Jorie: What's the funniest thing he ever did for a photo? What about that photo of him in the hot tub backstage from "04 Summer Tour?"

Bill: That was cool. You know the thing about that was, it was really cool. There were two hot tubs in one of his dressing rooms. I think it was in Leipzig, Germany (June 4, 2004). So we just did a bunch of shots there. At the next show we were sitting backstage and he was looking at the pictures. And all of a sudden it hit me! It was very much like "Help!" (The Beatles second film from 1965). Remember when Paul gets a shot, shrinks and becomes a miniature? All of a sudden we were cracking up. I said, "This is like 'Help!' the 'adventures of Paul on the floor.'" Like he's in some sort of a basin. (In "Help!" he was in a huge ashtray). So that was really fun.

Jorie: What about the band sitting around getting pedicures and reading tabloids?

Bill: Oh, yeah. That's probably it. Jorie you're probably right. You reminded me. That's probably the funniest thing that shot.

The thing about that shot which I thought was kind of cool was it sort of evolved. Paul decided he wanted to get a manicure 'cause he gets a blister on his finger from strumming. He has his own unique strum that he does on "Yesterday." It creates a lot of tension on one of his fingers and he tends to get these blisters. So he was going in for a manicure and the whole band said that they wanted to come. This was in Los Angeles.

One day we all just got into our cars and drove down to this little off the side of the road nail place. They were sitting there doing their pedicure. And I thought of the opening scene in "A Hard Day's Night" where they're at the train station sitting there reading a newspaper. That just popped in my head for some reason and I told Paul about that. I said, "I just remembered that scene where you guysfans were chasing you and you were reading a newspaper. I have that idea." He said, "Cool!" I said, "Why don't you pick up a magazine and start reading it and I'll snap away." So that's how that picture came about.

Jorie: Were there times when Paul wanted to be left alone and he told you so?

Bill: Actually no, he never really did say that to me. I think the reason is because, I have pretty good radar and I try to be empathetic with whomever I'm shooting, whether it's Paul McCartney or whoever. I just have a sense of where the line is you know with people.

There have been times when I've sensed that he's exhausted and he really wants time alone and just wants to go into his dressing room and not have me follow him in there. I just let him do it. We don't talk about it. He doesn't tell me to do it or not to do it. I just sense it you know. And then I sense times like when I can go into his dressing room to hang and shoot away. I think my radar is pretty tuned into him. He's never had to ask me to not shoot or not to come in here. I've pretty much sensed it myself.

Jorie: Can you describe the toughest photo assignment you had working with Paul? Was it shooting the aerial shots of the trucks?

Bill: That was really fun.

Jorie: Was that writing on the trucks done with Photoshop? (A digital retouching program) It looks really crisp.

Bill: I suggested that they Photoshop the name on all the trucks. They didn't do that. So the name was actually on the first two trucks. No, that wasn't Photoshopped in. They did put the names on there.

I was up in a helicopter over Alligator Alley (Florida). The trucks were driving down from Tampa going to Ft. Lauderdale for the last two gigs on the Driving U.S. tour (May 17 and 18, 2002). They basically had a helicopter and a whole police entourage. It was set up so we could do some filming. I was up in the helicopter and Mark Haefeli's (producer/director of the "Back in the U.S." DVD) crew was up there shooting footage that was used in the DVD.

Jorie: That's usually a very busy highway.

Bill: They blocked the whole thing off. That's the power of Paul McCartney right there. It was early in the morning I mean it was sunrise basically. I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning for that shot. They closed off about ten miles of Alligator Alley.

I think maybe one of the hardest things I did, was renting a huge 600 mm lens with a monopod. It's a cannon really. It's like a bazooka. It weighs a ton. I wanted to get a different angle so I rented this lens when I was in London for a week when they were playing at Earls Court (April 18-22, 2003). I took that lens to the back of venue and up the side. I was shooting from the second tier all the way down and was able to get a 'knees up' kind of framing on Paul for that shot. But walking around with that thing for two or three performances was hell, really hell.

Usually they use those lenses for sports and put them on tripods to keep them stationary, but I was all over the venue with that thing. You're also walking through thousands of screaming fans with it. I did that for a couple of shows just because I wanted to see if I could get something different and I think got a couple of good shots. But then I just said, "I can't do this."

