I had a quick chat with him and here's what he had to say

She took a liking to me and immediately included me in her well thought-out schemes of gaining backstage entry at live performances. She was in fact, a walking backstage pass and took me under her wing ala the film, "Almost Famous". I was "floored" when I first saw that film. It was like watching my own experience on the big screen. I went with Valerie to my first Punk show to see The Dictators. I had recently begun photography classes at a local community college, so I brought my camera along - a 35mm Petri that I purchased at a pawn shop for $100. Valerie got us backstage to hang out with the band after their set. I engaged in a conversation with their drummer (at that time), and mentioned that I really liked the Ramones. His face drew an immediate smirk and he replied, "We're way better than them". From a musical perspective, they actually were better however, that didn't stop Valerie and I from later seeing the Ramones (with the Runaways as the supporting act), the next month. The show was so packed and crowded that even Valerie's charm, wit and good looks couldn't get us backstage. I remember that performance as being extremely exhilarating and very loud. It was a visual experience not seen before during that period of rock music history.

I was raised in Houston, Texas in an upper-middle class family of opened minded and musically inclined parents. My mother brought home the Beatles first album to my sister and I, when I was 4/years old. I gravitated to rock music ever since. It became more intense when at the age of eight, my father came home one evening with two albums under his arm; "Aretha Franklin's Greatest Hits" for my sister and an album by new artist Jimi Hendrix called "Are You Experienced". He handed it to me and said, "I don't know who this is, but you'll probably like it". He soon found out the truth of his prophetic statement. Jimi Hendrix quickly became my idol (and remained so for many years), and his style influenced my penchant for rock music with dynamic guitars and a powerful drum/bass rhythm sections such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Creem, Led Zeppelin etc. At the age of 12, my mother eventually bought me a Ludwig drum kit that was identical to the one that Ringo Starr used in the early days of the Beatles. I suppose she'd had enough of my banging on the furniture and the dashboard of her car with the cardboard coat hangers that I collected and used as drum sticks. She also arranged for me to take private lessons with noted drummer and music publisher, Joe Rainer. ZZ Top's drummer was also one of Joe's former students.

[Now], I listen to a mixture of new and old rock as well as an eclectic mix of various other music genres.

Again, I point to my mother as an influential force in my artistic endeavors. She was a photography enthusiast and was rarely seen without her circa. 1960 Polaroid Land camera - the first of it's kind. She subscribed to a large number of magazines during my childhood including LIFE, LOOK, VOGUE, BAZZAR, ESQUIRE and many others. This was the era when magazine photography was an incredible, visual force and truly impacted upon the minds of viewers and readers and left an indelible impression. I devoured these pages of spectacular photography from the likes of Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Gordon Parks and Art Kane. As I got older, I began subscribing to music publications like Circus, Creem and Rolling Stone magazines where I was introduced to the photography of, Jim Marshall, Bob Gruen, and Mick Rock. It was at the age of 19, that I made the life decision to pursue photography as a career.

Portraits and photojournalism are my stronger points however; during the course of my career I've photographed commercial products, fashion and lifestyle imagery for magazines, catalogs and brochures.

Not always however, black & white photography is most certainly my preference. I find it to be a perfect compliment to my organic style of portraiture.

It was just one of those proverbial moments of being at the right place at the right time. I was out one evening to see a friend's band that was playing at the Pyramid in the East Village which was my neighborhood at the time. After their set was finished, I headed over to the bar for a drink when my friend came up to me and said, "Look who's sitting at the bar". I went over and sat next to Dee Dee and we began chatting - or more accurately; I began "listening" - Dee Dee did all the chatting. He was a great orator and for some reason he recognized a degree of sincerity in my appoach and immediately agreed to allow me intimate access into his world. I still have the small phone book of which I entered his phone number. This was also the first time that I was informed of his real name, as he instructed me to ask for Douglas Colvin when contacting him at the Chelsea Hotel, because he changed rooms quite often.

Here's an interesting fact: Only 10% of the entire summer that I spent with Dee Dee involved actually photographing him. Also during that time, he never once expressed any interest in seeing the results so I never bothered to show him any of the proofs. The images that have since been published represent only a fraction of the frames that I actually captured.

From 1993-1999, the negatives lay dormant in my files. Dee Dee only saw them for the first time when he visited the gallery that exhibited my one-man-show of those photographs in September of 1999. I've had many, many phone conversations with Dee Dee over the years yet; I've only salvaged two recordings of his messages - one of them he made shortly after visiting my exhibition. Later upon returning his call, Dee Dee said to me, "You got me while I was still look'n good".

Well, I do have an extensive list of prospective subjects to photograph as part of my works-in-progress portrait series slated for a future photo book.

Although I was quite young at the time, I would love to have photographed an extensive essay of Jimi Hendrix. His legacy continues to endure as one of rock music's most intriguing personalities of the 20th Century.

That would depend on who you ask first!

If you ask me, I'd say to have the opportunity to continue my quest of documenting fascinating personalities for posterity...if you ask my wife; it's take down the garbage!