Back in 1984 when I first started listening to hard rock and metal music, magazines were the only real source for music news in my life. I didn’t have MTV and there was no Internet, no YouTube, no message boards, nothing. I’m sure that most of my younger readers couldn’t even begin to imagine what that life was like. I would save up my allowance and once a month I would hit the newsstand eager to see what kind of news the magazines would have for me. I would pick up Hit Parader, Circus and Faces Rocks. I would take them back home, lock myself in my room and read them from cover to cover. All I ever wanted to know about Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, RATT and many others was right there at my finger tips, page after page.
As I got older, I started to grow out of Hit Parader after hearing that they were using left over 
interviews and that they even at times fabricated stories just to have content. I also started to discover other magazines that offered some pretty amazing content. In addition to Circus and Faces Rocks, I started to pick up RIP Magazine and Metal Edge. Metal Edge magazine was awesome because it served a dual purpose. It was almost the National Enquirer of hard rock covering mainly glam metal and hard rock bands like Skid Row, Poison, Motley Crue and the like. I would also hear about great up and coming bands in their “Rock On The Rise” column. The thing with Metal Edge is that once you were done reading it, you could rip the shit out of it and have enough posters and pin ups to cover an entire wall with one issue. I even remember reading the Metal Edge issue that confirmed that Vince Neil and Motley Crue had parted ways. It was huge to hear that first hand from a magazine. These magazines were also where you would get the tour dates of your favorite bands on the Concert Calendar. You would scan the list praying to see your hometown on the list and if you did, you called all your friends.
Once I got into high school, content started to become much more important to me than pin ups, posters and reader polls. I found myself out growing the need to read about which drummer won the reader’s poll or what band had the sexiest singer. I couldn’t give a rats ass about that shit. It was the interviews with these bands that I found the most intriguing. In 1989 I started reading RIP Magazine and this was when I remember feeling like I was growing up a bit as a fan of heavy metal and hard rock music. Lonn Friend (RIP Magazine Editor) was the man to me. RIP Magazine interviews were way cooler than those other magazines. The interviews always seemed to be more thought out and intelligent. None of that “what’s the craziest thing you did on tour.” Lonn and Co would really get to the meat of things and talk about recording processes of albums, what inspired songs and it just seemed to have a lot of credibility. The other thing I loved about RIP was that instead of being all glam/hard rock like Metal Edge or all thrash like Metal Maniacs, RIP would cover everyone from Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses to Megadeth and Slayer. In addition to Riki Rachtman from MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball, Lonn Friend and RIP magazine pretty much inspired me and paved the way for me doing what I do now with my blog.
As much as I love and have embraced modern technology, a piece of me died when the print 
medium died away. I still miss reading interviews and reviews in magazines but this is where the Internet didn’t fail me. I can still read these interviews, reviews and stories while sitting in bed with my laptop. It’s a different kind of reading but it’s as close as it’s going to get. I get asked by a lot of people why I don’t post audio or video interviews on my site. The answer is simple. I don’t like them. I honestly don’t believe that people would much rather listen or watch than read. When you’re watching or hearing an interview, you can be doing other things that take your attention away but when you’re reading it, you are focused and the article, interview or review gets your full attention. Every now and then I get feedback from my readers thanking me for doing print interviews and editorials on my site because they enjoy reading it. This really makes me feel awesome and it makes me think that it’s the older fans remembering the days of old and the younger fans experiencing a medium that has long died since they have been around.
Thanks for “reading.”
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