Treats! Magazine Issue Two | Page 31

bathroom with all the tile. I put them in the bathtub and I set up my tripod and my big two-and-a-quarter camera and shot the picture. But in the picture for the album cover, shot with my wide-angle lens, was the toilet. I had no idea when we produced it and neither did Lou. Back then you couldn’ t put a toilet on the cover of anything and sell it at Sears or one of those chain stores. So Lou came up with a great idea: to put a little sticker on the shrink-wrap that said,“ Including‘ California Dreaming’.” And that covered the toilet. Kid opens it up and there it is! Then The Doors and Jim Morrison enter your life... Jac Holzman, who owned Elektra Records, called me on the telephone and said,“ I have a group I want you to photograph. They are out at the Whisky a Go Go.” I saw them and I liked them so I had them scheduled to come into my studio. I wanted to do them in the studio so I could get some very intimate pictures of them. Then in walked Jim Morrison. He said,“ Hey, Guy.” I was like,“ How do you know me?” He says,“ We went to school together.”“ Oh my God. Jim! We were at UCLA together in the philosophy department and we used to read Nietzsche together.” Well, I put Jim’ s face forward and I designed the cover and put the other three guys as his eyes and part of his brain. But I made Jim the star on purpose’ cause I knew it could sell the album. Jac liked it and put that on the cover. He always let me do what I wanted for the cover. Most people don’ t know this but you actually got Jim to take his shirt off for a photo session before the famous“ Young Lion” pictures a year later by Joel Brodsky. Once we realized that we were in school together and that I was already famous with my album covers, I said,“ Look, Jim. You’ re wearing this shirt and it’ s embarrassing because it has ribbons on it. I know it’ s a hippie shirt but you can buy it in Venice Beach and you can buy it anywhere.” It would have dated him. I said,“ I’ m gonna take your shirt off. You’ ll be alright. Trust me. And I’ m gonna make you look like Jesus Christ.” And that’ s what it was. And they went with it. Did you ever shoot them again? Yes, at the Westwood Veteran’ s Cemetery in 1968. It was raining and very hard to take pictures without getting ugly buildings in the background. The one image on my website has Jim on the side. I was worried about putting it out there because it was too macabre so I didn’ t push that photo. I loved the Vietnam commentary being done in front of me. Anything that was political. Morrison had a sense of fashion, too. He understood. He was super educated, smart. Then I went years without seeing him. One day, I was taking pictures of Natalie Wood in Malibu and this limousine pulled up and the window came down. Well, this burly 250-pound man with a full beard and scraggly hair says,“ Guy, it’ s Jim Morrison.” I didn’ t recognize him at all. He asked,“ What are you doing?”“ Well, I’ m just finishing up some work and then I’ m moving to Spain and I’ ll be there for quite a while.” And he said he was moving to France in the next week. So I said,“ Well, shit, we gotta get in touch.” That was the last time I saw him. I moved to Spain and he moved to

France and he died a couple of months later. To this day John Densmore and I are friends; we’ ve played tennis over the years. Robbie I saw just a couple of months ago. What was Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys like to shoot? I love Brian. He has such a child-like innocence— and very playful. One of the things about studying Buddhism all my life is getting that playful side, exposing it and not being afraid of it— just leting it out. Everything Brian did I loved. Even the silly songs like“ Surfer Girl” I thought were brilliant. I saw Brian take pop music into a new direction. I feel it an honor that I was at the recording session for the vocals of“ Good Vibrations.” I had chills up and down my arms and back the whole time. I had never seen anything like it and to be in that recording session and to see them practice in the halls getting their harmonies. Holy shit! That was a real treat. It’ s one of the highlights of my musical life. And now later this year Capitol Records is releasing the SMiLE box set with the original 1966 and’ 67 sessions for that album, including“ Good Vibrations.” I took photos and I’ m involved in the new book for the package. Over the years you branched out and began photographing models, actress’ and beautiful women. How did that come about? Well, I shot Peggy Lipton; she was dating a friend and would come over to my house regularly. She did an album and I shot a lot of pictures of her, not just for her album cover but pictures for magazines as well. She worked so well on camera. Peggy is a beautiful girl. And she was great. She photographed good in black and white and color. And Shani Wallis, right? Yes. She’ s an English actress who did theater in the West End, and was in the movie Oliver! She was part of the British Invasion. Shani had worked with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In a photo session for Home magazine, a supplement in the L. A. Times, I shot her with the British flag, out of the blue, really. No stylist, no hanger’ s-on. The flag was there and I put it into the background of the shot. What was Nico like to shoot? What an event that was! I ran into her before she died. I saw

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