{"id":21270,"date":"2025-10-29T14:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21270\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T14:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:04:10","slug":"youre-only-80-once-nyc-legends-jam-at-birthday-bash-for-iconic-rock-photographer-bob-gruen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21270\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You\u2019re only 80 once\u2019: NYC legends jam at birthday bash for iconic rock photographer Bob Gruen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Longtime\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Longtime friends Bob Gruen and Jesse Malin at The Django<\/p>\n

Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

When a New York City legend turns 80 \u2014 in this case, rock photographer Bob Gruen<\/a>\u2014\u00a0 you have a party, and (spoiler alert) it turned out to be fabulous. But if it weren\u2019t for East Village<\/a> rocker Jesse Malin, it probably wouldn\u2019t have happened.<\/p>\n

Malin, who initially became friendly with Gruen in the 90s when he was in the band D Generation, got to know him well over the years.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became family to me,\u201d says Malin. \u201cCame out on tours, went to Europe with us, just so many nights, and, you know, his stories and his life are equally as wonderful, even more so maybe sometimes than his photos. And his photos are unbelievable. He\u2019s one of the best! And he was just so loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

At some point, Malin took charge of Gruen\u2019s birthday parties, even doing a party online during COVID. But this year, \u201che was being a little hesitant, saying that maybe a lot of his friends weren\u2019t around anymore,\u201d explains Malin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, go home. Make a list of all the people that are alive,\u201d he adds.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cJesse told me, you\u2019re only 80 once,\u201d says Gruen. \u201cSo I started making a list, and it turned out to be a lot of people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Old friends Bob Gruen, concert promoter Ron Delsener, photographer Patrick McMullanPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Jesse Malin did a great set of covers at The Django for Bob Gruen\u2019s birthdayPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Bob Gruen and his wife of 30 years Elizabeth Gregory-Gruen flanking John Holmstrom of Punk magazinePhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"There was a continuous slide show running near the bar showing various times in Gruen\u2019s lifePhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Gruen\u2019s son Kris Gruen, flanked by grandaughters Zinnia (left) and Jasmine, opened the musical portion of the eveningPhoto by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he made the list and we threw the party together and threw some friends together to play,\u201d Malin continues. \u201cBob\u2019s son came down from Vermont, and Mike Schnapp, who\u2019s been DJing the parties for years. And it was just a great mix of, you know, young folks that are getting hip to his work and then folks that have been around that know him since the 70s and all that energy, it\u2019s just, uh, it\u2019s a very New York community, very rock and roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised by some of the people who showed up,\u201d admits Gruen. \u201cI didn\u2019t think Alison Mosshart was coming, but she flew in from Nashville to be there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Gruen\u2019s son Kris left his cannabis farm in Vermont to take the stage with his daughters Jasmine and Zinnia and some Long Island School of Rock players for a set before Malin came on with a bunch of covers that included The Clash\u2019s \u201cRudie Can\u2019t Fail\u201d and the New York Dolls\u2019 \u201cSubway Train.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all picked songs by my favorite artists,\u201d Gruen says. \u201cThe music was great.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The house band, which included Malin\u2019s guitarist Derek Cruz, backed up a variety of downtown rockers (all chosen by Malin) such as Amanda Cross, Tammy Faye Starlite, Jeremy Fury, Liza Colby and the aforementioned Mosshart, who gave a unique, standout performance of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u201cState Trooper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Tammy Faye Starlite , with Derek Cruz on guitar, delivered a fabulous cover of a Blondie tunePhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"DJ Mike Schnapp, a regular at Gruen\u2019s partiesPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Alison Mosshart did a brilliantly arranged version of Springsteen\u2019s \u201cState Trooper\u201dPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Liza Colby rocked out on \u201cJumping Jack Flash\u201dPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Bob Gruen with Elizabeth Gregory-Gruen, a cake from Veneiro\u2019s, and a very genuine smile. Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

The Django, in the basement of the Roxy Hotel, turned out to be the perfect venue for the fete, as Gruen and Malin both agreed.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a downtown bohemian feel,\u201d notes Gruen. \u201cAnd the hotel staff was just brilliant. They took care of everything.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Standing behind his birthday cake (from Veneiro\u2019s) with Elizabeth Gregory-Gruen, his wife of 30 years, Gruen couldn\u2019t have looked happier.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was overwhelming,\u201d Gruen told us later. \u201cThere were so many people that I hadn\u2019t seen in a long time. Everything was great. I\u2019m a humble person. \u2026 I\u2019m still overwhelmed four days later.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can check out Bob Gruen\u2019s work at\u00a0bobgruen.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime friends Bob Gruen and Jesse Malin at The Django Photo by Bob Krasner When a New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14201,14202,14203,14204,14205,14206,14207,14208,14209,9,14210,56,63,65,64,14211,14212,14213,14214,14215],"class_list":["post-21270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-alison-mosshart","tag-birthday-celebration","tag-bob-gruen","tag-celebration-of-legends","tag-d-generation","tag-downtown-scene","tag-east-village-music","tag-jesse-malin","tag-live-music-tribute","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-nightlife","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nyc-rock-community","tag-punk-rock-legacy","tag-rock-photography","tag-springsteen-cover","tag-the-django-roxy-hotel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}