Jon Bon Jovi, 1988-1999. I remember the day I got the call to shoot Bon Jovi‘s album cover. I was a Jersey boy and a fan—it was a big deal—and the album was called New Jersey. So I jump in the Porsche and haul down the parkway to scout locations. I’ve got the long hair, the fast car, the cool gigs—I’m on top of the world…and then I hear sirens. Apparently I was going 90mph. Lucky for me the cop didn’t feel like going to court, so he downgraded it to 89. It was gonna be a good day.I end up at the amusement pier in Seaside Heights and convince the owner to rent it to me for the shoot. The day comes and all these kids show up screaming—it’s chaos and the band’s loving it. It was this huge moment. Jon and I hit it off that day. We were close in age, had the big hair, the Jersey attitude. And then I got hired to do another shoot, and another, and another.I went to London to shoot them for the cover of Rolling Stone for the Wanted Dead or Alive tour. I shot all the shows, behind the scenes, but days passed and I didn’t have the shot. I’m sitting in my hotel room like what do I do with these guys? And then a circus in town pops up on tv with this jumping horse, and I’m like you know what, why not? So I find this guy Loris the horse wrangler, and tell him I want to get his horse in the studio with Bon Jovi. It was insane—but he said yes. They get the horse to the location, and we’ve got to get him up this old freight elevator. It’s this huge fucking horse, but we finally get him into the studio. I’m like alright Loris, we need the horse to jump a bunch of times behind Jon. And he’s like what? It’s a horse. You get a couple jumps max. Nowadays you look at that picture and think it’s easy, just use Photoshop or AI. But that day, it was this massive horse schlepped up an elevator, a wrangler named Loris, and a barefoot Jon Bon Jovi holding a pose while the building shook with each jump. It was the cover, and people still reference that image today.Jon and my relationship grew from there. We’ve shot tours, movies, family portraits. We survived the 80s and the 90s. A couple of Jersey kids chasing big dreams—and all these years later, we’re still doing it.
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