Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil (born January 27, 1956) is an American music journalist. He is one of the three original founders of the seminal Punk magazine; as well as being a former editor at Spin and editor-in-chief of Nerve Magazine.
Legs McNeil | |
|---|---|
 McNeil and Gillian McCain doing a book reading at Book Soup in Los Angeles, California on July 26, 2014. | |
| Born | Roderick Edward McNeil January 27, 1956 Cheshire, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Author, writer, rock historian |
| Known for | Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk |
Punk Magazine
editAt the age of 19, McNeil gathered with two high school friends, John Holmstrom and Ged Dunn, and decided to create "some sort of media thing" for a living. Holmstrom had an idea of combining comics with rock n roll.[1]
Later work
editIn 1985, McNeil became a SPIN magazine staff writer.[2]
In December 1991, Legs McNeil wrote about the Los Angeles rave culture/scene in "A Woodstock of Their Own", published by Details (magazine).
In 1993, Legs was the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Nerve.[3]
McNeil is the co-author (with Gillian McCain) of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which has been published in 12 languages and helped launch the oral history trend in music books. The New York Times called the book "lurid, insolent, disorderly, funny, sometimes gross, sometimes mean and occasionally touching."[4]
McNeil is also co-author of The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry. As Publishers Weekly said, "This compulsively readable book perfectly captures the pop culture zeitgeist. It doesn't hurt that the history of American pornography is inextricably intertwined with all the subjects that captivate us: sex, drugs, beauty, fame, money, the Mafia, law enforcement and violence."
McNeil is also the co-author of I Slept with Joey Ramone (A Punk Rock Family Memoir) with Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone’s brother.
McNeil's most recent book, Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose is another collaborative effort with Gillian McCain. Dear Nobody was published on April 1, 2014, and received widespread critical acclaim.
McNeil has appeared on many TV documentaries, from the History Channel to VH1, and has produced and hosted a three-hour TV special on Court TV over three nights on the porn industry, which was the highest-rated original programming in that network's history.
In 2016, a 2014 interview with McNeil was featured in Danny Says, the biographical documentary about the influential rock music publicist, Danny Fields, appearing alongside Fields, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, and others.
Works
editOral histories
edit- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk with Gillian McCain (Grove Press, 1996).
- The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry, with Jennifer Osborne and Peter Pavia (Regan Books, 2006).
Memoir
edit- I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir with Mickey Leigh (Simon and Schuster, 2009).
References
edit- ^ McNeil, Legs (June 14, 2021). "Remembering Punk, The Magazine, Music, Moment in Time". Please Kill Me. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
- ^ "LEGS MCNEIL TRIES TO STRIKE A NERVE WITH NEW ROCK 'N' ROLL MAGAZINE". The Morning Call. 18 April 1993. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
- ^ "Legs McNeil (1996): Part One". Meanwhile, Back In Peoria... 6 December 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
- ^ Pareles, Jon (August 22, 1996). "Story of Punk: More the Ugly Gossip Than the Music's Impact (Published 1996)". The New York Times.