The truth behind Rolling Stones’ famous NYC truck stunt 50 years ago: ‘Complete shock’
They went from “Get Off of My Cloud” to “Get Off of My Flatbed Truck.”
That was the case when the Rolling Stones, taking their name quite literally, wheeled down Fifth Avenue in a surprise performance on a flatbed truck 50 years ago on May 1, 1975.
But photographer Bob Gruen — who shot the promotional stunt to announce the Stones’ Tour of the Americas ‘75 — had a premonition about the top-secret mission.
“I was at the Bottom Line the day before, and I saw Paul Wasserman, who was the Rolling Stones’ press agent, and I said to him, ‘I heard there’s going to be a press conference or something.’” Gruen told The Post. “And he said, ‘Yes, we were trying to get a permit for Times Square, but it didn’t work out. We’re looking for a place.’”
But unbeknownst to Gruen, he stumbled upon the solution.
“Totally joking, I said, ‘Oh, What are they gonna do? Get on a flatbed truck?’” he said. “And he looked at me, he put his finger to his lips, and he says, ‘Be quiet.’ He didn’t want anybody else to hear, and I thought, ‘What did I say?’”
Indeed, the next day the Rolling Stones eschewed the traditional press conference that was expected and played “Brown Sugar” down Fifth Avenue as their way to announce the tour in a twist that would also serve as the debut performance of new guitarist Ronnie Wood, who was replacing the recently departed Mick Taylor.
It was drummer Charlie Watts’ idea to take it to the NYC streets in this big-wheeled way.
“This was Charlie’s doing,” wrote Wood in his 2007 memoir “Ronnie: The Autobiography.”
“He read somewhere that black jazz artists used to roll through Harlem playing on a flatbed, so he nicked the idea for us.”
On the morning of May 1, 1975, a telegram was sent to journalists about the Stones press conference — in a time before emails and cellphones.
“They sent out a telegram at 9 o’clock in the morning and told you to be someplace at 10 o’clock,” recalled Gruen. “It says to go to Flowers, the restaurant on Fifth Avenue, like 8th Street or something.”
But when Gruen got there and saw comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey appearing to lead the press conference, he knew something was off.
“There’s no way the Rolling Stones are going to be interviewed by a comedian on the level of Irwin Corey,” he said. “It just didn’t make sense at all … and I was thinking about what Paul had said the night before about a flatbed truck. So I left the press conference, I went outside, and I walked up the street.
“And sure enough, there was a flatbed truck, and the Rolling Stones were getting on it,” Gruen continued. “When I got there, they were just getting out of limos.”
The Rolling Stones — in New York to rehearse for the summer tour that would begin on June 1, 1975 —had been lodging in luxury at the Plaza and Pierre hotels near Central Park.
“We gathered at the Plaza, went out the rear door, sneaked into an ice cream van, and went downtown to the corner of 12th Street and 5th Avenue,” wrote Wood in “Ronnie.”
“A flatbed truck was waiting for us, all set up with amps and instruments.”
The show — and the stunt — went on from there.
“It was a complete shock to everybody,” said Gruen. “Of course, we flipped and started taking pictures. And then the truck started moving, and they started playing.
“The Rolling Stones were playing live in the street. It was phenomenal … It was like the Rolling Stones are on tour. They’re already traveling.”
And although the band stopped briefly at Flowers, they didn’t disembark for the usual press conference as suggested.
“They usually did a Q&A,” said Gruen, “but this time they didn’t.”
Gruen doesn’t recall any police presence or street closure during the Stones’ roll down Fifth Avenue from 12th Street to Waverly Place, crossing at the intersection of Washington Square Park.
“I was literally running and trying to get a spot to turn and focus and get some pictures, but they were moving, you know, not fast, but fast enough that you had to kind of work to keep up with them,” he said. “And you know, most of my pictures are blurry.”
The most dangerous aspect of it all was people hanging out of their windows to get a glimpse of the Stones.
“It’s lucky nobody actually fell out of their window, because people opened their windows and they were flipping out that they were playing,” said Gruen. “People are leaning over trying to see what’s happening. It was chaos.”
But as Gruen followed the Stones down Fifth Avenue, there wasn’t enough time for a real crowd to gather on the streets.
“It didn’t really turn into a big crowd, because they kind of drove down the street and around the corner, and they were gone,” said Gruen. “I remember the truck going around the corner where the park was … and then that’s when they got into limousines, took off and disappeared.”
Gruen also took off on his bike to develop his film as quick as possible.
“I got on my bicycle, rode home, immediately developed the film, used a hair dryer to dry some of the negatives, and immediately made a bunch of prints,” he told The Post. “I stopped on 57th Street and dropped them at Paul Wasserman’s office, which was a big step for me, because from then on, he knew that I was the best and the fastest. He couldn’t believe he came back from lunch, and there were already pictures sitting on his desk.”
Gruen would go on to cover other Stones promotional stunts in New York — from arriving by train for the “Steel Wheels” tour launch at Grand Central Station in 1989, to arriving by presidential yacht to announce the 1994 “Voodoo Lounge” tour, to landing by blimp at Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx to kick off the 2002-03 Licks tour.
But for Gruen, the flatbed truck down Fifth Avenue — which would inspire similar stunts by AC/DC and U2 — remains a special street-fighting memory.
“It was absolutely mind-blowing,” he said.
