THE MIKE HAUSMANN INTERVIEW
INTERVIEWED ON OCTOBER 6, 2001
Lisa: First of all tell us about yourself, your name and how you got started with Journey and how it all began and what's your education and background.
Mike: My name is Mike Hausmann and I started out doing concert photography as a hobby. I bought my own tickets, I went to my own shows, back, in the mid to late 70's you could bring a camera into a concert. They allowed any kind of still cameras into a concert, although they wouldn't allow any video. Video equipment was very basic back then, and they were huge and you couldn't sneak a video camera and you couldn't bring video equipment or sound recording equipment into a concert but you could bring a camera in.
In a nutshell, I had a friend, that was a ticket agent and he specialized in getting 'hard to get seats' and most of the time if I bought one ticket, if I bought a single ticket, I could get within the first five rows of the stage for major concerts. Led Zeppelin, Paul McCarthy, David Bowie, Aerosmith, things like that and so I would buy one ticket and go and shoot these concerts.
It was a hobby, totally a hobby, I enjoyed it I loved the music. I started quite a collection of photos and…
Lisa: I was going to ask you what you did with them since they didn't have a big market for them back then, did they?
Mike: Well, at first it started out I did it just as a hobby, I collected them myself and I had photo albums, with these are my favorite groups and then I had a situation where the guy that owned the ticket agency that got me the tickets allowed me sell some of my photos out of his agency. That was generating some decent money, my apartment was actually more of a dark room than an apartment, a total lab almost, so I would go to these shows and on the weekends I would spend time developing and printing my own stuff. My little sister, to bring in the Journey connection here, she worked in the box office of a small concert hall in southern California and she was the ticket seller. She had overheard a few conversations with some of the concert promoters about how flaky the photographers were that they had hired and they said 'these guys never come up with the material after the show, they are just there partying, we just never hear from them again a lot of the times and when they do come back the pictures are real crummy' and my little sister told them about my hobby.
That I did this a lot and they asked to see some of stuff, I came in and showed them my portfolio and they basically hired me on the spot and I met a lot of up and coming bands there were in the southern California area and one of them was Journey, and one of them was Van Halen, and the Runaways, Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, quite a few. I should have made a list. Anyway, I met a lot of these bands when they were just making a break into the business, and like I said Journey came through there.
The first time I met them, Steve Perry was not with the band, and I met all the guys and I knew them well. As much, you hang out with them for two or three shows and, you know, you kinda part of the group, you know the working group. They had roadies, you know they have lighting guys, and they have photographers. So I was kinda part of the show and I enjoyed that it seemed real fun.
And the next time Journey came through, I'll say 76' maybe 77 in there, I am not real positive about those dates.
Lisa: How old were you when this was going on?
Mike: I was probably 23 or 24. In that area, 22, 23 or 24. Actually I started doing most of the serious shooting for my hobby, when I was probably about 18 or 19. I have been doing it for quite a few years before I started doing it for money and it wasn't a lot of money but it was fun. A lot of people would enjoy a job like that I am sure.
So when Steve Perry came through with Journey the next time they were in southern California and playing at just little local clubs, they were getting big. Their first album came out, I think it was Infinity, and with Steve on there with them they were a hit. They were huge, it was just snowballing so fast. It was just unbelievable and one of the guys that worked for a small concert promoter in southern California was recruited by Journey to work for them.
Up in San Francisco is part of their administrative staff and he is the one that referred me to them. His name was Jim Hernandez.
Lisa: Okay. That name sounds familiar. I think that I have seen that somewhere.
Mike: Yeah, if you look in a couple of the tour programs there is a picture of him in there and stuff. Anyway, he was a friend of mine and he enjoyed my work and thought that I was really a professional and I came through every time and my stuff was really good, he referred me to them, and then I was called by Herbie Herbert, Journey's manager.
Lisa: I was going to ask you about him.
Mike: I got a call from Herbie and he asked me to come up to San Francisco and show him my stuff and talk to him and interview with him, and so I did. I went up there and I had an afternoon with Herbie, hanging out.
Lisa: What did you think about that?
Mike: I was excited, I thought, you know, now at that point it still hadn't really sunk into me how big they really were. I think they were, you know being around some of these bands I shot for, I liked the music too. I first I didn't really know that much about Journey. I had a couple of friends that were into them and probably more into the original band before Steve joined. It was more of a cult type band, they had a small following but very dedicated and you know, Gregg Rolie was from Santana.
Lisa: And Neal.
Mike: And Neal. They had a built in audience already from the ex-Santana days. When Steve joined it just went out of control. Back then at first, when I first started talking to them they weren't really doing arena shows, or anything yet it was still in the formulation stage and so, I met Herbie and Herbie liked my stuff and invited me to do some of their shows, and see what I could come up with and so I did a couple of small shows.
One of the first shows that did with them was a free concert at UC Berkley and they videotaped the concert. It was actually, in those days, back at the very beginning Journey was one of the first bands that got a Corporate sponsor for their tour.
Lisa: So that was Budweiser?
Mike: Budweiser.
Lisa: Yes, I remember that.
Mike: Yeah there was plenty of beer.
Lisa: I remember that there was a big stink about that too.
Mike: Yeah and it didn't work out because Journey's management, this is what I heard, I wasn't privy to those conversations but what I had heard being as close as I was to the organization that they didn't want to convey the image of alcohol and the fans and so at first, it was great, everybody had Budweiser shirts and stuff.
Lisa: You didn't take any of those picture ads, did you?
Mike: I didn't take any of the picture ads but I took, in one of the Budweiser Rock Bills I took about four of the pictures, the live concert pictures, inside of it and my name is in there. They did a video shoot up at UC Berkley and it was funny because they lipped synched the tunes and it was very difficult to get them right. To make Steve's lips look like he was mouthing the actually words, it looked like an old Godzilla movie or something.
Lisa: That's funny! I didn't know they did that.
Mike: They were recording, you know this was back when MTV was fairly new and to get that sound they wanted, you know, to get the exact sound like the original recording had, it is very difficult live to record something like that, with the crowd. The crowd tends to drown out the sound system, and so, anyway that was my first real big event with them. That was pretty fun. That was of the first shows that I did with them where I was actually allowed to stand on the stage while they were playing.
Lisa: Oh Gosh!
Mike: And you know you're still limited, obviously you can't walk up to Steve while he's singing, but I had access to behind them, on both sides of the stage to shoot from and basically after that it started to be big arenas. It started to be like the L.A. Forum, it started to be like the Oakland Sports Arena and it started to get, just bigger and bigger shows, then it got to be stadiums shows. 65,000. 70,000 people at these shows and it, was just overwhelming. I remember, probably the biggest thrill was one of the shows I did. I worked on the West Coast. I went as far as Las Vegas with the band.
When things got going really big and it was huge they were starting to get huge in Europe and Japan, and I only joined the band when they were on the West Coast. That was where I was based out of near Los Angeles and so, when they came to town they specifically asked for me to do their shows and at first it was just me and a few other photographers. There was another guy from Rolling Stone Magazine and a couple of other independent, freelance guys like myself that they allowed to shoot. But I was the only one that they actually hired and the reason that they did that was because they would rather me shoot as much as I could and then I gave all the slides and negatives to them.
