Who is this Wordsmith and why subscribe?

If you know me, great. If not, a quick visit to the short bio on my formal web site will hopefully help fill you in. As I grow older, I become increasingly comfortable describing myself as a “communicator,” be it through the written word, music, podcasts or speaking. Substack is, for now, the best platform for me to centralize and distribute these various forms of communication, primarily of course, the written word, for which I am best known, if I am known at all.

For my first year on Substack, I posted a Midweek Update of news and recommendations, for free, and a long-form weekend read, most of which have also been for free. Going forwards, the Midweek Update will be replaced with shorter and more frequent single-subject midweek posts. There are bonus features for paid subscribers, including interview archives (with detailed anecdotes) from my Keith Moon biography, and some from elsewhere in my long career as a biographer and interviewer. Paid subscribers also get the Crossed Channels podcast, which I co-host with fellow Substacker/music journalist Dan Epstein. All other articles remain free for sixteen weeks, so there is plenty here if you just want to test the waters. Enjoy!

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Why not?

What do you have to lose? You like what I write, you get to read it. You don’t, you trash it. (But not publicly please, you can just unsubscribe!)