Mick Rock's Iconic Rock 'n' Roll Photos

Time was, you had to really know a celebrity to photograph her with her guard down, licking her shoulder, a la Madonna Louise Ciccone (she still had all three names) in 1980.
Before the days of cell phone cameras and Twit-pics, Mick Rock was there - backstage, in hotel rooms, off-hours, 'getting into all kinds of mischief' - with rock 'n' roll's most iconic figures. Queen, David Bowie, Blondie, the Sex Pistols, Joan Jett: He snapped them all, and then some.
More than a dozen of his portraits, new and old, have been collected into an exhibition that will travel to W Hotels across the country throughout 2012. ABCNews.com asked Rock for the stories behind the photos at show's opening reception at the W New York Downtown.

Madonna, 1980
'She hadn't even made a record. Somebody brought her up to my studio, and he would bring young people up, some not for any purpose other than to say hi. She had aspirations, and I just took a few pictures.'
'[The pose] wasn't my idea. There was no 'Baby' then. She was very brazen. She's had an amazing career since that day, and I take my hat off to her, because she broke a lot of ground in a business sense, for women. She took control of her destiny and she set the trail for people like Lady Gaga.'

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Picture courtesy of Mick Rock