SplatterTribe: You’ve recently been involved with a charity auction of some EXCLUSIVE Ozzy Osbourne photo’s you have snapped through the years, tell us a little bit about that.

Mark Weiss: Well, Jack (Osbourne) interviewed me for the movie (God Bless Ozzy Osbourne). I was one of his last interviews. You know, Jack, every time I seen him roll with Ozzy, he’s either filming Ozzy or has someone out there filming him. It was going on for a couple of years. So when he told me he was about to be done, I was like, Oh my God, I want to be part of it. I just didn’t think it was ever gonna be done. He says, ‘you know, we’re on our final week of wrapping it up. Do you want to be part of it? You’ve got to come to L.A. and I’ll interview you.’ So I hopped on a plane and I went to his house. He interviewed me and, you know, you never know what's going to end up on the floor and (what’s gonna) make it in to this thing. (They) got to see what they need. So I started talking about how I met (Ozzy) and how I found out Sharon and Ozzy were a couple and all of that. It ended up making it in the movie.

So, a few months ago, he called me up and said they’re having the premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and I said, “Great.” So they invited me to come in and walk the carpet because I was in it and I was his (Ozzy’s) photographer for 30 years. Then I said, “wait a minute, why don’t we do a gallery of photo’s?” Some of the photos were used in the movie. “Why don’t we have a gallery at the premiere so when people walk in they images of Ozzy in the early part of his career?” So he said "let me ask my mom", because she is Executive Producer, as well, and she liked the idea. Then I started figuring out which pictures to use.

Then I said, why we don’t just stick with the pictures we did at the Andaz Hotel, which is the old Riot House. What we did was, about a year and a half ago, almost 2 years, Ozzy played the Sunset Strip Music Festival (in L.A.) and they closed down The Strip. That’s when I first started getting my gallery together and started marketing my old, iconic photographs. So again, I asked Sharon, “If I come up with a place, will Ozzy come and unveil the photographs that week?” So she said, "Yeah, if it’s the right place." So immediately I thought of the Riot House. I didn’t know it had changed to the Andaz. They basically spent millions of dollars and put a face lift on it. They went from a Hyatt to this by far, really beautiful hotel. (It has) the same interior, just a bunch of new stuff. So at that point they weren’t really embracing their Rock N' Roll past. You walk into it, you see artwork that has nothing to do with Rock N' Roll. I said this would be a great place to do it. So within about two weeks, I got it together and there are 12 images, that are still up there after a year and a half. And Ozzy played the festival and right after the show, he came over with Sharon and he unveiled it. We did some photo’s. It’s on my website.

I figured I would use those 12 photos (for the premiere) since they are already approved by everybody and they have a little bit of history to them. So those are the photo’s we’re using for the auction/ charity. For Sharon’s Colon Cancer (Program) (The Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program, or SOCCP www.sharonosbourne.com/support.html)and also this other charity I’m involved in, The LetUsInCampaign(www.facebook.com/LetUsInsk=info,  www.thewomenandcancerfund.org) another cancer related thing. So we put them both together. Ozzy signed (the photos) the next day at the hotel, me and him and we put them on eBay.  They sold for about $500 to $600 apiece. There were four that weren’t sold and one with Ozzy in an Easter Bunny outfit was in the green room and we just forgot to sell. I’d like to place that one in the Hard Rock or something like that. We’re gonna have another auction at some point. (We may) sell them off to the Hard Rock or somewhere. But yeah, that’s it in a nutshell. It’s not over yet. I’m gonna be taking down the photos that are at the Andaz Hotel and then replacing them with another set of photographs. (I’ll) take them down for another charity auction.

SplatterTribe: Had any of these photos been previous seen?

Mark Weiss: No, the photos that are up there were very unique photographs from the archives. There might have been a couple, like there’s Ozzy in a tutu. Not that particular shot (has been used), but (a shot) from that photo session was. He was in a pink tutu wit cowboy boots. We did a takeoff of ‘Ferries Wear Boots’ (Black Sabbath) and it kind of tied into this other concept that he did.