Jorie: I'm 5'2" and I drag around a 300 mm and you're tall dragging around a heavier 600 mm. I can imagine the pain.

Bill: Yeah, that was hard. Thanks for reminding me. [Laughs]

Jorie: During the 1989-90 and 1993 tours when you had to find local labs to quickly process your film while on the road, did you ever worry about getting your film and prints back from photo labs you never worked with?

Bill: When I started with Paul in '89, I used to shoot film. When I was in a strange town that I've never been in before and had to go to the lab--usually they'd keep the lab open in the middle of the night--I'd have them process my film. I was always afraid they they'd run off a bunch of extra prints and keep them for themselves and do whatever they wanted to do with them, you know.

Jorie: Do press photographers at the concerts distract Paul?

Bill: Paul likes that, but I think he likes to not be reminded of the camera. You know I'm there and he knows me pretty well and it's like I'm invisible for Paul. But when he sees a lot of strange faces, he starts to get self-conscious, believe it or not. I think he just wants to enjoy performing. He wants to look out into the audience and see the smiling faces of fans and doesn't want to be bothered with cameras and stuff like that. It's too distracting.

Jorie: Why was there such a strict 'no cameras rule' at the concerts? A lot of fans were upset with that. Fans with disposable cameras in the nosebleed sections of the venue were thrown out. They called security "The Camera Nazis!" and said that his concerts were turning into a "police state." People said, "What's wrong with Paul? Is he afraid of getting old and doesn't want photos showing his age getting out?"

Bill: Oh, is that right? I really don't know the answer to that question. I know what happens. That has to go with the security and the bootlegging stuff that goes on. I mean people come in with high-end tape recorders to these shows. They wear these big bulky overcoats and you can see this huge lump like where their stomach is in the shape of a square and they have microphones coming out of their sleeves.

Jorie: Paul should do what the Grateful Dead did. Just make them pay extra. Have a special section for photos and taping.

Bill: [Laughs] Yeah. Not too many people ever did what the Grateful Dead did That was very unusual. That was a real Grateful Dead thing to do I must say. It was kind of cool.

But, I've seen that. I've seen people come in with high-end recording devices and that's not like for homethey're not recording that so they can go home and listen to it. You know why they're doing it.

Jorie: Did Paul ever direct you to take a photo of him and say something like, "Stand over there and take me doing this?"

Bill: No. I can't remember a time when he would do that. You know he'd never say that, but there would times when I could see that coming. We'd be in Red Square (Moscow), let's say, and I'd be following him around with my camera and all of a sudden he'd walk over to Heather and put his arm around her. Behind him would be the Kremlin and we'd just look at each other. I'd say, "Hold on a second!" and I'd pick up my camera and snap a picture. I don't know if I waited another second or two if he'd say, "Bill! Take our picture." But I had a sense that he was kind of setting that up for me.

Jorie: How about backstage antics between Paul and the band? Did the band play any practical jokes on Paul or visa versa that you can recall? What was that banana thing backstage?

Bill: Oh, the banana thing right yeah where they're singing into the bananas. That is just [Laughs] That's just one of those things. They're really into antics like that.

They were in their dressing room doing their vocal warm-ups and there was a bowl of bananas and you know it just happened. I was there with my camera and I think a video camera caught that as well. Stuff just happened.

There was one time in Japan that I think was pretty funny. I went with the band to one of these souvenir places in Tokyo. It was either Tokyo or Osaka. I can't remember which one. We went in and they all bought these rubber samurai headpieces that made them look like they were bald, but they had one of these Mohawk things on the head.

So the four of them (Abe, Rusty, Wix and Brian) each bought one. And what they did for the encore is Paul didn't know about this. They all went offstage and put them on and came back with them on. Paul was sort of facing the audience and turned around to look at the band with an "OK! Let's do another song" and they all had these things on. He just cracked up! [Laughs]

Jorie: How many photos were considered for the project?

Bill: The book has a couple of hundred pictures. I think they sorted through probably about 1,500 pictures.

Jorie: How much input did Paul have with the selection?

Bill: A lot. Basically it sort of filtered down. I produced the 1,500 that I thought were the best pictures. Also there were pictures that Paul had seen on the road that he liked. They sort of get edited along the way. I was asked to submit pictures that I thought should be in the book. I gave them a couple of hundred pictures that I liked.

