Chapter 4 - In which Moe the Sleaze basks in his glory.
Summary: In Chapter 3 Moe sold his soul to the Record Coampany Man
In late October, 1998, the deal was finally closed with Warner Bros. Records, money was received, and as promised, I donated it all to the Bridge School. Besides Neil's autograph, the coolest souvenir I've gotten out this this whole thing is the receipt I received from Warner Bros, stating that the payment the sent me was for a "Neil Young - Photo Session". That will look pretty impressive on my resume if I ever decide to change careers!
As I cashed my check and wrote out another to the school, I had visions of that last scene in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark". You know, the one where you see the crated-up ark being packed away in the enormous warehouse full of identical crates, presumably never to be seen again. However, this was not to be the fate of my photo!
In the Spring of 1999, Neil embarked on a solo acoustic tour of the U.S. One of his stops was at the Hult Center in Eugene, OR on March 12th. On that day, The Eugene Register-Guard, the local newspaper ran a rather negative article about Neil's ticket prices. Next to the article was none other than my photo!
The photo also appeared in the April 26, 1999 issue of "New York" magazine and the August, 1999 issue of "Guitar Magazine.
The climax of this story occurred on May 22nd. Neil performed the first of two shows at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. My friend Mike and I had scored front row seats in the orchestra pit for both nights. These tickets included a post-show reception to benefit the Bridge School. After the show, those of us in the first few rows were escorted upstairs to the lobby outside of the balcony. On the way in we were asked to sign a guest book and were then handed a tote bag. Inside the bag was a t-shirt, some literature about the school, and a photograph which was intended for people to have Neil autograph. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the photo was mine along with a photo credit!
After listening to a short speech about the school from Elliot Roberts, Neil's manager, and watching a short video, Neil entered the room. His bodyguard whisked him from person to person for an autograph and perhaps a few quick words. When he got to me, I blurted out that I was the person who had taken that photograph and how I had donated the proceeds to the Bridge School. As I was talking he was autographing the color print I had brought. He also autographed the B/W print that was in my package to my daughter, Lisa. As I spoke it didn't seem that anything I was saying was registering with Neil. But as his security guy pulled him over to the next person, he looked back into my eyes and said, "Thanks, I really appraciate that." It wasn't until a little later that I noticed that he had signed my color print, "Thanks - Neil Young".
Another sign that I had reached the "big time" was when I discovered I had been bootlegged and that an unauthorized poster of my photo was being auctioned off on ebay!
The photo surfaced again in the April, 2000 issue of Ice Magazine and in the February, 2000 issue of Enroute, the inflight magazine for Air Canada. It appeared again on the cover of the May, 2000 issue of the JPC Courier, a German music magazine/catalog.If you are aware of any other instances, I would love to hear about it.