The 21st Century was a lot of travel for me to photograph women and document indigenous cultures - I voyaged to various countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, Central America, and then in 2015 I was suddenly and surprisingly thrust back into the world of Rock Royalty again! The internet was alive with images of mine of Joe, Leon, Lowell George, Patti Smith. I was invited to be an artist in residence at the infamous Mansion on O in Washington DC, sold photos to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but it was 2015 that knocked it all out of the ball park.
For years, I had been gathering interviews from the women of the Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour. I felt they had never gotten the attention they should have. I wanted to do a book on the women of the tour. Nelly Nebin, Rita’s manager, told the folks at the Lockn’ Festival to call Linda Wolf, she has a lot of contact info. They were in cahoots with Derek and Susan (even Joe was also, before he died) to do a Mad Dogs and Englishmen tribute concert in Fall and wanted all the alumni to be part of it. So, Dave Frey, from Lockn’ got in touch with me asking for folk’s contacts and said they wanted to include my old photos and asked if I would also come be the official photographer for the tribute concert. Are you kidding, I said! I was ecstatic! Yes, I’ll come, I said, but only if I can shoot on the stage as I did in 1970, as part of the group.
We are huge music people in my family! Daughter, Heather is professional now. We have jam sessions at our family dinners all the time. When my daughters learned of the Lockn’ Festival tribute concert, they offered to come be my assistants. All three daughters ended up coming, and were included as part of the group, which had to be the highest high for me of many highs from that experience. I even pulled Heather up to sing with me in the choir during the encore, which will go down as one of the greatest experiences of my life! Imagine singing in honor of Joe With a Little Help from My Friends with my daughter, on stage, with my other daughters on stage watching, while Leon played piano, Derek played guitar and Susan sang?
For six days, Lockn’ was a love fest between us all, and inspired my idea to do the book. All these famous people and no egos reigned. Nothing but friendship, love, respect, and appreciation. Everyone was equally blown away by everyone else. When it was over, I wrote Derek saying I needed to keep going, to keep photographing the band, to travel with them. He thought it was a great idea and invited me and the girls to come on the West Coast leg of their 2016 tour. I just had not had enough of that energy.
2016 turned out to be a big year of music and photography for me. Plus, my Tribute: Cocker Power book was in coming into full production. I spent my days scanning the old negatives from 1970, developing the 2015 and 2016 digital files, contacting designers, determining a schedule that would bring the book forward in 2020 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of JCMD&E. At the same time I was offering images to Jesse Lauter for the documentary of the Lockn’ Festival concert, and to Bobbi Jo Hart, who was doing a Fanny documentary. In March, I traveled to Massachusetts to honor June Millington at a tribute concert for her. And in the Fall, Maestro, Taj Mahal and I led a 40 person music trip to Cuba. That was iconic to say the least!
From 2017 - present, it was TRIBUTE: Cocker Power 24/7, with a few photo side opportunities to work with some of the great people I met at Lockn’ — Warren Haynes, Chris Robinson, to name two of the greats. When I say work, I also mean be with! Warren, especially, became a friend from the get-go. He even did a near two-hour video interview about his teen years for the non-profit I founded, Teen Talking Circles, which if you are a Warren fan, you need to watch. Click this.
And now, as 2020 begins, it’s full on book promotion, book releases, and touring. I’ll be seeing you all in NYC, LA, SF, Tulsa, DC, and Europe. Dublin, watch out, I’m coming! Sheffield, it’s only a matter of time! “It’s only Rock & Roll, but I like it!” I do love it!