They just took the raw film from me at the shows and so they had their own library of photos.
Lisa: So you didn't develop anything yourself? They did that?
Mike: I shot some of my stuff on my own here and there but most of the stuff, in the beginning I had pretty much free range to do what I wanted just do this. Shoot as much as you can and go for bulk. Before they had hired me, they were buying individual photos from freelancers. And it was quite expensive, these guys thought they had something really special and they were just tired of that. They wanted to have immediate access to their own library of photos for various magazines or their tour programs and things like that.
The time process was just too involved as far as when they would have to buy things individually from freelance guys so, anyway, like I said the shows got bigger and bigger and bigger. And one of the biggest thrills was the L.A. Coliseum show that I did, it was almost 70,000 people. If you can imagine an outdoor concert in a place where they held the Super Bowl at, that size of place, not only were all the seats filled but the playing field also was wall to wall people. It was just overwhelming that many people.
When I was with them that was one of the biggest shows they have done so far and it was multiple bands, there was Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, and Blue Oyster Cult, there were several bands, I think that played that bill for that big of a outdoor event. You could feel it, everybody knew that this was big, everybody just had goose bumps, it was just massive. There were so many people and to heard that kind of crowd come alive during a special moment in a song or something was just, you know, it was just hard to describe.
In my mind that was one of the best shows they ever played and everybody knew it, you could tell the band knew it, the audience knew it and everybody knew it. It was just very wonderful. It was a great moment for me with them.
Lisa: Did you ever see any nervousness on their part?
Mike: Never. They were so, they were so calm and relaxed and professional. To me, watching these guys, like to watch Neal Schon warm up and play guitar and get ready for a show, it was like riding a bike for you or I. To him it was so natural. Listen to Steve warm up his voice and stuff. The only guy that I could ever see that could make
like ten syllables out of the word, 'What.'
Lisa: He can take a word and make six syllables out of it!
Mike: It was hard to describe. There was a reason why they were so popular and it was because they were so very talented. And I worked with a few other bands during that time, I worked with Van Halen, I did some stuff for their management a couple of times and did some big shows. I think the guys in Van Halen were very cool, David Lee Roth was a little weird, very standoffish. Some of those stars, you know, they are big.
Lisa: That leads me to my next question. How were the guys in Journey to work with?
Mike: They were just like regular guys. They were just normal, very normal. You could talk to them very easily and one of my favorite guys was Ross.
Lisa: He's very funny.
Mike: I loved Ross he was extremely funny. We did a show at the Ventura County Fair Grounds and I think it was 1981, this was one of the last shows that I did with them. I connived one of the road crew to get me an extra pass for a cousin of mine that was in town. I thought that would be fun for him, he's never even been to a big concert like that, to get him to go with me and I got him backstage. Obviously he couldn't go on the stage anyplace but he could go back stage and mingle with the guys.
It was funny. I got my cousin into the show and he was sitting, in like a reception area, that had nice furniture that was all set up and a full bar and food and everything. I saw my cousin over there and he was talking to Ross. This guy is a little shy and he had no clue as to who Ross was and I can overhear him telling Ross 'how his cousin snuck him into the show' and I'm waving my arms, 'no, no! Don't tell him that!'
It's pretty much like, you can get tickets for your friends but it's hard to get them backstage. So anyway he's telling Ross 'that my cousin snuck me in here. I don't even know who these Journey guys are and stuff!' He's laughing and Ross is rolling his eyes and laughing and he's looking at me and so I went over and told my cousin, 'you know that was the bass player for Journey' and he was just totally drained of color. He was like 'oh my god!' and Ross was laughing and we explained it to him and it turned out to be a great story later.
Lisa: Did anybody ever tell you what you couldn't shoot? Certain angles?
Mike: It went the opposite way. At the very beginning I had full blown access to anything I wanted to do. I could go anywhere I wanted, anytime I wanted. One thing you could not do and nobody was allowed in the dressing rooms before and after the shows. Because it was like, they were warming up, they were loosening up mentally, and you know it was just the band that was allowed in the dressing rooms. After the show it was the same way but after they came out you go anywhere you wanted.
When I first started working with them they would actually take me around to all the security people before the show and show them who I was and tell them my job and basically tell them that I could go anywhere, anytime I wanted. So it was really much that I was set up to do whatever I wanted. To go from one extreme to another, towards the end they were so big and they had so many people shooting all the time, I'm running around, there are ten Japanese guys from a magazine in Japan in front of me. I can't shoot because they are blocking me, you know, they started letting everybody in. It'll be magazines, newspapers, you name it, from all over the world. It got pretty complicated and then they started having me shoot, like three shows in one week, they would want me to do just Steve Smith. They don't have enough pictures of him.
They need some endorsements, 'Steve Smith Plays Elijan Drumheads' or something and they want merchandising shots. So towards the end it got real complicated and real precise about exactly where they wanted me to shoot and what they wanted me to shoot. It sorta stopped being fun about that time because I couldn't do what I wanted. I remembered I spent a whole concert up in a scaffold on the side of the stage like clinging on, I wasn't very comfortable. So it went from one extreme to another.
Lisa: So I bet you got some interesting stories to tell!
Mike: Yeah I was trying to think of some funny stories and I remember one of the stories was my favorite, was that, you know Steve was extremely, you know popular. He was a short guy.
Lisa: That was what we heard!
Mike: 5'5 or 5'6 something like that.
Lisa: Oh no really! We thought that he was 5'8 or something like that!
Mike: Oh no!
Lisa: Oh no!?
Mike: Little guy.
Lisa: Oh really? He's like 5'5?!
Mike: Oh something like that. He was just a tiny thing!
Lisa: Oh my god! Oh man.
Mike: Small guy. Neal was too. Neal was small but not as small as Steve. Steve was pretty small. I'm 6 foot so I just felt that he was small.
One of favorite stories was, we did a show in Ventura at the County Fairgrounds there and it was with Billy Squier and Steve had a problem everywhere he went he would get mobbed. He couldn't move around freely.
I had come out of my room to go downstairs, normally what we did we had a whole floor at the hotel, and they had security right there at the elevators on the floor that the actually band and support people were on. So if somebody got off the elevators they were stopped immediately and 'hey, who are you?' 'What are you doing here' this and that, cause there were people running all over the place looking for Steve a lot of times.
Lisa: Oh well, I would probably be one of them!
Mike: I went and got on the elevator and I was going to go downstairs and get some breakfast or something one morning. Before the door closed a hand came in the door and stopped the door, and it was Steve and some girl and another guy. And Steve was in a full on disguise! He had a trench coat on, he had a baseball hat on with all his hair pulled up into it and he had a fake mustache on and sunglasses!
And I'm looking at him and I'm going, 'that's a pretty bad disguise!' I knew who it was! (Laughs.) I knew who it was so to me I didn't pay much attention, I was more entertained then wondering if his disguise was going to work. Anyway, we were on the eighth floor of this hotel and as we're going down, we stop at a floor, the door opens and , these three girls run in. And their like, 'we know he's in here, I know Steve is in this hotel somewhere! And we're going to find him!'
