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"FacebookPinterest\n\nPhotographer David Bailey, the man who immortalized rock's original royalty in the '60s, went to Coachella to shoot the music festival's biggest stars. (The tenpage portfolio is on view in the August issue of GQ.) Here, Bailey talks to GQ.com about what happened behind the scenes in Palm Springs, why he doesn't care that Madonna showed up, and how to be a legendary ladykiller.\n\nWhat did you think of Coachella\n\nI didn't go to the concert. I'm getting a bit old for that sort of thing. We were in some poncy hotel and went to fancy restaurants where the packaging's great but the food's average.\n\nDid you ever go to festivals\n\nIn the early '60s I used to go with Mick [Jagger] on tour sometimes. I would hang out and take pictures. It was good fun. Mick was going out with my girlfriend's sister, so that's how I knew him. They weren't rich then. They used to just go in a fucking brokendown car. I used to borrow Jean Shrimpton's Mini to go with them.\n\nHad you been to Palm Springs before the Coachella shoot\n\nNot since '66 or something like that. I was photographing Barbra Streisand for American Vogue. But I don't know why I was in Palm Springs. Maybe she had a house there\n\nHow was the shoot\n\nHard. She had very long fingernails.\n\nWhich of the bands had you heard of prior to the GQ shoot\n\nThe only one I'd heard of was Massive Attack. I do so many pop people, but I don't know much about it. All of the people that I like are all fucking dead.\n\nWho did you get on well withMassive Attack were great. And Gnarls Barkley. I just liked their attitude. They take their music seriously, but they don't take themselves seriously. When he said he wanted to dress up like Marx, I thought he meant Karl Marx, not Groucho Marx. The Zutons were the only ones that were a bit assy. They wanted to keep the clothes, but they couldn't because they were samples. I didn't get involved.\n\nDid you feel a connection to the guys from Wolfmother\n\nThe one with the curly hair who looked like Sai Baba was mad about photography, and so he knew who I was. When they say you're great, you kind of connect.\n\nThere was discussion that Madonna was too commercial for Coachella. Do you care whether or not she performed\n\nThat's all a bit silly. It's only rock 'n' roll. It's like when Bob Dylan went electric. To me it was the best thing that he ever did. It's all nonsense. We're not talking about Picasso, we're talking about entertainment. That's what's different. Nobody was pretentious about it in the '60s.\n\nIs James Blunt anything like the sissy he is in that video\n\nHe's all right\u2014he's just a nice respectful guy. He's a housewife's choice, isn't he If you bring him home, your mother wouldn't object.\n\nHow did the onset behavior of the Coachella musicians differ from the musicians you photographed in the '60s\n\nThey're more aware of themselves now, whereas in the '60s no one seemed to give a shit. It's all of the PR and the people around them, isn't it Usually the British ones are easier to work with than the American ones, because they're not so PRorganized. When you finally get to them, they're all right.\n\nWhat was your greatest moment working with the Rolling Stones\n\nKeith [Richards] to me personifies rock 'n' roll, because he's never changed. Mick's a bit bourgeois, but Keith doesn't like hanging out with lords and ladies. He just loves what he does, and he's happy in his skin. But you're talking forty years ago\u2014I can't remember last week. I can't remember Coachella. Palm Springs is such a funny place. How would you know if you were dead It struck me as a place where people go to live where it's 105 degrees and they all live in airconditioned houses. It's very gay, by the way.\n\nYou have quite a track record with beautiful women\u2014Jean Shrimpton, Catherine Deneuve, Penelope Tree. How do you do it\n\nIf you go for the more beautiful ones, it's easier, because no one goes after them.\n\nWhat do they want to hear\n\nHow beautiful they are. Because they're usually the most insecure. It's the way you do it. You can't do it if you've got a gold bracelet on. But you can do it if you've got a dirty old Tshirt on.\n\nWhat is the signature of a David Bailey photograph\n\nSimplicity. It's always about the person, it's not about me."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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