yeah Coverdale yeah I don't know gypsies on that but come and taste the band was a great album but then Tommy died you know after that I thought it was a Tommy Bolin awesome well I'm just kind of riffing on on people that you've worked with I have one final question and then Dave probably you can take it and then take us home so like the you know the idea of of either a record label shit are there any real record labels anymore or a management company or who a young band says well we want Niels lower Niels low's hour to take our photos it do you shoot do you take photos for people anymore are you behind the camera at all at any capacity at all the last real shoots I did were in 2022 one was in January with this comedian I met when I went to Las Vegas and I was gonna go see David Lee Ross final gigs but he didn't do him because of COVID and I went saw this comedian named Greg Hahn H A H N dude he's like the Beatles a comedy to me I thought I was busting up so I got in touch with him after because he was gonna play and I was like a Greg you know I saw you big as a dude you're amazing he can I make his Lowe's our print for your man cave and he's like better off Neil what would it take you to get you to do a photo show the only odd dude I don't do that shit anymore so I got off the phone with him and about 20 minutes later I was like you know this guy's like the Beatles a comedy I don't like a lot of comedians he was so funny I called him back I'm like Greg I want to do a shoot with you so he came here you went on my roof because there's no room down here and it's funny in the middle of the shoes like me we got then bow or pay pal I go why he goes I want to throw you like 500 budgets of some I go dude I don't want your money I go it's like an honor for me to shoot you like the Beatles the comedy so that was January November I actually did a photo shoot with this girl Cheri Lu she's got a clothing company called Riot stitch R I O T and this girl I used to squeeze called me I was like Neil it's Tina look I have this friend I know you like Asian girls and she's really cute she does clothes and she really wants you to do a shoot with her I'm like Tina look I don't fucking do photo shoots anymore it's wasted time I go you can give her my number and you know she can call him and we could talk about I don't want to do photos like she sort of I won't say bothered me but she was after me for four fucking months and the thing is if she wasn't so talented you know she's easy on the eyes but I don't care about that so if she wasn't so talented I wouldn't have done it so the funny thing is she came to my condo one day because we were gonna have dinner and meet and before I did the thing yeah so she comes to my front door and knocks on my door I open the door I go like this she's only about five foot four probably weighs 90 pounds soaking wet out of the shower the first thing I said I can go hi I'm Neil you know you must be sure the first thing I said I go can you sit down in that dress the thing was so short it must have been about this high up above her you know what so I didn't think she could sit down but we didn't shoot her clothes her phenomenal didn't do leather showing the spandex her clothes are phenomenal you go to her website riot stitch I mean you wouldn't wear her stuff because you want that tie but you know for the bands who wear spandex you are gonna find a better clothing designer than Sherry so it's riot stitch I think I've seen her her logo and some of her promotional stuff I've probably seen some of your photos of her just on my newsfeed so well well the funny thing is she's like Neil I was gonna make you sure I'm like Sherry I have no room for anymore you know I wear a t-shirt I have three drawers there's stuff to the gills but someone gave me a shot there's no room in these drawers they're like all folded but now I got a stack them on the folder one so she showed me this shirt it's like a bullet and some I don't know if you folks can see oh yeah yeah I was like you know it I like that shirt I have no room for it but I'm gonna take that shirt so I work today trying to give her a little love no that's great that's great it's a good that's a good image for people just listening not watching riot stitch and it's a it's a pair of voluptuous lips biting a bullet yeah I think it's cool she's really talented clothing designer cool cool that's all I'm gonna say cool well you are very talented yourself sir whether you would like to take a photograph or not anymore in your long in the tooth days and that's fine is it correct you are born in 1955 four fifty four holy shit you're old I'm real I'm gonna be 70 this year holy Christ well I'm glad that I'm glad that that we've met and been able to have this this friendship for 30 years since about 89 I'd say yeah probably 90 probably 90 do you remember do you remember we've shot with you a couple times but we did it right there at your place we did the infamous sunset shot from the roof and all that shit and and we were doing a location shoot this would have been an 89 and we had to you had somebody you this guy will drive you to the location I got a good place I want you to want to take you guys to shoot you guys and it was it was John Karabi was driving a piece a little piece a little piece of shit car and the makeup artist was his first wife Val yeah Val yeah well they used to lift four doors up the street air yeah and Ian that's when I met Ian was a baby yeah but that was that was the first time I met John Karabi was he was driving driving me in the toys to a to a location to do a shoot with you did you ever see the link to my dangerous toy shots on my atlas icons site I don't think so I'll send you a liquid before I go leave here because as soon as we're done I'm at down here I'm old I leave here at 230 it's 330 so I've been in an hour it seems like I've packed a lot of that hour I mean I could go for days talking I got a big mouth they told you you know yeah it's I think we met in 89 on I told you we did you with the back room and Austin yeah because you were you didn't live down here you were just hanging out down here you got a girlfriend down here right I had girlfriends in every city in Texas Midland San Antonio Corpus Christi Houston Dallas just that was just your little little black book that had the state of Texas written on the cover well anytime a band bonsho v motley rap boys anything and you know we're starting our tour you want to go out where you going well we want you know we're going to New York we're going Ohio we're going to Arkansas we're going to Texas I want to go to Texas you knew that girl cherry back then she's yeah that yeah that sounds familiar I think that she actually was dating Danny the guitar player for a second yeah yeah probably weight 89 pounds back then yeah yep yep yep she moved down here I still see her oh wow well good old friends well you know we're still here in Texas so you're always welcome back and I'm sure I don't would love to see you too so yeah I think all my girlfriends are dead that lived in Texas they are pretty wild girls well man we do appreciate you spending so much time with us today your your stories incredible your photographs are amazing like I said at the start of this show I'm surrounded by your work your work is in my record collection it's on my walls and I know I'm not alone you've taken some of the most iconic photos in hard rock history and we love you for that and your books are fantastic too zloz.com for books prints etc all things Niels Lozauer go to youtube and watch in your face the the Niels Lozauer story everyone needs to go to youtube and watch that it's a it's a movie it's a fucking movie and everybody's in it slashes in it zak wild is in it is it true that your son is named after zak yeah yeah zak first time I heard the name zak new guitars you know jakey lee's god new guitars for us he was born zak wild I'm like the fuck is a zak wild you know I was like what a name is that and then you know I remember joe satvian you had a kid any name of zakariah zane uh satviani so you know I figure when you got older joe's you know they're gonna call him zeezy so I thought zakslowzauer would be good zeezy but you know but people when he was a little kid they're like what's his name oh it's that oh hi zakari you're so cute I don't know that's oh it's not zakari I hate that name I hate zakari but zak school he's got him all right here zakslowzauer yep oh yeah he's named after zak wild yeah that's what I thought how old is zak now he's 28 actually he's the last photoshoot I did about a week ago because he's got his real estate license he needed a headshot I brought a camera home no light who went out in the alley against the white wall I wouldn't even consider it a photoshoot but sherry loo is the last photoshoot I did okay all right all right well thanks thanks for everything uh you appreciate this was fun let me know if you need anything yeah thank you so much man on behalf of my co-host Jason McMaster on Metal Dave along with our special guest today Neel's Lowe's our world famous rock photographer on the talk louder podcast [Music]
