“I was at a beer bust at the Eagle sitting up on the wall with a friend of mine. A photographer came up to me –asked me if I was interested in doing some photos…but he didn’t tell me what for. That was the same time when I did pictures for Mandate, pictures for Honcho…at some point I was a Real Man Next Door in Playgirl. I was 31, 32 years old. Being a naked guy with no shame I had no problem – I would do pictures but I did not know where they were going to wind up. I moved here [Ed.: San Francisco] in ’85. I was going out to Powerhouse and to all the leather bars and leather events as soon as I moved here. So that was really part of my life. For the shoot, that was his chain, I think that was my jacket. I think he gave me something else that was his for the pictures. To wind up in DRUMMER for me was incredible. I felt honored to be a part of the legacy of that magazine.
“But I had no idea that I was going to be on the cover. The magazine came out – somebody was in Amsterdam and they were like, “Your picture is hanging all over bookstores in Amsterdam.” The funny thing about that issue, because it has ‘Wrestlemania’ on it, it was pulled after two weeks because they were going to sue for using the word on the cover. My pictures came out, I think, in the next issue. They were like, “Hey, pictures were bold. Here’s them again.” [Ed: Bob’s shoot actually did come out in Drummer #161. Available online at drummermen.com but good luck trying to find a physical copy.] So, it was kind of a whole interesting thing to begin with – it was very odd. But I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So, I wasn’t upset about it or anything, I just thought it was incredible. Yeah but it was so funny….”
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70’s magic.
“I was very familiar with [Drummer] because I started my life as a gay kid with all that as a 13-year-old in ‘73. I had a picture of Al Parker hanging on my wall as a 16-year-old. My mom was like, “Who is that?” “Oh it’s just a picture…
“It was a continuation of my world to hang out on Christopher Street in the late 70s. I would go to Ty’s and I would go to the piers and I would go to the bookstore – I would hang out in Time Square. I’m from upstate New York in Syracuse, but I would take the bus down to Manhattan on the weekend, stay at the Y[MCA] and just hang out. I was underage, but it was a different time. And that’s what I tell people–it was a different time. It was the best time ever. These are great times, too….but that was just magical. Manhattan was a lot of fun – I was happy to be a part of it and happy to have survived it. I saw what was happening around me and I thought, “Okay, Bob, so we can go down two roads: we can be completely crazy or we can have fun watching the crazy and being crazy within reason.” So that’s kind of what I did – “let’s just be careful here, but let’s still have a fucking blast.”
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Back in the alley.
“We took pictures the other day in Ringold Alley. In ’85 Ringold Alley was a notorious sex alley at night. I had sex nightly in that alley. To be back on that alley, in leather, with my dick out on a Sunday morning was full circle.
“I’m grateful as a gay man who’s never shied away from his sexuality at all. Even as a little kid, my parents were like, “…there’s Bob.” It’s just so awesome to have been asked – I’ve said it a few times because I’m just very thankful for it. It’s always been such a great magazine for me. I’ve always looked through the old issues and had them at home and beat off many times to the things that I’ve read or seen. It’s just interesting to see, because I look like such a little twink in that picture with the little gray hair just starting to come in
…
“Today I’m going to go over to the Powerhouse. They open at 4 – I go up in the back. I get my soda water with a splash of pineapple – I’ll be sitting naked in the back (some things never change lol). I want to make sure I enjoy what San Francisco has to offer for as long as it has to offer. There’s no guarantee that anything is going to be here forever so I’m going to enjoy it as long as I can. I go out every night because there’s going to be a day when I can’t and I do not want to be laying in bed sometime thinking, “why did I waste all that time?” So, I make sure I partake in everything that it has to offer. I’ll throw on a leather vest and a harness and go out tonight. It’ll be fun.”
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Drummer’s impact.
“I think generally…because gay men aren’t afraid to wear their fetishes on their shoulder and we’re proud of the things that we get into, I think Drummer’s broadened horizons for so many people who might have been on the fence with it. It’s opened the eyes of people that might have been afraid to express what they really feel. I think everybody has a fetish, but not everybody will admit what their fetish is. So I think Drummer gave a green light for a lot of people to say, “I like this, too. I’m not the only one.” Because back in the day, a lot of people thought they were the only one.
“I think Drummer was huge for people for that– to allow them to express the things that might not have been on “this” road, but on the road that veers to the left, and the right, and the squiggly road–which is way more fun. It gave people the opportunity to express who they really are in a communal environment. For me, I always knew I was a little out there anyways. It just confirmed all the decisions and choices that I made in my life. So, it gave me family and it just gave a sense of community–which at the end of the day is what we all strive for. Especially as gay men, we just want to be connected to others that think the same way that we do, or enlighten us into something that maybe we thought, ‘you know I never thought of that. Maybe I should try that’.
“Plus it’s just this inherent sexiness about it all. I always say to people who’ve never put on leather, put it on – you will feel like a different person. You will feel completely in control. It’s like if a person puts on a dress, they’re like, “I feel so much more empowered now when I go out as a woman” – I say to people, you can do the same thing. If you put on a three-piece suit, or if you put on full leather, you’re going to have such a sense of power and a sense of sexiness and energy. It’s just the greatest thing that you can’t describe to somebody until they do it. I’m happy to have been a part of something that promotes that for people. I think that’s what the thing was for me. I’m grateful to have been asked after 33 years, ‘let’s revisit you’, because it’s been such a great thing for my life. To now be part of this again just makes me so happy. And I will take this to my grave. Years from now, long after I’m gone, it will be part of the history of who we are as gay men. I think we all at the end of the day just want to leave a mark. We want to have let people know, ‘hey, we were here and we contributed in a positive way’.”
As told to Darkqwolf for DRUMMER, March 2025
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Author: As Told To Darkqwolf for DRUMMER
Photo Credit: Brandon Roberts for DRUMMER