Gary James' Interview With Photographer Of The Stars
Sidney Smith



Sidney Smith has gained a reputation, and justifiably so, as being one of Rock's all time best photographers. And he's photographed the best in the business. We're talking The Allman Brothers, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and the list goes on and on. We spoke with Sidney Smith about his life as a Rock photographer.

Q - Sidney, watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan changed your life. But, you didn't become a musician. Did you ever pick up a guitar?

A - Oh, yeah. Sure. Gregg Allman said something once that I never forgot. He said, "There are guitar owners and there are guitar players." I'm a guitar owner. (laughs) I play a little bit. I wouldn't call myself a guitar player or a musician by any means. I do play a mean kazoo. (laughs)

Q - And you do play the radio. Don't forget that one.

A - I do play the radio. I play records. But I play a little guitar. You know what's interesting, the old thing, boy plus guitar gets girl. I found in relatively recent years ironically everybody considers themselves a photographer. They carry their cell phone around with them and everybody's a photographer. I did notice a couple of years ago I was going through a festival near Atlanta. I had my cameras with me, the long lenses, the whole thing. I remember hearing some girls, "Ooh, he's a real photographer. Look at the lens." So, I guess boy plus camera gets the girl these days too. (laughs)

Q - As a photographer you were taking pictures of George Harrison and you were crying. When I interviewed Mick Jones of Foreigner, he would stand on the side of the stage, watching The Beatles perform and he would cry. Why are you guys crying? Shouldn't you be smiling?

A - Well, I mean look, The Beatles were my entire youth, from the time I was nine years old when I saw them on Ed Sullivan. I lived The Beatles. I sweated The Beatles. I thought The Beatles were sent down from Heaven. They changed everything. They were so much more than simply musicians. Anybody from our generation knows that. When I went to see George Harrison I had no idea that I would have the emotional experience that I did. I went there as a regular concert goer. I think I was in the fourteenth row. The tears were just rolling down my face because I thought I was watching my entire youth unravel in from of me. It just played itself out right in from of me. When Harrison sang, "In My Life", which is not even a Harrison song, it's a Lennon song, he changed the words to that to reflect on the other Beatles. I just lost it. And that's it. It was just an emotional experience all the way around.

Q - So, you weren't photographing George Harrison that night, you were watching him perform.

A - Right. I had my camera with me and I did photograph him, but it wasn't a professional gig or anything. I just went there to see Harrison in concert, never really imagining I would have the emotional experience that I did. I cried like a little, twelve year old girl. (laughs)

Q - George Harrison was touring the U.S. in 1974.

A - Yeah. I think it was maybe November, 1974 I saw Harrison. He was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He played there. He was the first Beatle to tour the U.S. I think after the band broke up.

Q - And you got to spend time photographing Paul and Linda McCartney in New Orleans. What was it like to spend time with Paul McCartney?