Caroline Grimshaw who's the designer, worked very closely with the photo editing. Paul had huge input into it

Jorie: Did he say, "I want this picture or that picture?"

Bill: More likely we'd say, "We want to get a picture of him with the preshow people. Here are five pictures. Which one do you like the best?" something like that. He had a lot of input.

Jorie: What about the text?

Bill: He had a lot of input into that too. I think he considers this his book. We all collaborated. It was just a collaboration between, Caroline Grimshaw, Paul McCartney and myself.

Caroline did a lot of work on this book. She's a great designer and she did a HUGE amount of work. This was a massive undertaking. There were hours and hours of transcripts pages and pages of transcripts from the videos that were shot. She would go through them and pick out the juicy parts, you know, stuff that was the most interesting. She collaborated with Paul on that picking out stuff to divide up the chapters.

Jorie: How did the book title come about? "Each One Believing" is taken from the song, "Here, There & Everywhere." Is there a reason why that particular lyric was used as the book's title?

Bill: Well it's one of those obscure titles that can mean many things. It has sort of a Beatles or Bob Dylan quality about it, like "What does it mean to you?" [Laughs] That kind of thing, you know.

It has to do with each one believing. I think he was talking about everyone on the tour, believing in this tour 'cause he didn't want it to be really about himself. He wanted it to be a look at the whole group--the whole entourage of people from the caterers to the truckers, to the PR people to the band--to him. It was a whole group effort. So I think that sort of incorporates it each one believing sort of encapsulates everybody you know. It includes everybody.

Jorie: Why did he wait so long to put out a concert book?

Bill: I think he was waiting for the right concert. I mean this was an amazing show. I worked with him on the 1989-90 shows and the 1993 shows. Those were great shows, but as soon as I started working on this show In fact when I first got to Toronto that night, I was talking with Wix and the rest of the band and I said, " So Wix, how's the show?" He goes, "It's amazing." I said, "Look really, you know, I'm sure it was amazing, but is it better than the 'Flowers in the Dirt' tour?" He goes, "It's really AMAZING. It is really, really good."

The next day when I saw the show I absolutely knew what he was talking about. It was a spectacular show. Paul was doing some great material. He was embracing his past with the Beatles really for the first time. The band sounded fantastic and I thought the visuals were great. There was something really special about it and he was really in a unique place in his life as well.

Jorie: At 60 he hit notes he couldn't hit since the seventies. How does he do that?

Bill: Isn't that AMAZING? IT WAS AMAZING!!!

I don't know. It's a gift from God. Seriously, he doesn't really do any vocal exercises. He doesn't do any vocal warm-ups. He just opens his mouth and out it comes. It's a phenomenon! It's really a phenomenon.

Jorie: You mention in the book about his backstage rituals and a very odd thing he did, snorting water through his nose.

Bill: It sounds weird. I'm not sure if that was actually part of his ritual or not, but a couple of times when I was with him, and he was getting ready, he would have a tea cup, with warm water in it and inhale the water through his nostrils. Just snort a little water in it. I think I asked him about it once and he said it was something that he learned in India. I didn't really follow it up with anymore questions. [Laughs] But I saw him do it a couple of times. Whether that's really something that he does all the time or whether he was giving himself some needed moisture... Sometimes your sinuses get a little dried out. That might have been what he was doing.

Jorie: Instead of nasal spray?

Bill: It's kind of the same thing, yeah. [Laughs]

Jorie: You were the official photographer at Paul and Heather's wedding in 2002. Can you tell me something about the wedding? It had to be a sobering experience shooting a celebrity wedding on such a grand. Did you do the traditional wedding photos including formal family portraits?

Bill: Yeah I did. I did some formal shots of Paul and the family and more formal shots of Paul and Heather as well as the wedding shot that we all know with the rose petals flying. I did some shots the regular sort of wedding shots basically, the party and the whole thing.

Jorie: Did you put together a wedding album for them?

Bill: I didn't. They put their own wedding album together. I just gave them all the pictures and I know they put a wedding album together. I've just never seen it, but I've heard about it. People told me that they've seen it. I have not seen it.

Jorie: I'm sure it was pretty amazing with the fireworks and the party.

Bill: Oh, yeah, it was a BEAUTIFUL wedding. It was just a really perfect little, great wedding. Not little!

