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Guardian Unlimited, UK
August 19, 2006
Life On Planet Rock
by Lonn Friend
Portrait, £10.99
Lonn Friend began his career reviewing porn films for Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine before moving seamlessly into the editor's chair at LA metal magazine RIP, and Life On Planet Rock recounts his war stories from that era. Friend is a man of dubious musical taste but boundless enthusiasm: he regards Pearl Jam, Skid Row and Linkin Park as music of the spheres, but maintains just the right degree of wry detachment when relating his lurid close encounters with Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, KISS and Metallica, among others. His tenure at RIP coincided with the demise of hair metal and advent of grunge, and he is equally amusing describing the noble task of procuring women for Mötley Crüe and being rejected as "disgusting" by a paranoid Kurt Cobain. His decline into a "what's it all about?" midlife crisis is affectingly related, and Friend's engaging demeanour throughout renders his anecdotage highly enjoyable.
By: Ian Gittins
August 19, 2006
Life On Planet Rock
by Lonn Friend
Portrait, £10.99
Lonn Friend began his career reviewing porn films for Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine before moving seamlessly into the editor's chair at LA metal magazine RIP, and Life On Planet Rock recounts his war stories from that era. Friend is a man of dubious musical taste but boundless enthusiasm: he regards Pearl Jam, Skid Row and Linkin Park as music of the spheres, but maintains just the right degree of wry detachment when relating his lurid close encounters with Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, KISS and Metallica, among others. His tenure at RIP coincided with the demise of hair metal and advent of grunge, and he is equally amusing describing the noble task of procuring women for Mötley Crüe and being rejected as "disgusting" by a paranoid Kurt Cobain. His decline into a "what's it all about?" midlife crisis is affectingly related, and Friend's engaging demeanour throughout renders his anecdotage highly enjoyable.
By: Ian Gittins
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