A - Well, that's a whole other dimension. (laughs) That's a whole other experience. After seeing Harrison I was on cloud nine and then a couple of months later it was announced that Paul McCartney was coming to New Orleans to record an album which turned out to be "Venus And Mars". So, I started making calls to every publication that had ever printed my work, Creem magazine, Circus magazine, Rolling Stone, Hit Parader, all those magazines of the day in hopes that I could just get anywhere near McCartney just to shoot a picture of him walking in or out of the studio. I wasn't even anticipating what would end up happening for me. So, I made several phone calls. Didn't hear back from anyone initially. I was a twenty year old kid, living at my mother's house at the time. Then it's on the news that McCartney is in New Orleans. He's staying at an undisclosed location. He'll be in town for a few weeks. I just thought, well, I guess it's not meant to happen. This is not my time. But then my phone rings and it's a woman in New York by the name of Lisa Robinson. She had a thing called Pop Will Survive. She had used my work from time to time, pictures of The Rolling Stones or different bands. She calls me and she doesn't know if I'm twenty years old or sixty years old. She just says to me in a very matter of fact way, "Oh, by the way Sidney. I'm not sure if you're aware of it or not," like of course I'm not aware of it, "but Paul McCartney is in town to do an album. Do you have it in your schedule to work with him for a few weeks?" So, I'm trying to keep composure and said, "Yeah. I think I can fit that into my schedule. She said, "Okay. Here's what you need to do. You need to get your portfolio together. They're staying at such and such hotel in the French Quarter. Just bring your work down there. This is the manager's name. This is his room number. Go see him. I'm sure you're got the job." I said, "What job would that be?" She said, "Oh, his album cover, the promotional photos while he's in town. The whole thing." I said, "Okay." (laughs) I hang up the phone with her and I'm jumping for joy like a twelve year old girl. I get my work together. From the time I was fifteen or sixteen I'd been shooting musicians, Rock stars. If you've ever seen the movie Almost Famous, that really, truly, honest to God was my life. When I saw that movie, Almost Famous twenty years ago (2000) or whenever it was, I looked at that movie thinking, "This is my life. Somebody made a story about my life." That movie was about Cameron Crowe, who was a fifteen, sixteen year old photographer. As it turned out, my photos would often end up with his stories, especially about The Allman Brothers Band, because I worked very closely with The Allman Brothers. But anyway, I divert. (laughs) So, I'm driving down to the French Quarter with my portfolio and I'm thinking to myself, "I can't cry. I can't cry this time. A few months ago I was crying when I saw Harrison onstage. I'm about to meet Paul McCartney. I cannot cry. I've got to keep this together. I've got to hold it together Sidney." So, I get to the hotel. I go up there. I knock on the manager's door, walk in. He looks at my work. He's very impressed. And he sits me down, looks at me and pauses and says in a very British accent, "Alright Sidney, let me ask you something right here. When you see Paul, you're not gonna cry, are you?" I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm in the Twilight Zone here. Either this guy can read me like a book or he's a psychic or what's going on here?" I said, "No. I wouldn't do that. Why would you ask me that question?" "Well, you know we just came from Nashville and in Nashville we hired a young photographer just like yourself and every time he saw Paul he started to cry and it made Paul very uncomfortable you know." And I said, "No, no. I am not a crier. I'm not going to be crying when I see Paul. I won't even ask him for an autograph. I'm going to stay very professional." So he said, "You'll meet him tomorrow." I leave the room and I'm giddy of course. I walk downstairs and I run smack into a drummer friend of mine that I'd known from working with The Allman Brothers Band, which was a whole different deal entirely. I run into Joe English. I said, "Joe, what are you doing here?" He said, "I just got hired to play drums for Wings. The drummer just quit. What are you doing here?" I said, "I think I just got hired to shoot the album cover." He said, Well, you you want to meet him?" It was just that quick. I said, "Yeah." And so we walk through the lobby to a pool area. It was one of these slow motion walks. I felt that everything was very surrealistic. We get out to the pool area and there he is, sitting out by the pool with Linda, his wife. The kids are in the pool. Every Beatle album just flashed in front of my eyes from "Meet The Beatles" to "Abbey Road". I'm holding it together and Joe says, "Paul, this is Sidney. He's going to be shooting pictures of us when we're in town." Paul looks up at me and says, "Hey Sid, sit down. Let's see what you got." So, I'm sitting there next to Paul McCartney. I'm showing him pictures. I'm sitting there thinking, "This is a very surrealistic moment for me. I'm sitting here next to