Photo Finish is an occasional series looking behind the lens to tell the stories of some of rock and blues’ most iconic images. Today, we take a look at this fantastic 1970 shot of Bo Diddley by Rolling Stone photographer Robert Altman - who is NOT the famed movie director. Mr. Altman passed away in 2021.I’m glad I got to interview him for this story, which originally ran in Guitar Aficionado magazine.
In the winter of 1970, Robert Altman was right in the middle of San Francisco rock world. As Rolling Stone’s chief staff photographer, he had already captured iconic images of Janis Joplin, Santana, the Grateful Dead and Neil Young and he shot the infamous Altamont concert from the lip of the stage, one of many times he shot the Rolling Stones. Given all that, shooting Bo Diddley over a decade after his last hit might not have seemed like such an exciting prospect, but Altman was anything but blasé about the assignment.
“I was really looking forward to meeting Bo,” he says. “He was a huge part of my New York City teenagehood – right up there with Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the whole Alan Freed music scene. Music was as vital to my life as photography soon became.”
Altman met Diddley at the Fillmore West and spent the afternoon and evening hanging around, during soundcheck in the empty auditorium, backstage and throughout his performance.
“Bo was a charmer, a total natural,” Altman recalls. “He was accompanied by his steady young girlfriend who adored him and couldn’t say enough wonderful things about this loving, caring guy. Bo talked a lot about what he did in his off hours - collecting bric-a-brac at Flea Markets all over the world as a second business. Having my idol step off his pedestal like this really made him one of us.
“He was the perfect photo subject... inviting, open, patient and very funny. He liked to joke around and he certainly seemed to enjoy this young photographer’s attention and enthusiasm.”
While Altman was shooting a series of close-up portraits, Diddley turned his back and asked the photographer to wait a minute. Then without warning, he flew around and whipped off his trademark glasses.
“He grinned and exposed these saber vampire teeth,” Altman says. “I quickly changed to a wide angle lens for great effect and got it! Bo at first bite.”
Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.
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