Sidney Smith, the New Orleans photographer who documented the Allman Brothers, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin and other rock legends before founding Haunted History Tours, died Friday of pancreatic cancer. He was 71.
To his enormous circle of friends and acquaintances, Smith was as colorful as any of his photos.
He inherited his first camera from his father, an art teacher at Alcee Fortier High School. In November 1970, at age 16, he snuck into Tulane University’s homecoming dance to photograph the Allman Brothers Band. Off and on for years, he traveled with and photographed the Allmans.
Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, left, with photographer Sidney Smith in 2012.
PROVIDED PHOTO COURTESY SIDNEY SMITH
Smith identified with Rolling Stone writer Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical 2000 movie “Almost Famous” about a teenage journalist traveling with a rock band in the 1970s.
“That,” Smith said in June, “was my life.”
He shot scores of rock legends at The Warehouse, the grungy brick concert venue on Tchoupitoulas Street.
In early 1975, he chronicled Paul McCartney recording the “Venus and Mars” album at Allen Toussaint’s Sea-Saint Studio in Gentilly. For an avowed Beatles fanatic such as Smith, it was a dream job.
He also snapped pictures of Paul and Linda McCartney cavorting as clowns on Mardi Gras.
But during a party for McCartney aboard a Mississippi riverboat, Smith’s camera bag was stolen. It contained most of his gear and the 40 or so rolls of film he’d shot. Disillusioned, he largely gave up photography for years.
Shifting gears, he founded Merry Minstrels Singing Telegrams. His personal specialty was “stripper-grams,” bursting into song in offices, bars, homes and hospitals in various states of undress.
Realizing that he “can’t be a 70-year-old stripper, but I can be a 70-year-old tour guide,” he launched Haunted History Tours in 1995. From French Quarter ghost tours, Haunted History expanded to cemetery, true crime, voodoo and vampire tours. The company, Smith said, hosts over 100,000 customers annually.
New Orleans photographer Sidney Smith in the 1970s.
PHOTO COURTESY SIDNEY SMITH
He eventually picked up his camera again. In 2019, he published a book of his Allman Brothers photography. He remained friends with the extended Allmans family and buddies from his Warehouse days, but also had an ear for fresh talent. He was an early promoter of guitar prodigy Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, who is now in Jon Batiste’s touring band.
Along the way, Smith was married and divorced four times. After his fourth divorce, he shifted to what he described as a “Hugh Hefner” model of domesticity.
“I’m extremely honest with everybody in my world,” he said this summer. “I don’t lie to anybody.”
His day-long birthday bash every May at his Broadmoor home boasted live bands, crawfish and celebrity guests. In recent years, he issued wristbands to help control the crowd.
Photographer Sidney Smith is reflected in a bedroom mirror of his home in New Orleans. The framed pictures on the wall are a sampling of his work from years of photographing a who’s who of rock legends. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
When he announced his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in January, he noted that he’d previously beaten three other types of cancer. In lieu of a birthday bash this year, he planned an “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” party on Sept. 13. Niederauer, the Troy Turner Blues Band and the Beatles tribute band The Walrus were scheduled to perform.
The party would coincide with the publication of his memoir, “Being Sidney,” which friends convinced him to write in the wake of his diagnosis.
In June, he was still optimistic about being healthy enough to enjoy the party. But by late August, as his weight loss accelerated and his pain increased, his optimism faded.
On Sept. 4, the Haunted History Tours general manager posted on Smith’s Facebook account that he’d entered full-time hospice care. The “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over” party was canceled.
Being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, Smith said, was not the worst tragedy he’d ever faced. The worst was when his 42-year-old son Justin, who lived with him and struggled with mental health issues, disappeared in June 2023.
Eventually, Smith discovered that Justin’s unidentified body had been at the Orleans Parish coroner’s office for 25 days. He’d died of an overdose.
Sidney Smith poses in his living room with photographs of his son Justin Smith who died in June after collapsing on Decatur Street, in New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
Angered by the delay in identifying Justin’s body and that it decomposed at the morgue, Smith sued coroner Dwight McKenna, alleging negligence. In July, a Civil District Court judge found McKenna’s office was liable for “outrageous and reckless” misconduct.
In August, Smith took the unprecedented step of securing an injunction from Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill that prohibited the Orleans Parish coroner’s office from handling his own remains.
Plans for a celebration of life are pending. His photo archive will reportedly be donated to the Historic New Orleans Collection.