James Taylor on His Early Days

The thirty-five years that separate today and this cover photo of James Taylor aren't the only reason the singer barely remembers the picture. It actually isn't from a formal shoot at all: Rolling Stone's first staff photographer, Baron Wolman, snapped Taylor's glare (and kind of dashing moustache) at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival, back when he'd just kicked a heroin habit and released his debut.

In an extensive interview with Brian Hiatt for the magazine's 1000th issue, Taylor compares the naive and natural aesthetic of the Sixties and Seventies to today's glossier leanings. Oh, and he tells Hiatt about the Grammy he won without knowing it.

"I had no idea about media strategy or public relations," Taylor says of his early days. "It was much more . . . amateurish in the sense that people were doing it because they loved it, instead of thinking about it as a career with a trajectory or any kind of future."

Listen to the podcast

Rolling Stone's 1000th Issue: Photos, Interviews, More