SplatterTribe: What kind of stock pile do you have and how do you keep all of your photographs? I mean over the decades you probably have…millions would probably be an understatement, wouldn’t it?

Mark Weiss: Yeah, well it’s 3 decades actually. I started in ’76. There in filing cabinets and as I get request for gallery shows, I scan them. I still submit to magazines like Classic Rock in the UK. Whenever they want something from Led Zeppelin, or Queen, David Bowie or whatever, that I might have shot in the 70’s or the 80’s, I’ll dig them up. I have a 3 car garage full of filing cabinets.

SplatterTribe: Do you have them organized enough to be able to find what you are looking for?

Mark Weiss: Yeah, I mean, it might take some doing, but they’re in the files. Back in the day when I used to shoot for Circus and Hit Parader and all those magazines, I usually put them back in a pile. So I might not have them in the right year or something, so it’s not totally organized.

SplatterTribe: Where you ever as close with any other artists as you are with Ozzy?

Mark Weiss: Well, you know, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Poison, Bret Michaels, I'm in touch with all these guys, whether I still shoot (them) or I don’t. I mean, I do still shoot them, but I almost just shoot for fun. Magazines aren’t like they used to be. I’m shooting (now, because) I’m starting to do my book. So, there’s a reason why I’m shooting. I’m just not making a living off of it. You can’t anymore. Even with the big bands, magazines just don’t do what they used to.

SplatterTribe: Is there a chance of having several books full of your stockpile photos?

Mark Weiss: Yeah, I’m working on negotiating right now to do a series of books branding my name. I just want to do it right. There’s a lot of photographers that put out a book and it’s this side on this side and that. It doesn’t really have continuity to it. I like to really have continuity and in the book you’ll know, in essence, it’s kind of like the same vibe. It’s more me as opposed to the book company having creative control. I need to have creative control on my images. A lot of photographers might not go that route and leave it in their (the book company’s) hands. But I’ve been putting this off long enough… So I want to do it right.

SplatterTribe: So you’ve have you been planning this for a long time?

Mark Weiss: Yeah. Yeah. I just, I thought it was gonna be more money than it was. I’ve waited so long that books, they don’t even sell anymore. It’s starting to come around again, but... You know, in the old days, that’s all they had was books. Now it’s the internet and all the photo (sites). You know, I hope I didn’t wait too long. Hopefully there may be a resurgence. I think people would want to see it in that form, hardcover or coffee table, something to take a look at.

SplatterTribe: Do you ever destroy or delete any photos or do you keep everything.

Mark Weiss: Oh I keep everything. I mean with the digital, I get rid of a lot of that stuff. Nowadays people go crazy taking pictures…

SplatterTribe: Are you the type of persona that always has a camera on you?

Mark Weiss: Naw, not really. No, I never really (did) I just had one if I needed it... I might have something, but…

SplatterTribe: Your bio said you go your first camera at 14 for mowing yards, what peeked your interest in photography, to begin with?

Mark Weiss: I really had no interest at all. I was 14 and wanted to mow lawns and this guy was like, “I’ve got a camera, if you want to mow my yard, at the end of the summer, I’ll give you this camera.” I go, “alright, what the heck?”

After about 8 cuts he goes, “Aright, here’s the camera.” So he gave me the camera. I still have it. I’m looking at it right now, actually. It’s in a glass case. It was a Bell and Howell Canon Camera. When I got it, I just started shooting pictures of my dog, my brother (a motor cross racer) and then I started developing pictures. My father got me (equipment) for a dark room to myself, (it was) in the bathroom, really. Then that developed into a dark room in the back of our garage.

I just liked the whole fact of putting a paper that’s blank into the chemical and next thing you know, it’s a photo.  And then I started going to concerts. I got bored after about a year of shooting my brother and my dog. So I put it down. I started going to concerts and would look at the photographers in the photo pit and be like, “Wow, that would be cool to be that close, take pictures and hang out, maybe meet the band.” That sparked my interest and I started sneaking my camera into the concerts.

