"Jon Bon Jovi recorded his first solo record and the video he made for the first single of this record was shot in Moab, UT. As you can see in this photo, Jon Bon Jovi has a guitar and looks like he's singing. It's a real helicopter and we're right in the middle of the scene.

The Butte mountain massif in southern Utah, which leads steeply up to the height of about 900 meters, was the location where this music video was made for 3 days. I had an assignment for People magazine to document the whole thing. When I took this picture, I was about a quarter of a mile away. I photographed John with a very long telephoto lens and in the helicopter is the cameraman who shoots the video. And he got pretty damn close to John during filming.

And that's one of those moments where the whole thing looked like a twilight zone to me. But this is real. There's nothing wrong with that. And the mountain wall in the background is probably about 3 miles away from where I am. The great thing about this photo is that it really shows how we used to do it. In the movie we are there, those were the old times and that's how it is, it's all real."

"Every single piece of it." - NEAL

[audio mp3="https://wp.lab80.code-x.de/limelight/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Jon_Bon_-Jovi_-Helicopter_Neal.mp3"][/audio]

The Story behind the Picture – by Neal Preston



Neal Preston - Exhilarated and Exhausted

BOOK TIP

Neal Preston is one of the greatest rock photographers of all time. "Exhilarated and Exhausted" is an unrestricted retrospective of his 40-year career. This was produced in collaboration with Neal and is the first time he has granted unrestricted access to his legendary archive – it is considered one of the most important and extensive photo collections in the music industry. This extraordinary band is a who's who of rock kings.

Neal has been the official tour photographer for Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bruce Springsteen and The Who, and has also photographed extensively the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson and many more.

The book includes his portraits, backstage moments, live performances, post-performance highs and lows, and outtakes. Neal's photographs vibrate with a palpable and inimitable intensity. Neal is a true insider, and the images are brought to life by his liner text – a stunning insight into life as a rock 'n' roll photographer on tour.