They didn't even know it but he was standing right behind them and they were just so excited! And they were describing, they were going to pinch his butt and try to kiss him and do this and they had all these plans, if they saw him what they were going to do. And then as we were going down in the elevator we started gathering more and more people. We were stopping on floors getting people and it was all girls, all looking for Steve, and he's back there thinking 'Oh my god, if they realize..' and I was thinking the same thing if they discover it's him he's dead. He stuck in an elevator. They were going to maul him.
And so I kept looking at him and I was laughing like 'I control your life right now!' And he looked very nervous. That was a funny story. Another funny story, one of mine favorite things, we did a show in Las Vegas at the Convention Center.
The pictures that I have of Steve that have become very popular are the ones that they like how his hair looks. They liked how his hair, was liked poofed up and it seemed to me that the more popular he got the more poofed up his hair got. The guys in the crew, the stage people, the road people, me being the photographer, the sound and light guys everybody started teasing him. Saying he looked like Rod Stewart or something, it was just kidding you know.
Lisa: What year was this?
Mike: I think this was in 1979. Everybody starting kidding him, 'oh you must like Rod Stewart' because you have this hair. Your hair is looking more like 'Rod style' and he used to laugh and he had a great sense of humor. I thought that Steve was for as big as a star he was, he was so easy going. Especially with the guys that were with the group, the crew and everybody, you know, I felt that he was just one of the guys. When before, actually the show was going on he was the star, but before and after he was just one of the guys, doing his job.
Anyway, we kidded him to death, he had a great sense of humor I felt. Some people were calling him 'Rod' at first, you know, we were just having fun. So anyway, we did the show in Las Vegas. Steve does his sound check, all the musicians do their sound checks get their instruments all dialed in, all the lights and the sounds dialed in before the show. Everything set and then they just take off and go and have dinner. The shows don't start until 7 or 8 o'clock at night a lot of times, then they come back and just go on stage. Everything was set up and they left, and somebody went out, this was a conspiracy of everybody and all the crew.
We went out and somebody drew, in chalk, on the stage, 'Steve And Rod' with a heart with an arrow through it! The stage was high and the floor was general admission or something like that, I am not sure what the deal was, but I don't think that there were any seats on the sides where you could see the stage. We drew this on the stage, a huge heart with Steve and Rod and when he came out, when the lights went down, and he came out on stage and the lights went on and he saw this thing you could just see that he just froze!
He just went 'oh my god!' Everybody was laughing! Everybody from the road management, to the secretaries they were just hysterical! Just to see his face because he froze! He came out and saw that. I think he also tried to erase it as he was dancing around in the middle of the stage!! (Mike laughing.) He had a good sense of humor, he didn't come down on anybody for that.
Lisa: I can just imagine what the other guys in the band thought when they saw that!
Mike: They were hysterical! Because everybody was kidding him, you know, and it was a fun thing because everything was positive, everything was growing, everything was gaining momentum. I probably done in the three years that I was with them. I have probably done about 3 dozen shows. I obviously was very close and I saw more that other people see and I never saw a bad show. Never saw a show where they weren't happy with their performance or anything. They were always just very professional and top notch. I never seen any of them, you know, too out of shape to do the show or had a rough night the night before. It was pretty much a business deal. They were very serious.
It wasn't one of those deals that you hear about with so many bands today that go from obscurity to like, you know, stardom within weeks, you know these guys have been around a long time and it showed.
Lisa: Did you do any album covers?
Mike: No I didn't do any album covers. The studio shots and promo shots they had on their bio pictures and stuff were all done by professional studios. I specialized in the concert stuff. I used a lot of special effects, filters, color film and that was what I was the best at. In those conditions, you know it's dark, the lights change constantly and I was probably one of their better photographers that was able to adapt to changing lights all the time and using filters to get special effects. That is where they kind of used me mostly. I also did like candid shots, of parties after the show, and I was kind of the guy that was always around with the camera and when something funny happened or stupid happened, 'where's Mike we need a picture of this!' Somebody's foot stuck under the bus or something.
I shot a lot of candid pictures of Herbie and Pat Morrow, the road manager, just them hanging out with people, you know, that's what they wanted. They wanted a family album type of situation.
Lisa: So you didn't accidentally take pictures of things you shouldn't have?
Mike: If I did I never seen them. I'll tell you, if I could of I would of! I was the kind of photographer and I still am, the one that is going to run in and take the picture if nobody else will.
Lisa: I thought it might be, something like, uh oh, you didn't take that picture did you?!
Mike: I've got one picture that's pretty funny and for a lot of people it's just hard for them to realize these guys were just normal, average guys. There are like gods to some people, and to me there were just regular guys. I would be standing around waiting for something to happen and I would shoot some pictures of them just standing around, or whatever and I have one picture of them, there were doing a sound check in some big arena somewhere and they were waiting for somebody to dial in on the sound and one of the people from the back came out and brought a fruit basket and they started handing out fruit to everybody.
And Neal and Ross both took bananas and they were eating bananas and I ran over and I said 'look guys' and they started acting like monkeys running around the stage so I got a couple pictures of them. Eating bananas and acting like monkeys, so yeah I have some stuff like that. That I have seen, I even have a couple of prints of that. It was entertaining to me at the time it wasn't like 'oh these are rock and roll gods' sort of like these guys faking like their monkeys.
Lisa: It sounded like that it got pretty crazy sometimes, what with all the crowds and such. Did it get kinda of scary sometimes.
Mike: No. It was more of a happy thing than a scary thing. These days the concerts that I've been to, I have been to a few physical shows. One of favorite bands these days is a band called Offspring, they are from southern California and they are very popular. They have sold millions of records and I have been to a couple of their shows before and they are, there are mosh pits, have you ever seen a mosh pit or ever been in one.
Lisa: Uh no.
Mike: Well, okay it's like a cross between square dancing and WWF!
Lisa: Oh yeah, I have seen them.
Mike: Without the ropes around the thing. People just run around and run into each other and bounce off each other and it is very physical, and the music is very driving and I guess that it is from one extreme to another. The other extreme would be a Journey concert where the whole audience is singing and clapping and waving their hands and everybody is pretty subdued. There's never like a, rush the stage, type deal. Like you would see in a AC/DC concert or anything. But the audience, you just never heard so many people singing along with the songs. To me at that point when I started seeing that I started realizing how big they were. Was when everybody knew the words and everybody was singing them.
Lisa: Did you ever see anybody throw anything on stage? I know at one time that Neal got hit with a beer bottle.
Mike: I have been hit with, uh, with some panties before. They used to throw the underwear on stage and I remember one show, I was shooting from an orchestra pit, at the Forum they had a plywood barrier between, that gave about several feet between the stage and the audience. It was about a six or seven foot high piece of plywood that ran the whole distance of the front of the stage and it was just for that purpose, for security, so nobody could get on the stage. Anyways I was shooting from the pit when something hit me in the back of the head. I looked down and it was a little pair of underwear and it had a note pinned to it and it supposedly was for Steve and it was from three girls that had their hotel room and the name of the Hotel where they were staying at. I picked them up and looked over the barrier and there was these three girls standing there very discouraged that their underwear didn't make it on the stage (laughs). They were pointing for me to hand it to Steve and I think it ended up in the underwear lost and found box. I never saw anything and it wasn't physical at all.
