Jay Blakesberg: Iconic Images By One of Rock’s Greatest Photographers

No Doubt photographed in Mountain View, CA June 14, 1996 © Jay Blakesberg/Retna LTD.

Photographer Jay Blakesberg has been contributing to Rolling Stone since Nov. 11, 1987, when we sent him to cover a free U2 concert in downtown San Francisco during the filming of the documentary Rattle & Hum. Since then, he’s worked on more than 300 assignments for RS, shooting many of the greatest artists of the past three decades. He’s developed a particularly close relationship with the Grateful Dead and its former members, capturing countless unforgettable images as their story has continued to unfold.

“RetroBlakesberg: The Music Never Stopped” is a new exhibit at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, collecting photos that Blakesberg shot on film between 1978 and 2008. Here, we present some of the best images from the exhibition along with the stories behind them, in Blakesberg’s own words.

“RetroBlakesberg: The Music Never Stopped” opened on Nov. 8, 2024 and will run through June 15, 2025.