EXCLUSIVE: How George Harrison babysat Bob Dylan, Tommy Lee nearly froze on a glacier, Sinatra grabbed Dean Martin’s butt and Stevie Nicks almost fell off a roof: Rock photographer tells the stories behind music’s most iconic pictures
Renowned photographer Neal Preston’s new book, Exhilarated and Exhausted, documents his lifelong career taking pictures of rock stars on and off stage
‘I’ve been beyond blessed,’ Preston, 65, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. ‘I had the opportunity to do what I love'
His work space is lined with filing cabinets containing at least a million photos he has taken - the first of his 122 cabinets is marked Abba-Aerosmith, the last is Young — as in Neil — to ZZ Top
And he has photographed just about everyone in between — one exception being John Lennon
'Gregg [Allman] was unlike anyone I’d ever met. He exuded an ethereal magnetism so strong it cut through the druggy haze that always seemed to envelop him.’
He snapped Rod Stewart getting make-up for an appearance in drag. 'I told him he looked like an older Miss Moneypenny,' said Preston
He tells how he shot ex-lovers Bob Dylan and Joan Baez - 'she is the only person who could get away with tousling Dylan’s hair' and how Kiss lead guitarist Ace Frehley was so drugged up he could hardly walk
By Martin Gould In Burbank, California For Dailymail.com
Published: 14:18 EDT, 17 October 2017 | Updated: 15:07 EDT, 17 October 2017
It’s one of the iconic photographs in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. The four members of the band Kiss, in full make-up, making snowballs as they sit in the white stuff with a cheesy Christmas scene behind them.
But like so much in showbiz, all is not as it seems. For a start it was taken in October in Los Angeles, so the snow isn’t real. Instead it was plastic polyurethane, a toxic compound that it is no longer made.
And while Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley were happily mugging for the camera, the fourth band member, lead guitarist Ace Frehley, was so drugged up he could hardly walk.
Photographer Neal Preston knew he had to move fast or Frehley would be lost to the shoot, but as he went to grab a lens, he heard a thud. He rushed back only to find ‘Space Ace’ face down in the poisonous material, which was slowly turning red as he coughed up blood.
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