Nothing like coming home and finding Ricky Nelson sitting in your living room!
When I was serving in the military back in 1972, I lived off base (because technically there was no base, just a building) I came home from duty one afternoon to find Rick Nelson sitting in my living room strumming his guitar.
"Oh, hi," I said. "How are you?" I introduced myself and asked, "What brings you here?" Seemed like a reasonable questions.
He explained that my roommates, Larry Bishop, Judy Whitaker and Tom Berndt (known as Larry, Judy and Tom Tom) "will be opening the show for me tonight at Zac's over on the El Camino Real. Just came by for a break before we go back and get set up."
So I took advantage of this highly unusual moment (it's only in the movies that you'd come home and find a rock star just sitting and strumming in your living room), and said to him: "If you have the time, we could quickly run over to a field behind Stanford University and I'll bet in these sunset hours we could get some interesting photographs."
Surprisingly, he quickly agreed, grabbed his guitar, put it in the case and we jumped into my old 1966 Dodge van and set off from my home in Old Menlo Park to Stanford.
Driving there on the pretty busy Camino Real, every once in a while Nelson would crouch down and ask me if I could speed up or slow down because he thought someone in a nearby car recognized him. I'd do it, but asked him: "I mean, Rick, you've been on television all your life and you're a world-famous singer. How can you expect anonymity? Wouldn't that be a failure if you were?"
I received no reply.
We arrived at the field just behind Stanford just as the sun was setting, so pretty much against my beliefs, as Nelson sat with his back to the sun casting a shadow over his body I used an electronic flash to light him.
Nelson was about 12 when the family got its own television show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–66). (Here's the first episode.) A cute, talented kid, he was as much a star of the show as, say, Michael Jackson had been with his family's productions.
As a 19-year-old, he moved to a very successful big-screen hit, Rio Bravo (1959), with John Wayne and Dean Martin. He received a Golden Globe nomination for "Most Promising Male Newcomer" for his performance.
He had recorded his first single in 1957, the same year releasing the album "Ricky," which hit No. 1. The next year, his single "Poor Little Fool" reached No. 1. All the while, he stared in the family's long-lived television series.
He would have another No. 1 hit, "Travelin' Man," in 1961. The year of our encounter he released what would be perhaps his most famous hit, "Garden Party." While it rose to only No. 6 in the overall charts, it was No. 1 in the adult contemporary.
He would have no more hits before his death in an airplane crash in 1985.
You can purchase a copy of my portrait of Ricky Nelson.
When I was serving in the military back in 1972, I lived off base (because technically there was no base, just a building) I came home from duty one afternoon to find Rick Nelson sitting in my living room strumming his guitar.
"Oh, hi," I said. "How are you?" I introduced myself and asked, "What brings you here?" Seemed like a reasonable questions.
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He explained that my roommates, Larry Bishop, Judy Whitaker and Tom Berndt (known as Larry, Judy and Tom Tom) "will be opening the show for me tonight at Zac's over on the El Camino Real. Just came by for a break before we go back and get set up."
So I took advantage of this highly unusual moment (it's only in the movies that you'd come home and find a rock star just sitting and strumming in your living room), and said to him: "If you have the time, we could quickly run over to a field behind Stanford University and I'll bet in these sunset hours we could get some interesting photographs."
Surprisingly, he quickly agreed, grabbed his guitar, put it in the case and we jumped into my old 1966 Dodge van and set off from my home in Old Menlo Park to Stanford.
Driving there on the pretty busy Camino Real, every once in a while Nelson would crouch down and ask me if I could speed up or slow down because he thought someone in a nearby car recognized him. I'd do it, but asked him: "I mean, Rick, you've been on television all your life and you're a world-famous singer. How can you expect anonymity? Wouldn't that be a failure if you were?"
I received no reply.
We arrived at the field just behind Stanford just as the sun was setting, so pretty much against my beliefs, as Nelson sat with his back to the sun casting a shadow over his body I used an electronic flash to light him.
About Ricky Nelson
Nelson was about 12 when the family got its own television show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–66). (Here's the first episode.) A cute, talented kid, he was as much a star of the show as, say, Michael Jackson had been with his family's productions.
He had recorded his first single in 1957, the same year releasing the album "Ricky," which hit No. 1. The next year, his single "Poor Little Fool" reached No. 1. All the while, he stared in the family's long-lived television series.
He would have another No. 1 hit, "Travelin' Man," in 1961. The year of our encounter he released what would be perhaps his most famous hit, "Garden Party." While it rose to only No. 6 in the overall charts, it was No. 1 in the adult contemporary.
He would have no more hits before his death in an airplane crash in 1985.
You can purchase a copy of my portrait of Ricky Nelson.
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