The thing that I was impressed with by the wedding is that it was not a big celebrity wedding. It was friends, like Liverpool friends and stuff like that. It had a lot of soul, and lot of meaning.

Jorie: Paul has a big family.

Bill: Paul has a HUGE family and he has a lot of friends. He has a lot of old friends not the Hollywood types He doesn't have a lot of Hollywood friends. The people that I've seen him with are REAL people [Laughs] that he's known since he's been a kid. And I love that about him. I think it's great. It says a lot about who he is.

He's one of those people who's lucky and he looks like he leads a charmed life, but he's had his share of life's tragedies. He just wears it very well.

Jorie: Is he fairly normal?

Bill: He's not really a normal person, in a sense. He has a huge gift, a huge, huge gift. That voice is a massive gift. His ability to write songs is a massive gift and his ability to play guitar.

One of my favorite things in the world is to watch Paul McCartney play bass guitar. He's like one with that guitar when you watch him play and he's playing these complicated bass lines like you know in "Penny Lane" or "I Saw Her Standing There." Some of these bass lines are really complicated and beautiful and he's singing at the same time. Amazingly!

It's a marvel to watch him perform sometimes. I mean he's so gifted. To hold on to your 'everydayness' at the same time while remembering who you are and where you came from, is amazing.

Paul is very positive. That's one thing that I always loved about the Beatles too, like, "love is all you need" really that up, sort of positiveness. It's easy to be very cynical in this world. Forget about that. Just be upbeat. That's what I got a lot from the Beatles as a message, and Paul is that way.

Jorie: I wanted to ask you what it was like working with Linda McCartney?

Bill: I liked Linda a lot. I really, really liked Linda. We had a nice relationship with each other. I liked her work a lot. I still like her work. Her '60s work was great. She really had a way of getting next to these people. They let their guards down with her and I can see why when I got to know her. She had no pretense. She was kind of easy to be around.

The one thing that I thank her for the most is the fact that I'm a vegetarian for 15 years now. When I met her I wasn't a vegetarian. She really went to work on me when we first met. She used to talk to me all the time about eating meat and "did I know about slaughterhouses?" She gave me a film once that showed a slaughterhouse. She really worked on me.

After the tour was over, I got it. I think one day I went [sigh] "I'm not going to eat meat anymore" and that was 15 years ago! I feel good about it and if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have this consciousness about it. She had a big affect on my life. She was a great, great force. I loved Linda.

Jorie: What is Heather like?

Bill: I like Heather a lot too. Paul has some great taste in women I gotta tell you, between Linda and Heather. But Heather's really cool. I like Heather a lot.

Heather's really committed in the same way like Linda was you know. She's got her landmine cause, Adopt-A-Minefield. One thing that she does and really doesn't talk about and nobody really knows or writes about but I see it, because as a tour photographer I'm at every venue. I see people coming in from local cities with a child who has cancer and is going to lose a leg or somebody that's lost something in an accident or whatever. I don't really know how they get there or how they hook up with her. They come backstage and she goes in and talks to them. She meets with them.

This is what she does and nobody really knows this. She has her own little dressing room and she'd be in there with them. I was really impressed with that.

Some of these celebrities are like, "I hereby dub thee a noble cause. Sir Lady McCartney dubs thee a noble cause, " and then they go off to their summer home in Cancun. Like the spokesperson that shows up for half an hour every year and does a couple of voiceovers you know.

But she's like in the trenches with these people EVERY day! I don't know if people know that or not.

Jorie: Will there be book signings and photo exhibits for the U.S. in the future?

Bill: There will be a gallery showing with forty prints from the book that is tied to the launch of the book. The photos will be signed by Paul and myself. There is talk of taking this exhibit to some of the major cities around the country.

Jorie: What size are the prints and how are they printed?

Bill: I have seen some of the prints. They're beautiful archival inkjet prints. They're gorgeous 24" x 28" -- nice large prints. They're for sale. The money goes to Adopt-A-Minefield (Paul and Heather's landmine charity http://www.landmines.org)

Bill Bernstein's photos are available online at:
http://www.proud.co.uk/exhibitions/exhib_believing/

© Copyright 2004 Jorie B. Gracen - All rights reserved
This article cannot be reprinted or duplicated without written permission.

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