I think one of the first concerts I snuck it into was Peter Frampton at the (Madison Square) Garden in ’75. I was all the way in the back and I was like, “no big deal, I’ll just blow up the pictures really big and it’ll be close”, (or) so I thought…

When I went into the dark room and did it, I didn’t realize about grain or anything. I never went to school for it. I didn’t know that if you blow it up too much, it get grainy or unfocused.

So then I said, “Alright, I just need to get a little closer.” So I would find my way into the concerts. I’d sneak in, climb over the chairs, break the chairs apart. You know, (I’d) get aggressive about getting into the first 10 rows. Then once I started getting their pictures, I would start selling them at the concerts. You know, like when Zeppelin would be playing for a week, I would go the first day and then stay up all night, take about 100 to 200 pictures and sell them for like a buck apiece.

I did that for a while and ironically enough, my first Rock Star that I really shot (professionally) was in 1978 or '79 was Peter Frampton, at his house. He was taking publicity photos. This was right after the big live album (Frampton Comes Alive!) he put out. They wanted someone that wasn’t really polished or a big photographer. They just wanted someone that was (a) regular (person). They just wanted to take some pictures around his house. The picture that they used was a picture of him and his dog Rocky and it was by the doghouse.

Then funny enough…You know, I got a picture of me and Peter hanging out at his house (from that shoot). Then about 2 years ago, he played at the Stone Pony, around my house in Asbury Park (New Jersey) and I wanted to say hi and I brought the picture of me and him. The tour manager just took it and then they left. I was like, “….alright…” I wrote a note and said, “Can you have Peter sign it, wish me the best and I’ll hang it up in my office?” I mean, that’s all I wanted to do… So, I kind of forgot about it. I had given him my address and about 2 months ago, believe it or not, I got it in the mail. The reason it took so long is I had moved. It was that picture and he’d signed it. He wrote, “Mark, I remember that day well…” So it made me feel really good. It was kind of cool.

SplatterTribe: Your story of how you started by sneaking in the venue with your camera in your boot and taking pictures is pretty unique story because it can’t really ever happen again, in modern times.

Mark Weiss: Well now everyone has a camera. It’s kind of crazy now. It’s a different market. It’s completely different. It’s a different time. Nowadays you almost don’t even have to do it because everyone has cameras. They let them in now. You can’t stop it, you know what I mean? If they see someone with a really big camera (they’ll do something), but you don’t even need a really big camera anymore. There all little.

SplatterTribe: So do you do more photography than just musical acts?

Mark Weiss: Yeah, I do, but…

SplatterTribe: I had come across another website you had, where there pictures of all these broken items.

Mark Weiss: Oh no, that’s a different Mark Weiss. You mean the advertising guy? Yeah, he moved into New York and we’re livin’ in New York at the same time. We’re getting (confused). (People) will be like, “I want to see your portfolio,” and I’ll send them a Rock N' Roll one. They’re like, “well, what’s this?” And then they would do the same kind of thing (to him). So, it’s kind of funny.

SplatterTribe: So what do you have coming up? You have any big events or do you take it day by day?

Mark Weiss: I take it day by day. I mean, I think the next thing go back to the Andaz and follow up on the Ozzy shots that I left. I’m gonna switch out the Andaz photos and once I do that, I’ll be promoting that. And then there is the book.

SplatterTribe: Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Mark Weiss: Just go to the www.weissguygallery.com  and check out what I got goin’ on there, write me an email. If there are any bands out there that need photo shoots, I mean, I work with local bands. Even if it’s not even in my area. Fly me out there and if I’m not doing anything, and if I like what's goin on, and get to get away from where I am now... I love traveling and stuff. So any bands that are out there, I don’t want anybody to be intimidated by what I might charge. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, so send me and email at mark@markweissgallery.com.