Paul McCartney, showing him photos of all the Rock stars I've shot." Then Linda pulled a couple of rolls of film, I mean these were light years before digital, and she pulls a couple of rolls of film out of her purse and says, "Hey Sid, we've got these photos from home. I have no place to develop them while we're here. Do you have a dark room?" I said, "Oh, yeah." She said, "Can you take 'em home and develop them for us?" I said, "Absolutely." (laughs) So, I ran home. I'm putting pictures up. I've got Paul at the dinner table. Paul in the barn with the horses. Paul with the kids. I'm thinking to myself, "This is unbelievable." So, I go back to the hotel. I get in the elevator and boom! There he is. He's in the elevator. He said, "Hey Sid, how you doing?" I'm thinking, "Oh, shit. A Beatle has just said hello to me by my first name. I'm good now." So, I ended up spending several weeks with them in the studio. I spent Mardi Gras Day with them. They were in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. They were dressed up as clowns. I got great shots of them as clowns. One night they went to a Dr. John concert and they were disguised as clowns during Mardi Gras season. They were disguised so well as a matter of fact that Dr. John's security threw them off the stage. They didn't know who they were and they literally threw Paul and Linda McCartney off the stage! (laughs) But, that's a side story there. But this experience turned out to be the best as well as the worst experience of my life with regard to photography. The reason it turned out awry is they came when we were supposed to shoot the album cover for "Venus And Mars". The band had rented or leased a riverboat to sail up and down the Mississippi River for the entire day. Every local musician was invited. Every R&B artist. Everyone from Professor Longhair to The Metes to The Nevilles. They were all there. Ernie K Doe. Bennie Spellman. Earl King. All these old, Black, R&B guys were all on the boat. I was the only photographer allowed on the boat. I shot hundreds and hundreds of photos all day long. Pictures that were just outstanding. Pictures of them together, by the sunset, on the boat. Just beautiful shots of them. At the end of the day I thought we were still sailing. We'd actually gotten back to the dock. I really didn't know 'cause I was on the inside of the boat and you couldn't really tell if you were sailing or still. Paul was singing with the band. He was singing "I Want To Hold Your Hand". I had one camera around my neck. I had a couple of rolls of film I'd stuck in my pocket. I had my other camera and all my other rolls of film in my camera bag. I put my bag down next to me just to take this whole thing in, just to be a fan for a few minutes. Just to stop taking pictures and watch and observe and take it all in. Paul is singing. Then I went to reach for my camera bag, and it's gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Someone stole it right off the boat. I flipped the fuck out, as you might imagine. I thought I got sucker punched in the gut. I mean, I cannot tell you what went through my head at that moment. It was just a chill that went down my entire body. I ran off the boat. I didn't realize we had stopped. I didn't even realize the boat had docked. I ran off the boat looking wildly at everybody I could see, anybody walking off that boat with my equipment. But I never saw it again. I was interviewed by the newspaper. I pleaded, "Just keep the equipment and just get me the film back please." In forty-five years, or whatever it's been, I have never seen those photos appear anywhere because I've been asked many times, "Have you ever seem them?" Of course not. My guess is whoever took it off the boat threw the film away and went and pawned the cameras. I don't think they had any conception or any realistic idea of what they had in their possession, and I blew the biggest gig in my life. Within a year I quit doing photography. I was just devastated by that experience and still am forty-five years later. And there's a side note. I'll give you a funny story. In 2006 I made my own little pilgrimage to England, to Liverpool just to do the whole Beatle thing. There was a Beatles convention going on and I went to England with a Beatles tribute band as their guest. Did the whole thing, Abbey Road, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane. The whole thing. While I'm there at this Beatles convention, Denny Laine, who was Paul's guitarist in Wings at the time, previously was with The Moody Blues, Denny Laine was there speaking at the Beatles convention. So, I walked up to him afterwards and said, "Denny, you probably don't remember me, I'm sure you don't, but way back in '75 you were all in New Orleans to record "Venus And Mars," and he stopped me short and said, "Right. You're the photographer. You're the one who got your film pinched. Right. We talked about that for years." Oh, wonderful. (laughs) That's how they remember me, the guy that got his film stolen. Like I say, the McCartney experience was the best and worst experience of my photography career because I lost my innocence that day for sure. I just didn't have it in me to continue shooting pictures much after that experience.

