Bob's first BAM piece

This is a photo that paved the way for my brief foray into the world of professional rock journalism. It first appeared in the July 30, 1993 issue of BAM magazine and it was taken back stage at the Butthhole Surfers/Stone Temple Pilots/fIREHOSE/Basehead show, which took place at Castaic Lake the month before.
I was on fIREHOSE’s press list ‘cause I was a Flipside writer and so I was allowed in the VIP area where there was a complimentary BBQ for the media and a tub full of alcoholic beverages. Needless to say, I took advantage of the situation and was in a very good mood that entire day.
In the late afternoon/early evening, following fIREHOSE’s set, I, along with other media gawkers, spotted Shannen Doherty walking into the Stone Temple Pilot’s dressing room trailer. She came out after about 20 minutes and because she was wearing an oddly cut, striped shirt (and because that’s how I am) I shouted "Oh my God! Her shirts on backwards!" Of course, it wasn’t but I got big laughs from the crowd around me.
Mind you, Beverly Hills 90210 was still a guilty pleasure at this point in pop culture history. Steve McDonald from Redd Kross, then KXLU DJ Adam Bomb and Jula Bell of Bulimia banquet/Bobsled fame and I actually wanted to meet Shannen. So I suggested that we go over and tell her that Jula was Jennifer Finch from L7, reasoning that Doherty would want a photo op with a genuine grunge starlet. And it worked. I got the shot. You can see Jula in the picture trying to form the L7 logo with her hands (she’s doing it backwards). And what’s more, Shannen told Jula that she loved seeing L7's set at Lollapalooza tour earlier that summer. We all stifled a laugh at this ‘cause L7 weren’t on the Lollapalooza tour that year, Babes In Toyland were. (L7 wouldn’t play Lollapalooza ‘till the following year.) Pleasant Gehman reported on this in her Tinsel Toons column in BAM #413 which included my photo and credit. Paul Westerberg was on the cover. The dough was the icing on the cake. I was happy to be identified as "Flipside’s Bob Cantu."

I got the biggest laugh however, a few days later, when I heard a KROQ DJ report on the Castaic show and said on the air that "Shannen Doherty was seen coming out of the Stone Temple Pilot’s trailer with her shirt on backwards..." Oh, the power of the media. Or, as Albert Brooks put it in Broadcast News, "I say it here, it comes out there."