Great Rock Photographers: The Rob Shanahan Interview (Pt. I)

When Rob Shanahan graduated from college, he packed his drums and camera equipment into his van and pointed it towards California, determined to make a living as either a drummer or photographer. Today, he makes a living as both.

Rob is the drummer for the incredible Rolling Stones' tribute band Hollywood Stones, and has been photographing musicians for more than a decade, among them Van Halen, Motley Crue, Elton John, Christina Aguilera and Ringo Starr (as his personal photographer).

Mr. Shanahan's new book Volume 1: Through the Lens of Music Photographer Rob Shanahan features photographs of Keith Richards, Dave Grohl, Sting, Paul McCartney, Charlie Watts, and of course Ringo Starr, who also wrote the foreword.

In the second installment of our "Great Rock Photographer" series, Rob Shanahan chats about Justin Beiber, sweaty athletes, Rembrandt, The Rolling Stones, drumming, The Beatles, and his "mate," Ringo.

Riffraf caught up with Rob for a two-part interview. Below is part one. Check back tomorrow for part two.

How do you get your pictures to pop the way that they do? They’re so vibrant. They’re 3D.

Oh, that’s a nice question. I don’t know. People ask me, ”Your photos look so much different from everyone else’s. How do you do it?” I don’t have an answer. I just shoot from the heart. I’m a musician and I love musicians. I love working with guys I’ve been listening to my whole life and respect. I want to make them as comfortable as possible at the photo shoot. And make them look as good as possible. I seem to have a knack for getting people to come out of their shell. And I like to capture that moment. Ringo and Paul and Keith Richards...I get all these guys to do things that they may not normally do for other photographers. I like to see the inside of people, not some manufactured image that some artists like to put out there. You know what I mean?

Yeah, definitely. Being a drummer, you must have good timing. That must translate into your photography.

I’ve heard that. I know when and how and what to do with drummers. Maybe that’s it. My whole music photography career started with shooting drummers. Before I was shooting music, I was shooting sports. That was where I really learned my timing. I was a contract photographer for the NFL for ten years. But I’m a musician. My heart’s with music, so I just decided to really start focusing on shooting musicians. That’s when it really started for me. When I started shooting drummers, I realized that’s what I should be doing. Who wants to shoot sweaty athletes when you could shoot great musicians?

The photograph that you took of Keith Richards - the blurry image - you really captured him in the mood, inside himself. As a drummer you’re always looking at facial expressions for musical cues. Is that what you were doing when you snapped that shot?

For the Keith shot, I wanted to get the essence of Keith doing what he does and not just a standing pose with his guitar, looking at the camera. Blah, blah, blah. I wanted you to hear a song. People told me that when they look at the photo they can hear “Tumbling Dice” or “Honky Tonk” or something. You know what I mean?

Have you read Keith’s book, Life?

Yeah, of course. I ended up reading it twice. It’s a great book. I read it on the road, while I was travelling. It’s one of those that you can’t put down. It’s a great story. It’s a great book.

I was struck by what Keith wrote about Charlie - how much he admires Charlie’s playing. Keith said that a lot of drummers know how to rock, but Charlie knows how to roll.

That’s right. Yeah, that’s a magical combination there: Keith and Charlie. I mean, getting into Charlie’s drumming as deep as I’ve had to in my Stones' tribute band made me realize how great a drummer Charlie is. Not for what he plays, but for what he doesn’t play. All the cool spacings. His groove is incredible. When I first started playing with Hollywood Stones, and started studying Charlie’s drumming, I thought, "that’s easy he’s such an elementary drummer." But once I started studying his groove and what he does, I realized how thoughtful his drum tracks are and how much of a part of the Stones’ catalogue they really are.

What’s your favorite Stones’ album?

Exile on Main Street.

Yeah, I like the reissue as well.

Yeah, the reissue is incredible. Although I just got the Some Girls reissue for Christmas from my guitar player, and I’m enjoying the hell out of that too. It’s a great record.

Definitely. It’s a real New York record too.

Yeah, you’re right. You’re in New York. Are you in Manhattan?

I’m in Brooklyn.

Oh, you’re in Brooklyn? I love Brooklyn. I would move to the Red Hook district in a moment if I could. There are some great studios there. Ringo’s publicist is there. I go there often. There’s a studio in Queens that I rent whenever I get out to the city. I love shooting in the city, but in Queens, from the rooftop of this studio I use there, you get this great Manhattan skyline in the background. It’s incredible. It’s a little jewel of a studio, and I’m not going to tell you where it’s at because if I tell you you’re going to tell everyone, and I’ll never be able to get in there because he’s gonna raise his rents. I’m not going to tell you where it is.

Mum’s the word. Don’t tell me. Believe me, I don’t want to get on your bad side like Justin Bieber.

Yeah, the whole Justin Bieber thing. Can you believe it?

What was his excuse for showing up three hours late for the photo shoot?

I never got one, and I didn’t care. That whole Justin Bieber thing exploded for no reason at all. It’s really a non-issue, and I’m glad you asked because I want to clear some air. I was doing an interview in Minneapolis and there is a certain entertainment writer there. I won’t mention any names, but she likes to kind of work some kind of weird angle into every story. I’m not sure why, but she had asked me, “Who’s your favorite subject to shoot? Who’s your least favorite? Can you tell me any stories about any artist?” The whole bit. I casually mentioned that Justin Bieber was super late for a photo shoot that we had booked, and I mean it was nothing more than him being late and it could have been for a number of reasons. I never found out why. This writer had asked, “Well he’s not in your book. Is that why you excluded him from your book?” It wasn’t the reason. The reason was my editor edited him out because he didn’t feel like he fit in with all my other rock photos for whatever reason. Maybe we wanted to keep him for Volume Two. It wasn’t because he was late for the photo shoot. Anyway the reporter ran with that story. (In newscaster’s voice) “Justin Bieber is late for the photo shoot so rock photographer excludes him from the book.” Anyway that story got picked up from like ten different papers. It was kind of crazy. I’m sure you saw.

Yeah. Yeah. It was on the "Bieber Zone," his fan site.

Yeah, oh well. Sorry, Justin. Love you, dude.

Well, Keith Richards or Justin Bieber? I think I'd go with the Keith Richards’ photo over a “Justin Bieber” any day. The photos of Sarah McLachlan are really spectacular.

Thank you.

She looks so natural.

She’s a beauty. I love Sarah. Our photo shoot was so much fun and we connected immediately. I had so many photos to choose from. I couldn’t decide, but I just like the one I picked. The double spread. She just looks amazing in that photo. She loved it.

Did you connect with Sheila E in the same way?

I’m glad you brought her up. I have a long standing working relationship with Sheila. She was one of the first big drummers that I photographed for Paiste Cymbals. We hit it off immediately. I always enjoyed working with Sheila, and she was the reason why I’m now Ringo Starr’s personal photographer. She introduced me to Ringo back on the 2005 All-Star tour. I went out on a photo shoot with Sheila at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles when she was on the All-Star tour, and I was in her dressing room before the show, and Ringo walks in and I’m freaking out. There’s Ringo. She introduced me. After the show his publicist, Elizabeth, asked me if I wanted to do a couple of dates for Ringo, so of course you say ‘yes.’ And that next night he had a show in San Diego at Humphreys, so I go down there and see Ringo again and off to work we went. It was really fun. Of course I started talking about drums. He realized that I’m a drummer, and we’re both left handed and we play right-handed drum kits. So it was a great ice-breaker and we’ve been mates ever since.