I didn't see anything come flying across the stage even when Journey was sharing the stage with several other bands to which obviously the fans weren't there to see them. It was very subdued I thought. I never had anything chucked at me.
Lisa: I bet they were wondering who you were. Who's this guy?
Mike: I wasn't actually, in front of the stage, but a lot of the times they couldn't see me because I was down below the barrier. I would be shooting straight up and then I would get off to the side. I couldn't actually, I wasn't allow to stand in the front of the stage and stand on anything where I could be seen that well. I knew they didn't want that. And I was told that. It was a lot of fun. I miss it and actually one of my friends, this is kind of interesting, a few weeks ago, one of my friends live in Fresno California, which is about 30 miles from where Steve grew up.
Lisa: Yeah, Hanford.
Mike: Yes Hanford. And my friend knows somebody that lives in Hanford and was reporting in on Steve's sightings, like where Steve has been seen, and I guess that he is still living there.
Lisa: I think that he lives in San Diego.
Mike: Oh really!
Lisa: That is what I have heard.
Mike: This was a few years ago and my friend of mine, Wade Thornton, put his name in there if you want. Wade is one of my oldest and best friends. I have known him for 35 years. We grew up together since little kids and stuff.
Lisa: Oh my gosh! He lives in Hanford?
Mike: He lives in Fresno and he lives about 35 to 40 miles from Hanford. I was up there a few weekends ago, we were trying to figure out something to do one night so we found out about this Indian Casino called The Palace. I think it is south there, past Hanford. So, we went driving around so we thought let's just drive through town and see what's in town and what it is there and stuff. Maybe we'll run into him. Everybody told us that Steve frequents the local pool hall there or something pub.
Lisa: In Hanford?
Mike: Yeah.
Lisa: How big of a town is Hanford?
Mike: It's not very big. In fact, it was interesting because, when we were driving through town we got behind a tractor, a farm tractor, that was pretty rural. (Laughs). So it is a small agricultural town. Small. It reminded me of a little town in Iowa. You went back in time about 30 years. So we drove around there and checked out the place, it's a real quaint, real small town. Didn't see Steve. Found the Casino but didn't see Steve. So how many people are doing this website now.
Lisa: How many people are on the website?
Mike: Involve with creating this website?
Lisa: Just me and Kathy.
Mike: Oh okay.
Lisa: Kathy and myself. Kathy does all the technical computer stuff and does all the uploading and the pictures and I'm the writer part of it. So you didn't see Steve in Hanford. Is there anything there that even says that he lived there?
Mike: We didn't go in the Hanford museum. There was one there (laughs). I think that would probably be the place. We actually even looked in the phone book and there was like several Perrys. Let's find out where he lives. We didn't even get out of the car we just drove around. I am sure that he still has relatives that live there.
Lisa: Do you have a website?
Mike: I do have a website but it is mostly used as a holding bin for my photos that I put on E-bay. I see pictures of the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Johnny Winters, Journey, Van Halen, I've got probably 20 or 30 bands that I sell photos of, pictures that I took on my own some of the stuff that I took when I was with them. Only about ten can been seen on the front page. I don't let anybody have access to my files. My website was set up by a girl in an office that I worked at. About a year ago she did it on Yahoo Geocities, that is a free website. That was all I needed I didn't plan on having a website that would be used by a lot of people. You were asking me about my background and education.
Lisa: Yes.
Mike: Went to Catholic school, both grade school and high school.
Lisa: Where did you grow up?
Mike: I grew up in a town called Whittier.
Lisa: I have heard of that. Whittier Ca.
Mike: Richard Nixon family lived there and so did Richard Nixon for awhile. Went to College here. I grew up here and went to College here. I went to Cal-Poly Pomona it's a technical school. I got a degree in civil engineering and basically I paid my way through College working, doing a lot of the photography, selling pictures of the bands and it wasn't a real extravagant living but it paid the bills and it also paid my way through College. And then it kinda stopped when I graduated from College in 1981 and I sorta got out of that because I started working full time at a real job. So about the time the real concert photography ended when I started working for real and like I said I'm a civil engineer.
And I probably spent about ten years in construction management and now I'm in the insurance field.
Lisa: So you're not doing photography anymore?
Mike: Now I'm doing stuff that I said that I would never do. Kids and dog pictures. I was single back then and that was all that I did. And then my camera only came out of the case if it was a rock and roll show. Or we were hanging around with celebrities or people that we wanted pictures of. I'll never take pictures of kids and dogs or anything like that and then and now I have been married for 17 years and I have three children. They think it is kind of interesting this semi new interest in some of this stuff that people were calling me on. You know I would love to do it again. Most bands these days won't even let photographers in. You can't take a camera into a show and if you can sneak a camera into a show, uh, it would have to be one of those throw away cameras and the quality would be so horrible that it wouldn't even be worth it.
Lisa: Did anybody ever take any pictures of you and the guys together?
Mike: I have a couple of pictures of me, one time a friend of mine, every show I did I was allowed an assistant to come in with me because I had two large cases of equipment, 3 Nikons. 3 or 4 motor driven Nikons going the whole time and I basically I needed somebody that was almost like security with me to watch my stuff.
Lisa: I would have been happy to go with you!
Mike: I had a lot of offers!
Lisa: Oh I bet so!
Mike: I took my sister on a lot of the shows. I trusted her and after taking a few friends of mine with me I noticed that they were more preoccupied with meeting women than watching my stuff.
Lisa: Well, that was the place to do it!
Mike: Yeah that was the place to do it. So I had a little problem with that a few times I would run back to get something from my equipment cases and they would be just laying there with nobody around. I had 5 or 6 thousand dollars worth of equipment in these cases and one lens could be worth 400.00 dollars and it wasn't just something that I wanted laying around. People backstage running around and you don't know half of them. The guys that worked for Journey in the crew they kind of watched out for me and my stuff alittle but there was a lot of times that you were with other bands and they are all strangers and their group and their staff , you don't know who these people are.
Seems like I took my sister with me a lot, she was very dedicated. I had her a couple of times when I was on the stage, taking some photos of the sound check and sometimes she took a couple pictures of me. I think. I don't know whose is in the pictures, there's a couple of me with Neal Schon, and me standing on the stage taking pictures of them. Normally I never even thought about that but now that I think about it I should've had that done. A picture of me with the guys and stuff. I was always the one taking the pictures so obviously I was never in them.
Lisa: Did you get any autographs?
Mike: Oh yes I did. I have several of my items autographed. A few pictures. Most of them are least a couple pictures of Steve, that say 'thanks for all your photos' I got stuff from Neal and they were all pictures of mine that I took. You know, I was with these guys off and on for 3 years so after a round of concert touring, the year would go by and I would get some of my prints out and I know that would run into them or do a show and I would bring them with me and have them sign them for me. They are pretty personalized and stuff and I felt during then that I was pretty much on a first name basis with them and who knows if they would recognize me now.
