Photographer Lisa Johnson has had plenty of opportunity to meet rock stars in her work. But to her, the real stars are their guitars. Over the past 17 years, Johnson has taken shots of Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Keith Richards’ instruments, plus many others — and has now compiled her images into a book, “108 Rock Star Guitars,” out Tuesday.
It all began with Les Paul, the man who invented the solid-body electric guitar.
When Johnson moved to New York in 1997, she says “I had been interested in photographing guitars for a while.” She went to Paul first, meeting him at the Iridium, where he was playing.
“He knew I was trying to make art by documenting the details and scratches on these guitars. He told me, ‘Your pictures are going to inspire young people to buy guitars and personalize them.’ ” Paul, who died in 2009, wrote the foreward for “108 Rock Star Guitars” — and, fittingly, the Les Paul Trio is performing at Tuesday’s book-release party at the Cutting Room.
Here are a few of Johnson’s most famous portraits and the stories behind them:
Keith Richards/Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones)
“These vintage guitars are rarely taken out because they’re so valuable. I’ll bet that each of these could fetch between $200,000 and $500,000. [But] Keith and Ronnie [sometimes] use them to warm up on backstage before a show. I’m trying to capture the wear and tear, and you can see how Keith’s skull ring has gouged out a mark on the pick guard on this 1952 Gibson. On the back of Ronnie’s guitar, he’s taped on a newspaper clipping from the first time he ever played with the Stones. These are the little personal touches I try to bring out.”
Slash (Guns ’N Roses/Velvet Revolver)
“His 1987 Gibson is one of my favorite guitars because it has a great story behind the long cigarette burn you can see on the front of it. Apparently, one time he was playing with Alice Cooper and the cigarette ember fell onto his guitar but he kept playing. That’s what caused that scar. A lot of Guns ’N’ Roses fans have told me they always wondered where that came from — and now they know!”
Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
“This 1968 Gibson is the one you always see Jimmy performing with. It’s become part of Led Zeppelin’s iconography because he used it to play ‘Stairway To Heaven’ live. So many fans of the band were inspired by that and went out and bought the exact same model.
Nils Lofgren (E Street Band)
“I drove out to Nils’ house in Arizona to shoot his guitars and when I arrived there, his wife had coffee ready and his five dogs met me. It was like coming home to your family. His 1960 Telecaster is cool because the pick guard is covered in cloth which was the same cloth he used to make his suit. So back in the day, he matched his guitar!
Robbie Krieger (The Doors)
“Robbie came over to my house with three guitars. When I was photographing one of them, he would play one of the others and serenade me with Doors songs like ‘Spanish Caravan’ while I worked. He was always very influenced by flamenco guitarist so when he was 17 years old, his dad went on a business trip to Spain and bought him a Jose Ramirez guitar. It’s from 1963 but you’d never know it to look at it. It’s in beautiful condition.”