Metallica, Shaker Heights OH, 1988. I got a call to shoot Metallica. They send me out to Shaker Heights, this little suburban town—I mean, really suburban. I show up, and I’ve got this big-hair hardcore metal band, and I didn’t know what to do with them. I could have put them on a lawn, or anywhere really, in this little town and the incongruence of that image could have been really great. But instead, I was looking for something hardcore.I didn’t know what to do, and I’m running around town, trying to figure it out, but the whole town was so vanilla that I couldn’t find anything cool. So I went into the police station, and go, “”””Hey, I’m Timothy White from Rolling Stone magazine. I’m here to do a photo shoot with Metallica, and I just had this idea—maybe I could put them in the jail cell and do some pictures.”””” I couldn’t believe it, but they said yes.I basically took over the police station. I was a young photographer, but it was very much my approach: if the front door isn’t open, go in the side door—or break a window—whatever it takes. I brought the band in, and of course, they thought it was cool as hell.