Lisa: You know a lot of people would just kill to be in your position. You know that.
Mike: Back then it didn't really occur to me at the time, I'll tell you one thing that a lot of girls that I knew that wouldn't give me the time of day before I was doing this were very eager to make up lost time with me and to me that was kind of fun. I could turn them down for once!
Lisa: Because you know what they wanted!
Mike: Oh yeah. Obliviously it wasn't to be hanging around with me.
Lisa: They wanted access to, to well, okay I can see because I would probably do that too!
Mike: Oh yeah it was entertaining and but the thing was I was pretty serious back then and with Journey there wasn't the debauchery or the obvious sex and drugs and rock and roll.
Lisa: I was going to ask you about that.
Mike: There were very clean living people. If they did do that I never saw it. I can't say that I always been an angel I have been around them but being in that business, yeah your going to be exposed to just about everything. And especially when it got huge on a global basis. They were so big, that you know, I could say that pretty honestly if there was anything available at any time you probably wanted to get involved with, just from people, not necessarily them or their initial group of management stuff like that. You know just naturally being around that stuff you know. People smoked a ton of pot. That was part of it. That was the seventies!
I think even the name of their publishing company is Weed High Music. That's no secret.
Lisa: Have you ever done any other interviews with anyone?
Mike: No.
Lisa: No?
Mike: I was , a nobody, you know I was just the photographer. I was probably one step up on the roadies as far as crew goes and my involvement with the band. I traveled around, I rode on the bus a few times, between shows and I had a job to do just like everybody else did you know. The guys that set up the equipment and the guys unloaded the trucks, the guys that drove the trucks, the guys that drove the buses. You know, I was just part of that. Off and on though I had the luxury of being on the west coast I could home whenever I wanted. That was different than most guys. They were night and day seven days a week were traveling during the tour.
So that was a nice thing for me and they were very generous. They were very accommodating to me. If they wanted me to do a show It was, first class treatment, flown to the places. Cars picking me up, I mean you name it. I remember in Las Vegas one time we had six limos in our service that were parked out in front. It was at the Las Vegas Hilton. We were staying there and we had a whole floor.
That's where Elvis used to play. I remember being there for two days. I got there in the morning before the show that night and then I left the next afternoon. Me and a couple of the guys, we knew that we had those limos out there, and we just constantly, three or four times during the day go out and flag the limos down and pick us right in front of the hotel, in front of all these people. And people would look at us and who are these people, they were just wearing jeans and t-shirts. They must be famous or something. We have them drive us around the block or take us over to the convention center and check it out and drive us back and drop us off right in front. Everything was first class. Everything was spare no expense.
As far as acting like stars and being treated like stars when it came to traveling. I was lucky I got to be in that part of it. Because I was closer I think to management than I was to the actual guys that plugged in the amplifiers and stuff so I had it a little better.
Lisa: Did you get any pictures on the buses? The tour buses?
Mike: No. The last thing I wanted to do was take pictures when I got done shooting. (laughs). I was more wanting to hang out and stuff. (Laughing.) I did get a couple pictures of the buses of the gang standing in front of them. I meet the guys , the bus drivers, and the guys that drove the trucks, you know that was the immediate, initial group that we hung out with. There were just the guys you know and the crew. It was like a family type thing.
Lisa: Since everybody has been watching Behind The Music thing, everybody was just floored when everybody just came out with all this stuff.
Mike: What do you mean.
Lisa: About how they broke up and what happened then and how they can't talk about it.
Mike: Well if I can add my two cents to that because I was there and saw the whole thing develop into like nothing, I would never say, take that back, I would never say that this was ever nothing. This was, Journey was big to me. I liked Journey even before Steve Perry was in it. I liked Santana and I liked Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon and they were some of my favorite musicians and I have the Journey albums before Steve Perry was with them.
Lisa: I do too.
Mike: At first it was a lot more friendly, a lot more fun, and then as it got bigger and bigger and bigger and the stress got more intense and intense and the egos kind of swelled and it just got a little, kind of like, impersonal. Steve used to come and hang around and you would see him there before the show, after the show, and he was one of the guys and have a beer and hang out and laugh and stuff. As it got to be the 60,000 person shows and stuff Steve just kind of showed up and when he had to do his thing and then left.
I think it got a little tense and I wasn't around the actual discussions about it or anything but that is just what I felt. That he got a little distance from everybody else and there were some tensions because all of a sudden he's the star. He's the big shot and the one that everybody is there to see. Neal and Ross kind of felt that they got pushed into the background and when they came on the stage people would yell but when Steve came on it was like pandemonium. So I think ego wise that was a little tough to handle. But it did get a little stiff after that I felt towards the end, probably about the eighties. Around 1980 it started to get a little stiff. It wasn't like the guys hanging out anymore it was more like business.
And I can see where that would tend to happen and I did see Behind The Music and felt that was semi-true. I didn't believe the part about Steve saying that he didn't feel like he was part of it though at all. Steve was one of the guys just as much as anybody was and there was a lot of laughing and kidding around. Like I told you about the Las Vegas thing that was the funniest thing that I ever saw in my life. Everybody was in on it and he had a good sense of humor. He laughed, not right at first, but he thought it was really funny and he was like 'thanks alot you guys' after the show and this and that. After awhile it just got, he just got stiff and I think just from he's the star and he came and did his job and left. So for me to understand that kind of mind set what it would be like to be in that position, you know I don't know if I would do the same thing or not.
It was kind of set up like, uh, a professional sports team. You know you have like two or three guys that were originally on the team and they started buying or trading members like (laughing). Basically how Steve Smith and Steve Perry came into the band. When it got that big, you know, it's a winning combination and it wasn't like the original guys that played in their garages and stuff you know. (Laughing). Those guys are shoved into the back spotlight now you know and here's these other guys that are in the spotlight and they were just brought in like ringers you know.
Lisa: Here's a what-if for you. What if Journey got back together again with all the original line-up and they call you and say, 'Hey Mike, we want you to come with us and take some more pictures' would you go?
Mike: You wouldn't even see me I would be a blur! (Laughing) I would be out the door. I still have most of my equipment and I am probably a little rusty on this stuff but I probably could do it and my advantage over a lot of people I think in doing my shooting of the band was that, like I said, I probably did 36 shows with them I knew all the words to the songs. I knew every time Steve was going to lift his arm during the solo. Every precise moment I watched him practiced jumping during certain parts of songs.
Lisa: Oh I know. I have videos of him on the bandstand and he just jumps in the air and twirls around and lands on one foot! Did you ever see him fall?
Mike: No never.
Lisa: No he never fell?
Mike: No. Have you seen the movie Rock Star yet?
Lisa: No.
Mike: What you just said reminded me of that. He was in a copy band, I don't know if you heard about the movie, but anyway he is in this copy band like an Iron Maiden or Judas Priest type band and he wound up getting hired to replace the original singer. He was very nervous and that is his first big show and he comes out from behind the stage on this big platform that lifts him up in the air and he has to come down these stairs as he's singing. He falls and he lands face first on the stage and he's got a big gash in his head and blood running down and he's lying there and everybody is quiet and then he stands up and he starts singing.
