Behind the Lens: Bob Gruen unveils never disclosed before Kiss and Led Zeppelin secrets

Sep 22, 2024

Although I met him in-person several years ago AND we interviewed him in 2023 for Metal Mayhem ROC, when you get the chance to meet the legend again in-person again, well, you do just that! So, you may be wondering how this goes down, right?

Well, I have a good friend who has a very successful business & about 10 years ago made the out of the box decision to decorate his offices walls & hallways with 100 of Bob's iconic photos. As Bob told me, they wanted a means for their employees to lose themselves into a place where they could break away from a stressful moment or hard work situation & gravitate to one of these many photos, even if just for a minute to distract them, change their mindset, put a smile on their face & get them to refocus. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather prefer observing an image of Freddie Mercury at Madison Square Garden, Bon Jovi in Moscow, Kiss in Japan, or The Ramones riding on a NYC subway train than any cliche motivational quote.

So how does one break the ice with Bon Gruen as another 100- plus people are vying for his time? Well, you remind him about our interview & although he brutally kills the buzz by telling you HE DOESN"T REMEMBER it because he's old & does a lot of interviews (LOL), he smiles, looks you in the eyes & begins telling stories: Gene Simmons telling him at the 1996 NYC reunion concert "Bob, there are only three words to describe Kiss: WOW, WOW & WOW", how he's needed seven storage locations in addition to his NYC loft to keep all of his stuff of 50 plus years, to how he used to carry 4x6 black & white photos of his in his early years of shooting with his phone number on the back & hand them out to people on the streets of NYC hoping someone would buy his photos. Hard to believe this is coming from the guy who shot maybe the most memorable photo of John Lennon ever taken, which BTW Bob shares that believe or not is not actually his most requested photo, BUT his photo of Led Zeppelin outside of their 747 plane (a little piece of trivia, but do you know what NYC area airport that was taken at?) - SPOILER: It's not JFK or Newark, but the tiny Teterboro Airport in northern NJ. I ask him if he's still active today & responds by telling me only of someone reaches out to him, & the phone occasionally does still ring, however most people think they don't need a professional photographer anymore until they realize they can't capture what they set out to achieve via an IPhone shot: BTW, he shares that just a few days prior he photographed renowned musician & song-writer Nile Rodgers at his home, in which A) Bob had to order Nile a sandwich on his Dime once he arrived because he was hungry B) Niles is the coolest, best dressed guy he's ever met down to his sneakers & C) The photo-shoot was over in 10 minutes, thus proving that sometimes less is more.

I stayed for a few hours like a fly on the wall, listening to his Rock & Roll tales as he signed copies of his autobiography book. When I went to say goodbye to him and his lovely wife, he said, "Walt, it was nice to see you and talk to you again. Give us a shout one of these days if you're ever in NYC, OK?" These are the perfect words to say goodbye to one cool evening!

Metal Walt

Watch our interview with Bob Gruen here:

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