“Most of the really good writers did something else for a living besides write about music. Richard Riegel, for example, worked for the city of Cincinnati, he was a clerk. Those were the types we liked the most, generally. I tended to shy away from writers who wrote everywhere as professional rock critics. Our guys weren’t hacks in the bad sense – they actually liked music and they didn’t have to write about it for a living, so they didn’t have to please certain people, labels or artists – just the editors.”

Fucking aye to that.

Speaking as someone who spent 10 years selling men’s loafers and brogans and another 10 in a record store while I was trying to “find my voice,” so to speak. That rings true. When I get a resume from someone who describes her- or himself along lines of “a professional writer who’s been published extensively blah blah blah” (translation: sucks the knobs of publicists day and night) or someone who went to journalism school and wants to be a music writer (translation: wants an easy ride), I almost reflexively chuck it or delete the email. Gimme someone who’s a pipe fitter but listening to and thinking about music all day long, or someone who graduated with a Soc or Psych degree and knows how to put some cogent analysis together, and I’ll show you a couple of good aspiring rock scribes.