Q - Were any of your photos used in or on the "Venus And Mars" album?

A - No. What they did was they had to go to Los Angeles a few days after the boat trip and they shot the cover of the album in Los Angeles. It was some fruit I think on the cover. There was a photo on the inside of the McCartneys as they arrived that day for the boat and that may have been my photo. I'm not sure because there were several photographers outside of the boat shooting pictures that day and I honesty don't remember if that was my photo or somebody else's, but Linda came out with a book or maybe a book came out. I'm not sure if Linda did it or the record company did it or McCartney Productions did it. The album was reissued several years ago with a big book, a photo book and in that book there were several of my photos as well as a couple of me that Linda shot of me in the studio shooting pictures of Paul. So, I feel like I got some validation, some credit. (laughs)

Q - When Linda gave you these pictures to develop, did you make some copies for yourself?

A - Oh, of course.

Q - But she owns, or her estate owns the rights to those photos.

A - No. I haven't put those out. I just made a couple of copies for my own personal use. I certainly wasn't going to put those out or claim credit for them. Like any Beatle fan, I had an opportunity to see the McCartneys at home and so I made a couple of copies for myself, yeah. Those have never been put out to the world.

Q - You think the film that was stolen was thrown out. Is there any possibility those photos may exist in someone's attic?

A - Yeah, that's entirely possible.

Q - I'm sure if those photos were found they'd be very interesting.

A - Oh, they'd be priceless. I shot literally hundreds of pictures that day, several rolls of film. They were all in my camera bag. 90% of the pictures were lost. Yes, it is certainly possible and I have certainly surmised and fantasized about that theory over the years, but realistically I doubt it. That was in 1975. This is 2020. It's just very unlikely.

Q - Did you ever travel with any Rock groups?

A - Yeah, I did. I traveled with The Allman Brothers. That's the group I was closest to. I did a little traveling with The Who. I did some traveling with Foghat. I wasn't traveling on a regular basis with anybody. There were these little side gigs here and there. "Sidney, we're going to send you to Houston to shoot The Who." With The Allman Brothers, when I was fifteen, sixteen yeasr old in their first year of existence as a band. I just clicked with them. They took me in. They took me under their wing and they liked me. It was really before they became famous. They were playing at the Tulane University homecoming dance in New Orleans. After the concert I started talking to the band. They were very friendly and I ended up parlaying that into a fifty year relationship with The Allman Brothers. Last year I came out, on the 50^th anniversary of the band, with a beautiful 256 page, hardcover, coffee table photo book on The Allman Brothers Band, the likes of which nobody has come close to putting out. This is the Holy Grail for any Allman Brothers fan. It is the band from 1970 through 2019. When I say 2019 I mean the band members, the offspring, the kids, the grown-up kids, to The Allman Brothers Band that is now on the road and there are over 450 photos in that book. It's a very high quality, top shelf book. The photos are all frameable. They're all very high quality. And it's an incredible steal at $39.95. It's easily an $80, $100 book. It's a heavy, heavy book chocked with photos on stage, off stage, studio shots, weddings, funerals, the band at home with the kids, the wives, the arrests, the fights, the poker games, the volleyball games. It's all there. It's an incredible book. For any Allman Brothers fan it's truly the Holy Grail.

Q - Since you spent so much time with The Allman Brothers, how did you find Duane Allman to be?

A - I didn't get to spend an enormous time with Duane. That was the very beginning. I found Duane to be the same way he's described by others in the band or in that family, which he was the leader. He was the Messiah of the band. He was always going a hundred miles an hour. Zero to a hundred in Duane's case was always a hundred. There was no middle ground. But he was very nice. I didn't get to know him as intimately as I got to know the others over the years because he got taken from us so early. Last time I shot Duane was six weeks before he died. They played in New Orleans on September 16th, 1971 and less than six weeks later he was killed. But I've got photos of that last meeting. I didn't shoot him nearly as much as I would have liked to. I certainly wish that digital existed back then because I would have shot a hell of a lot more photos than I ended up shooting. At the time, film was expensive. I was just a kid trying to save enough money for photography paper, film and chemicals.

Q - You worked at a place called The Warehouse in New Orleans. Why did they need a photographer? What were they doing with the photos? Were they providing them to newspapers to promote upcoming concerts?

A - It wasn't so much they needed a photographer and it wasn't so much as I was their photographer. I was kind of the official, unofficial photographer for The Warehouse. I went there as a paying customer. I took pictures and then I went and showed the promoters the photos. They said, "Oh, these are great. Okay, you're our photographer." I was a sixteen, seventeen year old kid at the time. I was very conscious of the blessing that had been bestowed upon me. I had lots of high school friends who'd say, "Hey, can I carry your camera?" I didn't want to appear to be the fan. I wanted to take this seriously. But I always retained ownership of the photos. The Warehouse could use them. They had a little magazine at the time, a Warehouse publication called In Your Ear. And, my photos were used in the Warehouse publication. My photos were used by local newspapers and magazines. When the bands would come to town I would talk to the bands. I would talk to the management. I'd make several trips to New York. On family vacations I'd go up to New York with my parents. Instead of visiting with family I'd walk the streets of New York, knocking on doors of the magazines, Rolling Stone, Circus, Creem, and those places, just to parlay my work and get published in these magazines.

Q - Were you able to get published in those magazines?

A - Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I was published all the time. When Lisa Robinson called me about the McCartney thing I had five years of solid, even though these were my teenage years, I had five years of solid photography, working with the biggest bands of the day. Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Dr. John, Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers. This is what I did. I'd spend all night long in the darkroom, developing and printing pictures. I'd go to high school the next day and sell 'em to my friends who were either at the concert the night before or couldn't go to the concert.

Q - You missed The Doors' concert at The Warehouse. Were you sick that night?

A - I don't think I was in town. By no means was I at every concert at The Warehouse. I attended some great ones and there were some I wished to hell I had been at! The Doors certainly was one of those. That was their last concert, period. They did a concert at The Warehouse and from what I heard, Jim Morrison was a mess. He was really shit-faced drunk. Right after that concert he went off to Paris and died. That's one concert I wished the hell I had been at, but I can't say that I was. But I still do have quite an assemblage of photos.

Q - You went to a Jazz Fest in New Orleans and took photos of Bruce Springsteen. What was Bruce Springsteen doing at a Jazz Fest?

A - First of all, Jazz Fest is not just Jazz. Jazz Fest attracts everybody from The Beatles to Bruce Springsteen. Jazz Fest is a combination of local New Orleans music, Jazz, Rock, Cajun music. Everything. I guess the name is kind of misleading 'cause it's not strictly Jazz by any means. But, Springsteen did the Jazz fest the year after Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, and it was a very, very, very emotional time. New Orleans was still totally devastated and coming back slowly. Springsteen did the Jazz Fest a year after Katrina and it was absolutely an emotional experience. He really, really brought that crowd together. It was like going to church. It really was.

Q - Your father died when you were fifteen years old. Had he lived would have pursued photography? Would he have intervened and said, "Sidney, maybe you should go a different route."?

A - No, no. He would have been happy. I was a kid. I was lost. I didn't know that photography was something I latched on to. He had cameras. I inherited cameras, workable cameras, and I just started shooting pictures. Instead of shooting pictures of flowers I started focusing in on people, Rock stars. Back in the day it was easier to get access to the musicians than it is today. I also had a plan. I tried something that nobody else had done, that I know of anyway. I did this with The Allman Brothers actually at the beginning. I saw they put their road crew on the album cover of "Live At The Fillmore". I started focusing on shooting pictures of the road crew as they were working and I would take pictures of them and develop the pictures and show the road crew pictures of themselves. They'd look at me and say, "You took these of us? Really?" And then they would invite me to show pictures to the band members. The old adage, if you keep the road crew happy you don't get kicked off the stage. They gave me a lot of flexibility as to where I could shoot and didn't bother me. I kind of became like a mascot. "There's Sidney. He's one of us. He's cool." I don't think they had any idea of how young I was at the time.

Q - Did those photos ever end up in a book?

A - Oh, yeah. They ended up in my book called 70-74 Plus A Little Bit More. It's available through my website, which is www.AllmanBrothersBookBySidneySmith.com, and is also available on Amazon.

Q - What is this Merry Minstrel Entertainment all about?

A - That was something I did in the '70s. I've always been a frustrated actor, entertainer. After my photography career kind of fizzled in '77, '78, I started a singing telegram company where I basically was a performer going out doing comical birthday greetings, anniversaries, divorces, whatever the case may be. I would burst into people's homes, offices, restaurants doing singing telegrams. I started off doing singing telegrams and hired an entire crew of people. We did everything from Strip-a-grams, belly dancing, singing gorillas. We had an act called the Merry Fairy. I did all kinds of clowns for kid's parties. So, it turned into an entire little entertainment company. I was actually a male stripper for a while, back in the day.

Q - You've done it all, haven't you?

A - It seems that way.

Q - You also operate Haunted History Tours in New Orleans. Are there any famed Rock musicians that haunt New Orleans?

A - Well, you know anything is possible. New Orleans is considered to be the most haunted city in the country for many reasons. Interesting story, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie bought a house in the French Quarter that I don't think they own anymore, but it used to be a recording studio. It was on the site of the original recording studio where Little Richard, Fats Domino and all these old-time guys used to record. So, you never know. The house could have been haunted by ghost musicians past, but I don't have absolute knowledge of any specific haunting. But, anything is possible.

Official Website: RockStarPhotos.net

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