Steve was very nimble. Steve was a good dancer. Steve was a great performer and I never seen him even be a klutz ever. He would jump off stuff and like a cat land on his feet.
Lisa: I have some very old, old, old videos back when they were just demos and Steve is jumping all over the place. I have been a fan for years. I started back in 1978 and I have been going ever since. This was back when they still have albums and I have every album. I have Dream After Dream and I have even before Steve was with them. I got every dad blasted thing! Kathy is very impressed because I kept everything. I got posters and t-shirts. I've got articles and everything from my childhood.
Mike: You probably have some of my stuff then. They sold a lot of my stuff, it kills me right now, when I think back to all of this stuff how I could have all these t-shirts and all these things like that. Yeah I'll take a t-shirt. A lot of times I would wear a Journey t-shirt during the show and stuff when I'm shooting. I kept telling them I need, you guys need to start like making pants with Journey on them. I wouldn't have to buy anymore clothes.
Lisa: We go on about the clothes a lot of the time too because it looks like that Steve and Neal are wearing the same thing.
Mike: Oh the clothes. A lot of people ask me, you know I get e-mails a lot of times, not a lot but probably more than anything, people asking me a lot of questions about this and that. One of the questions they ask me is where they buy their clothes. You know most of their clothes were custom made.
They had a person, a girl, I can't remember her name that was a costume designer and she made most of their clothes.
Lisa: Darn if I wasn't right about this and I do like to be right on a few occasions. I told Kathy, that Steve, we noticed this because we noticed everything that he would have more than one of something. Like the same style shirt but in different colors.
Mike: Their office, that was in San Francisco, I have been up to their offices several times for meetings and talked with them. The band wasn't really there that much during the meetings, they would call me in to talk about something or if they wanted me to do something. Give me some kind of clue as to what the future is, what they need me available for.
There was a beautiful, big huge house in San Francisco, that Herbie's office had a gorgerous view of the Golden Gate bridge out of his windows in his office and that's where they were headquarted. The people that worked for them from the merchandising.
Lisa: Was that Weed High Music?
Mike: No actually that was Nightmare Productions. Nightmare Productions was the office. That was where their physical address was. Weed High was the publishing company. They published their music under. Most of these musicians they publish their work under a certain name, like they make up Mickey Mouse Club Inc or something.
With Journey the songs they recorded were published under Weed High. They had a full time costume designer and seamstress.
Lisa: Just one?
Mike: Yes. That basically measured them, made all their clothes or if there was things that she felt that could be bought. The biggest one, is the leopard skin shirt! Where can I get one, where can I get one, as far as I remember it was made for him. When Steve traveled Steve had a full one, like the old days, the steam ship trunks. It was a huge trunk that had all his clothes and costumes and stuff.
And even his casual stuff. It was all in this thing that held twenty outfits. So the stuff was custom made for most of the guys. He'll have the same shirt on one night and the next night it was a different color.
A lot of times, like when they did the Coliesuem show, Steve wore just plain Levi's, tennis shoes and white tuxedo tails.
Lisa: I know that he had the tuxes made.
Mike: Like I said he was kind of small. The guys in the band were all different sizes. Steve and Neal were a little smaller and Gregg was a tall guy. Gregg was a pretty beefy guy. Ross was tall and Steve Smith was a little short. All their clothes were basically custom made and you know they didn't always wear the custom clothes. Neal would wear a t-shirt and Levi's. It was up to them. I am not sure who made that call but I think they were pretty much open to wear whatever they wanted to wear.
Lisa: We didn't think that it was just one person. She must have been very busy!
Mike: I don't know how involve it would be to sit down at a sewing machine and make a shirt or a pair of pants. She did all their stuff. I can't remember her name. I knew her too. Yeah I would go up there and she had her own office up there, it reminded me of, you know you watch like Style Magazine and they are showing the fashion shows, the person in the back room that is doing all the alterations and everything. That's what this whole big room was. It was all clothing and her sewing machine and all the equipment do that kind of costume design and making. And I think basically how it worked out was I think, you know either the guys would come in and say I got this idea, and this what I would like to wear. A red shirt that only has two buttons down towards the bottom.
I want some really tight white pants that are bell bottoms and she would make them. Money is no object back then. This is what I want and it was made.
Lisa: This was the Infinity thing. I guess he had the red shirt and black pants made too?
Mike: Oh yeah definitely. That was a custom made outfit.
Lisa: We wondered where they got the idea for some of those clothes.
Mike: I think it was partly the gal that made the clothes and partly theirs. She had a good eye and a good imagination about what a rock star should wear and I really couldn't tell you any of the history behind her, where she came from, or how she got to this point but she did an excellent job.
Lisa: They seemed to like what she came up with because they wore them.
Mike: She was the only one that I ever seen that ever did thing with that, there was never we have a high turnover for the costume designer or anything, it was just one person. I don't know if she got any credit, like on the back of the Captured album, or something. They gave me photo credit they should sure have gave her the costume design credit. There probably is a credit to somebody, because I have seen her picture on a few things here and there.
Lisa: Oh really.
Mike: Maybe, on some tour programs.
Lisa: You don't remember her name?
Mike: No.
Lisa: Did they have any hair people that traveled with them?
Mike: That's another question that gets asked me. Who does his hair? Yeah they did have professional people that worked with them that once in a while, I never really went in the dressing rooms to see what was going on but I am pretty sure that Steve had a make-up person and a hair person and everything. He'll walk into the show, a lot of times this was at the beginning he was just, as he got out of his car that's what he looked like when he got on the stage.
When he showed up at some of the shows. He was totally, what you see is what you get and then when it got real big and the fru-fru stage and stuff then Steve got out of his car and went into the dressing room and came out Steve the movie star. He was doing, I think he had a form make-up thing, not obvious like David Bowie or anything but it was, he looked good. He looked flawless basically.
Lisa: I see your name on here.
Mike: On the Captured Album?
Lisa: Merchandising people, trucking, sound.
Mike: They were very good about that also and that was one of the things that impressed me, most other bands that I worked with they weren't willing to put your name on anything. They didn't want you, yeah we'll let you take pictures if we use them that's fine but you're never know if we use them and this and that. Journey was very good about putting my name on a lot of the stuff and giving me photo credit and that was something that basically inspired me to be more professional with them because I felt that I was being taken care of.
Lisa: That was good that they took such good care of you. I bet Steve looks at some of those old pictures and just shake his head and say, 'was that really me?'
Mike: I remember one show that I did, this was when I first started working for them. This was probably right in the middle of the first tour that he went with them on. I have a picture of him that I thought was really good. For some reason Steve was self-conscious about his nose. He thought his nose was big. He didn't like the pictures of him.
Lisa: No profile pictures.
Mike: Yeah. He thought his nose looked big. I am sure that he is going to hurt me down and kill me if he ever reads this!
Lisa: Well then he will come after all of us and we're be right there with you!
