Gary James' Interview With Photographer
Tony Mott



Tony Mott has photographed some of Rock's biggest names. We're talking Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. We spoke with Tony Mott about his career as a Rock photographer.

Q - Tony, you never intended to be a professional photographer, did you? You worked as a chef on a cruise ship, did you?

A - Yeah, I worked on a cruise ship. I went to India in the '70s and I had an art student teach me basic black and white processing and printing. I was basically doing portraits in India and Nepal, but I always had a love for photography and love of music. Sydney (Australia) in the early '80s had a very vibrant 'live' music scene and as a consequence I started going to see 'live' bands and somewhere in that I thought that must be really, really difficult to photograph and hence I became a Rock photographer.

Q - Originally, didn't you want to photograph places?

A - No. People in places. Over the years I've always wanted to be a good landscape photographer and it's quite obvious I'm not. I'm much better with people than I ever was with landscapes. I've just come back from the Himalayas and I can photograph the people of Nepal, but my photos aren't that great of landscapes. It's a different art form.

Q - You toured with The Rolling Stones three times?

A - Well, Mick Jagger once, solo. He did a solo tour of Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia in the mid '80s and as a consequence of that I got invited to tour with The Stones in '93 and '95, once again in Australia and once in Europe.

Q - Why did Mick Jagger's manager seek you out to be Mick's tour photographer?

A - They were touring Australia in '86 and they rehearsed here (Australia) and they were looking for a photographer and basically the manager went through the street press and saw some of my photos, contacted the magazine, contacted me and asked me if I wanted to be Mick Jagger's tour photographer, which was a little bit over the top for me at the time because it took me a few minutes to work out this guy was real. I thought, "Who the hell is this?" Not believing they wanted me to tour with Mick Jagger. As it happens, it was true and the next thing I knew I was on the road with Mick Jagger.

Q - Did you have full access to The Rolling Stones when you toured with them?

A - Absolutely. Yes. The Rolling Stones were incredibly generous. I was given a brief that basically said you're the fly on the wall. It's a fine line. They don't want you to annoy them, but at the same time they want you to document everything. I was constantly shooting them. They couldn't have been more generous than they were.

Q - Did you have a chance to speak with Charlie Watts? I'd think he'd be the one with the stories.

A - Well, over the course of three months on the road I chatted with all of them. Mick was the easiest to chat with by far. He's sociable and quite widely read and has different interests. Keith really only wants to talk to other musicians and a photographer is really not his bag. So, I really didn't talk too much with Keith. My memories of Charlie are basically him being bored shitless, waiting to go on stage, just the whole process of hanging around. But he had a huge interest in horses while he was in Australia. I couldn't believe how cheap he was getting what he considered pedigree Arabian stallions. So, it was a very bizarre, surreal conversation of him boasting of the horses he bought.

Q - What did he do with those horses?

A - He took them back to England and breeds them in England. That's his thing.

Q - You also toured with Bob Dylan and Fleetwood Mac. How did those tours compare with The Rolling Stones?

A - A very difficult experience. Bob Dylan was the opposite of what The Rolling Stones were in regards to photography, not generous at all. Elliot was his manager at the time. I was told Bob didn't like to be photographed. I would have to be as subtle as humanly possible. I shot a portrait of him in the Brett Whitely Art Gallery and when I asked him for a bit of eye contact he just completely ignored me and no words were spoken, but there was no eye contact what so ever. And 'live' I used to wait for the crowd to go to the front. Usually when he did "Knocking On Heaven's Door" there was a rush to the front and I would go in and try to hide myself even though I was the official photographer amongst the crowd. He spotted me one night and he wasn't amused. (laughs)

Q - Tough being a photographer, isn't it?

A - Well, that didn't bother me that much. That's fine. That's his modus operandi. I'm shooting Bob Dylan and I feel very good. So, it didn't bother me. But it was peculiar that I was being paid to shoot him and I was hiding from him basically. Whenever people ask me about touring with Fleetwood Mac I always say it's very difficult touring with the insane.

Q - Why do you say that?

A - Stevie Nicks is without a doubt eccentric or possibly insane. John McVie is incredibly quiet. He's incredibly backwards in coming forward, but a lovely man. Christine McVie without a doubt was the musical director. She made all the major decisions as in when they were doing the set list at the sound check she seemed to be the one in charge. Mick was unbelievably eccentric. You have conversations where you weren't quite sure exactly what he was on about. (laughs) Strangely he apologized to me on several occasions for his behavior. And the reality is he hadn't behaved badly, just eccentrically. They were great people to tour with and they were really pleasant. It's just they were slightly eccentric.

Q - Why did you say that Stevie Nicks is insane? What did she do to make you think that?

A - She perpetually sang "Happy Birthday" to me even though on more than one day I mentioned to her it wasn't my birthday. It didn't seem to matter to her. We had conversations again and I was never quite sure where she was coming from. I think it's fair to say she's left of center.

Q - What are you doing these days? Are you still a photographer these days?

A - Yes. I'm shooting Mid Oil tonight. I did Bruce Springsteen last year when he did his Australian tour, but not as perpetually as I used to be. I used to be literally shooting almost perpetually and that has changed.

Q - Do you participate in exhibitions of your work?

A - I've got an exhibition that's touring Australia at the present time, an retrospective of my work. I've done five books and so often I do exhibitions to promote the books when the books come out. So, I've got an exhibition that's currently touring the country, but my main career film wise is I do stills on movies. I married a film producer and she makes me work!

Official Website: www.TonyMott.com

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