CRESTWOOD, Mo. – More than 44 years ago, photographer Richard Upper took one of the most iconic pictures in rock and roll history – outside a McDonald’s in the suburbs of St. Louis, of all places.
Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth had just finished an appearance at the KSHE radio station in Crestwood to promote their eponymous debut album and tour, and were hungry. The two men, accompanied by Upper, went down Watson Road to the nearby McDonald’s.
Upper, either sensing the moment or perhaps to amuse himself, snapped a photo of the two young bell bottom-clad rockers in their Army surplus jackets, standing in front of the giant McDonald’s sign and its single arch.
Upper returned to Crestwood Thursday morning for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand reopening of a newly-renovated McDonald’s at the same location. His photo of Van Halen and Roth will hang permanently in the dining room.