Mike: He didn't like his nose as far as the side view or profile. Anyway. Some of the things we used to say. (Laughing). I don't know of you should print this, I used to hear him over say something about his nose looked too big and one of the guys would say, 'Well Steve, isn't it true big nose, big hose?' 'No it's not true' or something like that. (Laughing)
Lisa: (Laughing) I would print that if you do want me too!
Mike: No that is alright it would be funny. I would like to have him hunt me down! But anyway, he didn't even really know me that well the first couple of shows. I remember I went immediately because I had some pictures of him that I had taken during the first few times and I came up to him after a sound check. He was down on the ground listening to a playback just to hear what it kind of sounded like from the audience. You know you're in a sports arena that is empty and it sounds a lot different than when it is full.
A lot of acoustics because it is full of people and noise and stuff and he was standing down there, I thought this would be a good time to hit him up, you know I want him to sign one of my pictures and so I came up to him and he was talking to Herbie about something and kind of both were just standing there and I didn't want to interrupt them, and I walked up when he wasn't talking and I said 'Steve would you mind autographing one of my pictures?'
And I've gotten a few pictures for some other people autographed and stuff that were big fans and at the beginning he was very normal and receptive and he would do anything for anybody and sign things and towards the end he just kind of fluffed it off. At the beginning he was very receptive to that and I came up to him asked him to sign a picture and he is like 'god this is a great shot! I love this picture! Can I get a copy of it?' And he goes to Herbie and he says 'can you get this name and get a picture for me?'
And Herbie goes, 'he works for us' and Steve goes 'oh okay!' So that is where we met. Then he started knowing who I was and that was pretty funny. I have my famous "Steve Perry Saves The Life Of A Young Woman" story. I had a picture of Steve that this friend of mine had a little sister that was suppose to go to a Journey concert and it was one of the shows I was shooting and she came down with like a hundred and three fever!
Two days before the show and they put her in intensive care in the hospital and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. She had some kind of infection and she went into a coma for about 12 hours and luckily came out of it. They didn't know what was wrong with her and when she came around her whole family was in the room, and they would like 'oh god this is amazing!' She came out it and she was like, the first thing out of her mouth was 'I'm not going to get to go to the Journey concert am I?' And she had gotten tickets with her friends and she had four or five girlfriends that she was going to go with and her brother told me this story.
I was good friends with her brother and I grew up in the neighborhood with her brother and her brother told me this story and I went 'wow, that is too bad' I took one of my Steve Perry's pictures to the concert the next night and I asked Steve to sign it like 'Get well soon.' With the girl's name on it from Steve Perry and 'hope you make it to the next show' and it went on and on. Steve wrote this whole thing to her like said her name and everything and anyway the next day I went with her brother to the hospital to visit her after the show and I told her 'I said hey I am sorry that you didn't make it but I got a present for you' and I gave her this present that was the picture of Steve Perry and it was signed to her and it said 'Get Well Soon' and this girl was out of the hospital the next day and the doctors could believe it and she was so excited it just lifted her up so much that she was cured almost! Everybody thought it was a miracle and the whole family still remembers the story. So Steve was a savior then and had the power to heal.
Lisa: The power of Perry!
Mike: I guess!
Lisa: What was the thing about the nose? He didn't like his nose?
Mike: It was funny because that was one of the things back in the early days and they first started having their pictures in a lot of magazines and tour programs and stuff like that. He didn't like the choices that were available and a lot of times you know, at the beginning he had, I think at the time, too much input into what was getting used. He was very picky and he didn't like half the stuff and so they were having a hard time getting things that he could look at to make him happy. I picked up on this immediately, so my stuff, was basically, I tried to minimize the nose thing. I told some people that I used a nose filter to make it look smaller. (Laughing). They would believe anything I guess! I was just the photographer! I can't change things about how he looks.
Actually one of the pictures that he liked the most that he told me that I shot was kind of like a profile picture. He liked the lighting and the skin tone and everything about it. I actually took it let me go get it real fast, I'll tell you exactly which picture it is. Hold on!
It was the Escape Tour Program. 1981. First printing. I got my name in here as one of the concert photographers and I did several shots in here and what shot I am most noted for is the fold out in the very center. The fold out picture, it's not a actually fold out, it's both pages if you open the book exactly in the middle and it opens up it's the long picture of Steve Perry. He hated that picture! I loved it because if you look at it, it's got all my special effects all the colors bouncing all over the place and he didn't like the picture because, it wasn't really a profile but he just didn't like his nose. He made it pretty clear to me that he didn't like the picture.
And there wasn't any hard feelings or anything I didn't get any choice in what they used and I didn't get any choice in layouts, I didn't get any choice in any decisions in which ones were made. I just gave them as many as I could to chose from.
Lisa: And they did whatever they wanted to do.
Mike: They did whatever they wanted to do. They sold that picture also as posters at the concert. That was one that he didn't like. You have that Captured Album there?
Lisa: Yes I do! I am looking at it right now.
Mike: Let me get that I want to explain and show you something on that I was a little upset about to that they did to me. Hold on. Okay, this is my famous hated shadow picture!
Lisa: Shadow picture? Let me see.
Mike: If you pull the sleeves out and it's the one picture, it's the one side of one of the sleeves that has the license plate that says 'Jrny Fan.' Well if you look right to the top right hand corner of that you see Steve kind of leaning up on his front feet and Ross is leaning back.
Lisa: Yeah.
Mike: Do you see the picture of Gregg Rolie in there? That he is standing right in front of Steve playing the harmonica?
Lisa: It looks like that it is spliced in there!
Mike: Yep! They cut him out. They didn't have a picture, I shot that picture but they didn't have a picture of the whole band in the same shot so they just cut out the picture of Gregg and glued him in.
Lisa: I've never noticed that before!
Mike: If you look at it you can see the line running up between and then you can see his shadow end.
Lisa: Well you know, I'll be darn! I have looked at this thing a hundred 50 million times and I've never noticed that until now!
Mike: I was a little upset that they did that. It was pretty bad. I call it the 'Shadow Picture' because it is so obvious (laughing) because if you look at it the microphone cord ends. It was put together very hastily at the last minute and I wasn't real happy that and also if you look at the picture directly below it.
Lisa: It's the same picture.
Mike: Yes, it's the same picture just blown up.
Lisa: Gregg is not even in there.
Mike: If you look at the other album sleeve. One of my favorite pictures, actually they put a mistake on that. If you look in the very center of it the picture of Neal singing, Neal Schon, all my shots are taken with a motor drive. It'll take , if you flip the mirror up that is in front of the shutter, it'll run like a movie camera. Great for like Kennedy assassinations and stuff like that. Anyway, sometimes you'll get what I call a 'motor drive burp' where like it'll skip. It's running so fast that it skips and that was actually that picture of Neal that looks like a multiple image thing was a skip.
And then if you look right below it and because it's running just like a movie camera it picked up everything. Every time I moved it picked it up and if you look right under Neal you can see the scotch tape where they just taped this thing onto the page. I was a little upset about, very unprofessional.
Lisa: Yes I see that now!
Mike: You can see it above Neal's head too and you can see the scotch tape. To me that was like, I thought that they had done a poor job. I thought that was hastily through together, but those are, probably all those pictures on that page are mine.
