When Lynn Goldsmith first entered the New York City studio where Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were recording in the late 1970s, she had two priorities — and neither involved the Boss.
First, she wanted to dry off from the blizzard outside. Second, she needed to find her rocker pal, Patti Smith, who’d invited her there that day. But as fate would have it, the now-legendary photographer found herself sitting in on Springsteen’s recording session following a request from the musician himself.
“He was cute!” Goldsmith, 75, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue of why she decided to stick around. “I’ve always had certain types, and Bruce fit the bill.”
Though it remains to be seen whether Smith was playing matchmaker that day (“Patti denies she set me up, but I think she was being a good girlfriend,” she says), something did click, and before long, Goldsmith was a member of the E Street Band’s entourage, snapping photos as they recorded and toured their 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town (And yes, she did briefly date Springsteen).
The band had been put on the map with Born to Run in 1975, but were still on the cusp of superstardom when Goldsmith joined the fold. Her photos from that era — which she’s compiled into a new book, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (available now via TASCHEN) — offer an intimate peek at the hustle and hungry heart of Springsteen, 74, and his band.
“There’s plenty of books that are just on Bruce, but I feel the band is what empowered him to be the Springsteen that he is,” Goldsmith says of the star, who wrote the book’s foreword. “I wanted it to be something not only for the fans but for him and [his family]. What I can offer with photographs is a memory, and that’s what adds a real meaning to my work.”
Goldsmith has photographed everyone from the Rolling Stones to Michael Jackson, and in doing so has learned some tricks of the trade.
“I like to think I make people look their most attractive,” she says. “I’m not out here to show people ‘the truth.’ I don’t think that’s what art is necessarily for. Whether it’s Bruce or anyone else, they like the way that I make them look.”
In Springsteen’s case, that sometimes meant letting his hair go unwashed for a bit.
“He knew his hair looked better when he didn’t wash it for three days, so I wouldn’t shoot him until his hair was dirty,” she reveals.
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