2010.06.DD - Classic Rock - The Story Behind The Shot (Gene Kirkland)

Thanks to @Surge for sending us this article!



PHOTO PASS
THE STORY BEHIND THE SHOT

Band: Guns N' Roses
Location: River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, July 17, 1993
By: Gene Kirkland

"It was the last Use Your Illusion show in Argentina, and they've probably been offstage for 15 minutes," Gene Kirkland says of this candid shot of a GN’R ciggie break. “Slash always put a towel on his head after performing because he got quite sweaty. Axl still has his bandana on. Slash was a bad chain-smoker back then, and Axl quite a bit too. It’s not posed, I just happened to walk into the dressing room.

“It’s a funny shot. People say it looks like a showdown, a confrontation between the two of them, but in fact they were in a good mood, making plans to go home the next day, and discussing the recording of The Spaghetti Incident?. After two-and-a-half years on tour there was a sense of ‘Finally, it’s over.’

“The GN’R split took me by surprise, but Axl always did his own thing,” Kirkland continues. “This shot was taken back in 1993, and Guns N’ Roses was the first time I’d known a band where someone travelled by themselves and had their own dressing room.

“Anything could happen at those shows. I could wake up in the morning and there might not even be a show. Drugs? There were always the rumours, but I never saw anything. Whatever anyone did, they did it themselves, discreetly.

“This photo makes me happy and sad. It’s the last shot I took of Slash and Axl, and the last time I saw them together in GN’R. I’m sad I won’t get any more like that. I think everybody wishes they were still in that same realm right there.”

GENE KIRKLAND
As a teenager in the US, Gene combined his photographer's eye with an entrepreneurial spirit. "I’d sneak my camera into venues and sell photos at high school." he says. "But my break came from Ronnie James Dio, who invited me to the studio for Holy Diver. That gave me my start. I love all kinds of photography, but I just happen to love music because in the early days, bands were fun. Now it's a business."