Lisa: The one that says 'safety film.'
Mike: Those are all mine. That's raw film and these are slides. They are taken from slides that are just not mounted in a slide holder.
Lisa: You do some good work! I have looked at this thing, oh my god, for years and I was thinking who was this guy that took these pictures. He was a very lucky guy! Did you take the pictures of the banners on the back. They had some kind of banner contest in Chicago and they have the pictures of the winners. Did you take those?
Mike: No, those weren't mine, no I didn't take those. I went to Las Vegas and the shows I did were from San Diego to San Francisco and that was where they were from so I did a lot of shows in San Francisco.
Lisa: There are really some great pictures on here.
Mike: The ones on the, there's a poster inside there, that folds out. I took the ones on the top, the ones of Steve Smith and Ross and I also took the one of Gregg Rolie. I didn't take the one of Steve on that page. Gregg Rolie was like the greatest guy. He was so funny and so cool. He was the one that would break up any tension if everybody seemed nervous or something. He was just so professional. When he left I was kind of upset I thought that he should have never left.
Lisa: Did you ever meet Jon? Jonathan Cain?
Mike: I met Jon. He came in when I was sort of fading out of the deal. I only did about three shows with Jon. I don't even know if I have even any of my own photos of him. He was a nice guy. I met Jon when Jon was with the Baby's. When Journey toured with the Baby's I was on the tour. I got to meet all the Baby's and it seemed to me that they got along with the Baby's better than most bands that they toured with. They toured with Loverboy one year. We used to call them Rubber Toy! (Laughing) Read into that what you want!
The whole band wore the same outfit and it was like kind of bizarre! We used to make fun of them. That's easy when you're the headliner. You can say anything you want when you the headliner.
Lisa: So you weren't with them when they opened for the Rolling Stones?
Mike: No, I was with them when Van Halen was the warm-up band for Journey one year. Montrose, Journey and Van Halen. That was quite a tour it was one extreme to the other.
Lisa: They also toured with AC/DC.
Mike: I would have loved to had gone to that!
Lisa: That is where Journey got one of their songs from, because you just can't help not being influenced by them.
Mike: Those are two of my favorite bands right there together. I have been to see AC/DC a bunch of times when they were on other tours.
Lisa: Do you have anymore Steve disguise stories? (Laughing)
Mike: No. I am sure something will spark my memory tomorrow after I have talked about it today. I remember those stories the best because that was like real rock and roll stuff. When I think about that I think about like Michael Jackson trying to go to the mall in a disguise or something. (Laughing)
Lisa: Steve trying to do stealth!
Mike: Steve trying to go out in public without being noticed.
Lisa: I don't see how he could ever get away with that.
Mike: It was funny because the other bands, I remember they toured a little with Billy Squire on year and I did three or four shows with them and you know, we would be at the Holiday Inn down the street from where the show was and the first hotel that is closet to where the show is, is where we stayed most of the time. The guys in Billy Squire's band would all be sitting around the pool the day before or the day after the show, hanging out, having orange juice by the pool and there's girls running all over the place looking for the band and they don't even know that these guys are in the band!
Everybody had long hair, everybody had sunglasses on you know you just never knew who was who. I flew down from San Francisco on Thursday, I was up there for business, and the security is very heavy at the airports right now. It took me like twenty minutes just to get to the metal detector or to get into the gate. I was standing in line and this guy behind me looked so familiar to me and I'm looking at him going 'You're a guitar player, aren't you?' and he said 'yeah' and I said 'you're in a band aren't you?'
And he said 'yeah' and I said 'you're in a band called NOFX'. I am sure that you have never heard of them they are a pretty hard core punk band but I like them and I like their music and it was him. Last time I saw him I saw him at a concert in Phoenix and he had like purple dreadlocks. See you never knew when you're around these guys. He is just in the crowd you know, except for the nose ring and stuff. He looked at me and I look nothing like rock and roll right now. I am pretty much all business looking and I think if I could I'll have a Mohawk and tattoos but I would love that. I like a lot of punk music and always have. Theses days the music I listen too, if you went into Mike's car and pulled out the CD rack you'll see like Offspring, Penny wise, I do have Journey's Greatest Hits and stuff like that and the Stones and a lot of the bands from the seventies and eighties.
But right now it is like Offspring and NOFX, Penny Wise, Lincoln Park, Pop A Roach, the newer bands. I still get most of my influence from listening to the radio and what's new. My kids probably think....
Lisa: You're weird Dad!
Mike: Yeah, why do you like our stuff? Well, can't I like it? Luckily for me I have been in the music scene since I was like 18 so it is not like something I just developed last week.
Lisa: And you live right in a good area for it too.
Mike: Yeah. I hate to cut this short but I, if you want to talk to me later at another time that's fine. E-mail me and let me know and I 'll be glad to talk to you anytime.
Lisa: I really appreciate it. Kathy and I really appreciate it and I will be definitely talking to you again! I am sure you can think of some more stories!
Mike: It's like the stuff comes back to me sometimes. The stuff I told you is pretty much the stuff I remember real well, like things that had happened and the funny things. You know a lot of people don't, probably wouldn't even have a clue, like the Steve and Rod heart on the stage! That was one of the highlights of me being around them.
Lisa: I definitely will be calling you again!
Mike: Just E-mail me and let me know when you want to get together. I just started a new job last week and for the next three months I think that I will be on the road a lot, but when I do get home, I do check my e-mail and I do respond.
Lisa: Oh yes, you do get back pretty fast! You sound like that your a very nice guy too.
Mike: That's how you get in business and how you get things done.
Lisa: And I might like to buy some of your pictures! No I think I will! I'm not picky!
Mike: Did you see the picture that I have up on E-Bay right now? The picture of Steve, I was up at the Oakland Coliseum and Creem magazine was there and you do the sound checks in the afternoon well before the show and then everybody splits and has dinner. Then you come back and do the concert, well being on the crew and being a photographer your basically at the venue the whole time. We did the sound check and we came out from the sound check and somebody told me that Creem magazine was there and they were doing a photo shoot for Journey.
They used to have a thing called 'Cars Of the Stars' they feature the rock star with their bitching cars and stuff. I came walking out and here's all the guys in the band standing there with their cars all hanging out and so I just ran over and started shooting.
Lisa: Steve with his Mercedes.
Mike: Yeah. So I got one of those up on E-bay right now. What got me into was, the picture that I am selling now on E-bay I had one that was autographed by Steve and it wasn't that great, the autograph wasn't that great because he just scribbled his name. So he just scribbled his name across the door and that was one of the first pictures that I put up on E-bay. I found this picture in my garage, I knew that I had it somewhere and I forgot about it and I have an album full of people with their cars.
From when I was 16 from even before I was sixteen. I have pictures of all my friends, everybody that had a car, picture of them in their car and that is where I had the picture of Steve. So found it and I scanned it and threw it on E-bay I started it at fifteen dollars and it sold for $645.00! So that got me interested!
Lisa: You can tell me some more stories because people are going to love this! Believe me! It was very nice talking to you and I appreciate your time and thank you so much. Bye Mike and thanks.
Mike: Bye Lisa.
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