photos /Leila Morrissey
story / Gina Tron
When Koko asked me if I wanted  to cover  the release of Dream & Drive a book that photo documents the lives of Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince of The Kills at Milk Studios Thursday night, although I swamped with work, I just couldn’t say no to that! Who could?! Only issue I had was that I was dressed like a slob, and needed to head to the party directly from my day job, which is a TV station owned by the Catholic Church. The only feasible solution to fixing my attire-issue was to ask the news anchor if I could borrow an outfit. From the Catholic Channel to a rock party full of celebrities!
The show was to celebrate the release of Kennith Cappello’s “Dream and Drive,” a book that told the story of his life touring with The Kills over the past decade. He shot all the photos on film and told me, “I always shoot with film. I shoot with digital too, but for book stuff, no.” And on touring,  “I got to live out my rockstar fantasy!”
He was much more than a photographer of course, “He was part of the gang,” Jamie Hince  chimed in. “We had made friends with him first and before we knew it he was taking pictures. He’s got a good eye for everything.”
The photographs featured in the book decorated the walls of Milk Studios last night, all of them capturing interesting and fun snippets of their tour life. One in particular, seemed to strike a lot of the attendees. It was a very beautiful closeup shot of Alison sporting sunglasses. Kenneth told me it may be his favorite.
“A lot of the shots,” Jamie said pointing around the room, “we were just having a laugh!” One of the photographs that was not funny persay but was definitely memorable was of Alison Mosshart sitting on the hood of a Dodge Challenger in the Conan O’Brian parking lot. Apparently she is in love with that particular car model. I asked her why. She replied, “It’s the most beautiful car ever.”
Guests included ASAP Rocky, Adrian Grenier, Jessica Stam, Isa Bruto, and longtime Shockjock Howard Stern. Ahhh, that beautiful awkward moment when Howard Stern asks you to get him a beer.  Howard asked if could grab him one, however I was in the wrong line for that. I was in the “liquor only” line.  Later in the evening I saw him triple fisting cans of beers. He smiled and yelled, “I got my beers, darlin’!” Ahhh! I don’t really get starstruck but that was just surreal. You know that feeling you get as a child when you meet the Mickey Mouse mascot for the first time in Disney World? That was how that felt like.
The Kills are working a bit on some new material. Jamie told me that they are planning on going into the studio “quite soon”. He says, “We got the barebones of some songs. I never like to be too prepared!” They were gearing up to play in Long Island for the weekend. I asked if he was excited. “Yeah! I’ve never been to Long Island before. I’ve been to islands, been but never Long Island!”
Be prepared for some excellent portraits of the rockstar life if you pick up “Dream And Drive.”  When I asked Jamie if he had a favorite he said, ” There are so many.”
Read more about the Kills in the #6 Issue of Ladygunn. For more pictures from Dream + Drive click here.
