Never Turn Down

I had spent months writing a column on rock music, reviewing product and conducting interviews for a paper aimed at high school students. Like many writers I would get annoyed whenever my writings were changed. Of course, I thought that I had done an exemplary job of putting my thoughts to paper and the editor had no right to change them. (Of course I have matured since then and realize just how wrong I was but at the time it was a big deal to me.)

 

Glass Tiger had just released ‘Simple Mission’ on EMI Records and were conducting interviews to promote it. I was one of the fortunate souls that landed a telephone interview and got to chat with the keyboard player, Sam Reid. The interview went well I thought. Reid was friendly and open about the music. I had a blast. I wrote up the article and submitted it to the editor. I received a copy of the paper and flipped through to find the interview. When I read the opening paragraph my heart sank because the first few lines had been edited and, to me, it changed the context of the interview.

 

Furious, I phoned the editor and argued with him about it. I told him what he said was not the feeling I had gotten during the interview. In my opinion this interview was now a lie. (When I read the interview all these years later I realize the change didn’t really make that big of an impact.) The editor was fed up with me I guess and frankly told me that if I didn’t like it to start my own magazine. So I did. I am not one to turn down a challenge.

 

July 3, 1991 marked the debut issue of the newsletter Rock Raff. It featured an interview with Steve Riley, the drummer for LA Guns. And there are lots more music memories connected with that publication but I’ll save those for another time.