MY WALK ON THE WILD SIDE OF ROCK N’ ROLL

How he outlived fellow party animals David Bowie and Lou Reed. Why Debbie Harry was ‘one of the lads’. And what Kate Moss did that shocked him. As a new film lifts the lid on the life of the legendary lensman, he shares his secrets with More

It was the cigarettes that killed David Bowie and Lou Reed,’ claims legendarily outspoken photographer Mick Rock. ‘They chain-smoked for over 40 years, and gave it up for the last few years but it was too late. David smoked constantly – you will see in all the pictures and videos, he’s got a fag on.

‘Lou and I were very close,’ he adds. ‘I did a book with Lou but he passed away before he could sign all the signature pages.’

Rock was Reed’s close friend and Bowie’s confidante from the early Seventies until his death in 2016.

The lensman, who turns 70 next year, helped Bowie establish his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust during the glam era, and now Rock’s own extraordinary existence has been turned into a documentary film.

Shot! The Psycho Spiritual Mantra Of Rock, directed by Barney Clay, documents the photographer’s crazed life and near-death experiences as he searches for the ultimate rock’n’roll image. But Rock also succumbed to the debauched lifestyle and entered into a spiral of addiction, penury and heartache. He became hooked on cocaine, spent the Eighties virtually penniless and lost many friends to drugs and disease. In the basement bunker of a stylish London hotel, Rock could be

mistaken for a star himself. ‘I get a certain amount of attention,’ he admits, modestly ruffling his shaggy hairdo. ‘I’m in museums and cultural institutions all over the world.’

He befriended Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett at Cambridge and photographed the cover of his first solo album, The Madcap

Laughs, released in 1970. By then, Barrett was already displaying symptoms of mental illness, exacerbated by reckless use of hallucinogens.

‘I did acid with him one time, and we had a lots of fun,’ Rock recalls. ‘People say, “Oh you took LSD with Syd Barrett, it must have been so heavy.” But we just laughed a lot.’

Social flexibility was key to Rock’s success. He was as comfortable working with bad lads like Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott as he was with Kate Moss. Despite having walked on the wild side in the Seventies, Rock conquered a 20-year drug habit and is now clean and relatively healthy. ‘I smoke a little marijuana now and that’s it, nothing else. My obsessions are kundalini yoga, massage and acupuncture.’

Such are Rock’s heightened energy levels during a shoot, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr likens a photo-session with him in the Shot! documentary to ‘taking crack’.

‘I’d like to work with Bruno Mars,’ Rock muses. ‘Rihanna would interest me too. I’d love to shoot her – especially as I hear she’s a bit of a whack-brainer. Adds a bit of flavour to it.’ Should this occur, Riri may be privy to Rock’s pre-shoot preparations, which include him standing on his head for 30 minutes before taking a single frame.

‘It gives you incredible strength,’ he reveals. ‘Even in the cocaine years, if you stood on your head for half an hour, the combination of the drugs, the blood and the oxygen...’ He rocks with laughter. ‘Never mind taking photographs, you could make love to a gorilla for a month!’