Traveling with Tony

Last spring I had the pleasure of giving Tony Horwitz a tour of Antietam. Now, I love his book 'Confederates in the Attic', but the kicker is that so do many of the people in my extended family. In fact, most of the women in my life could care less about the Civil War, but have read that book and think of it as a favorite.

So, it was fun to have them share my excitement about my 'brush with greatness.' I had actually been booked to give Paul Giamatti a tour so that he could bone up on his role as Longstreet in an upcoming movie, but he dropped out of the project and the tour never happened. So when the Tony tour came around, everyone was happy that I had a new story to tell, the one about the time I met Madonna getting kind of old, and all...

I just got my copy of the article in the mail and reading it reminded me of when I used to play guitar on other peoples' records and I would get a copy in the mail. I was always nervous to hear what they had done with my work - if they would use the correct take and if they would mix the guitar correctly. But now, as then, I am pleasantly surprised. Tony is a great writer and the photographs made for the article are stunning.

But the best part of the whole experience, besides perhaps having slightly impressed my mother-in-law, was the lunch I had with Tony when he gave me some great advice. At the time I was still going to release my rare Antietam images book as a huge opus. I showed him a draft with 600 images and told him it would not be out in time for the anniversary. "Steve,' Tony said (please note with awe that we are on a first name basis...) "pick your dozen best images and get something out for the 150th. Just do it." Well, how could I ignore his advice. I mean, he did pick up the tab for lunch.