Turning the tables: Interview with rockcritics.com’s very own Steven Ward

Happy to welcome back (not that he ever really went away) Steven Ward. In the first several years of this site’s run, Steven conducted roughly 80% of the interviews that were posted here, starting with his great 2000 interview with music critic Paul Nelson (the first most fans of Nelson’s work had heard from the man in over a decade), then following through with (only to name a very select few), J.D. Considine, Anthony DeCurtis, Deborah Frost, John Mendelssohn, and dozens more. No exaggeration to say that minus Steven’s interviews, there never would have been a rockcritics.com—certainly nothing that would have sustained itself for more than a few months.

Steven himself has pursued a successful career in journalism, and is currently employed at Today in Mississippi. I reached out to him recently to summon his recollections on setting up the interview with Paul Nelson, among other things related to music writing and this site, etc.

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Welcome back to rockcritics.com, Steven. First bring me up to speed by telling me what you’re listening to, reading, and/or watching these days?
Well, like a lot of folks, I’m in Succession mourning right now. I instantly fell in love with that show and I’m still coming to terms with the fact that there will never be another episode. It’s sad, but wonderful that the creators decided to end on a high note. No shark jumping for Succession.

Other shows my wife and I watch: The Crown on Netflix, The Bear on Hulu, and Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. We patiently wait for the next season of each of those shows.

Music: I feel like I don’t have the time or money to follow music in the same way that I used to. But it’s still kinda central to my life. I love Jason Isbell and get all his new albums when they come out. (The new one has been out for a week, I think? Don’t have it yet.) He is probably the best American songwriter working today IMHO.

I’m really enjoying the two CDs by Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs. Just great, simple guitar rock. Sometimes it’s boogie-like, sometimes it’s a little Tom Petty sounding. (No surprise.) Very Southern. Think The Georgia Satellites still in the garage. Sounds terrific blasting in my car.

I’m always reading. Work and real life get in the way sometimes, but I always make sure to find time to read. Right now, I’m reading a Scott Spencer novel from a few years ago, River Under the Road, which gives off heavy Jay McInerney vibes (and I mean that in a good way; I’m a JM fan).

I’m a big crime fan. I read The Getaway by Jim Thompson not too long ago. Thompson is as great as everyone says. I loved Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Anker. Both the book and the TV series. Being a magazine fan boy, I was drawn to it initially because one of the main characters is a men’s magazine writer. But beyond that, I got pulled into the human drama stuff mostly—marriage, family, work identity, etc.

I’m always reading culture criticism and writer memoirs. I bought Jann Wenner’s autobiography when it came out. I pick it up in fits and starts. It’s easy for me to put down because I know the story inside out. I loved Robert Draper’s bio and Joe Hagan’s Wenner book. Also, from interviewing all those RS writers and editors throughout the years at rockcritics.com, I feel like I know the story from all sides! But I do want to finish it. Eventually. I’m a bit of a completist.

Scott Timberg, who was an arts writer at the Los Angeles Times before he was laid off, has an amazing collection of his features out that is pretty new—Boom Times For the End of the World. Highly recommended. His writing is pitch perfect. Timberg committed suicide in 2019. He reportedly had a tough time dealing with stringing together a living from freelancing after being laid off. He struggled. But I’m sure there was much more to it than that. He wrote a wonderful book about the freefall of the arts community—people who made a living connected to the arts who can’t do that anymore. Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class.

Finally, I read a great music critic memoir a couple of months back called, Paper Cuts: How I Destroyed the British Music Press and Other Misadventures by Ted Kessler. Kessler wrote for the NME, Select, and later became the editor of Q and ran it until it folded during the pandemic. Good stuff. And just like I learned about Paul Nelson many years ago reading Kurt Loder’s book collection of Rolling Stone pieces, I stumbled on a name in Kessler’s book that I wasn’t aware of, but probably had read something by him at some point—David Cavanagh.

Kessler wrote so movingly about him in his book—he called him the best British music writer of his generation. (This was something I had to look into!) Cavanagh wrote for Sounds, worked as an editor at Select, and later wrote for Q, Mojo, and Uncut. Interestingly, in his 50s like Timberg, he committed suicide a year before Timberg—in 2018. Anyway, I’ve been reading some of his writing from rockcbackpages.com and he indeed was a very special talent. He wrote two books—a massive John Peel bio and a book about Alan McGee and Creation Records.

A loaded question, but is music still a primary preoccupation? Obviously, I know you’re still a fan of music, but you are in a much different personal situation than you were 20 years ago. Not to mention the continuing proliferation/glut of so much other media to take in, i.e., the 1,500 TV channels available to pretty much anyone (and to think: YouTube was not even around in the early days of rockcritics.com). Where/how does music fit into your life these days?
Like I said above, it’s not there as much as it used to be. But I have taken advantage of the free version of Spotify. (We pay for our daughter’s premium version.) So I have tons of playlists. I especially like the “This is [fill in the blank artist]” playlists because then I can just listen to a bunch of different songs by a band or singer I love. I listen to lots of classical music. I almost never buy CDs anymore. Jason Isbell. Those two Mike Campbell CDs. Other than that—only if it’s by one of my favorite bands of all time. The only band that fits that category these days is Marillion. They release a new studio album every few years. Whenever Peter Gabriel releases his new album, I will buy that. Because I don’t pay for Spotify premium, If I want to hear an entire older album, I tend to go to YouTube and just put up with the ads.

I think it was a few years ago you moved from Louisiana to Mississippi to take on an editor’s role at Today in Mississippi. Talk about your trajectory as a professional journalist—how did you land where you are now, and what does your current role entail?
Well, I’ve been a daily newspaper guy for most of my career. I left Baton Rouge in 2014 to move to Jackson, Mississippi to become an editor. I was in Baton Rouge for about 14 years. The BR Advocate is a great paper, but I felt like it was time to move to an editor’s role. That wasn’t the trajectory I was on in Baton Rouge. So I had an opportunity to became a city editor, and later, managing editor, of The Clarion Ledger in Jackson. I jumped at it and we moved. I loved working for the paper, but by 2020, the handwriting was on the wall—constant layoffs. Based on my age, position, etc., it was only matter of time. I probably would have worked there until the end of my career if I didn’t have to worry about the industry failing. But the paper is owned by Gannett. Cuts, cuts, cuts. It’s so sad. However, I managed to escape on my own terms after 25 years of newspapering. A headhunter got in touch with me about an opportunity to become editor of Today in Mississippi—the monthly magazine of the Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi. I write and edit features, assign them, plan the mag, write headlines, work with columnists. It’s wonderful. I even have an old-fashioned pension! The people here are terrific, smart, and talented. The magazine has the largest print circulation of any publication in the state—500,000 readers. The magazine goes to everyone who gets their electric power from a cooperative—mostly folks in rural areas of the state. I’m fortunate I still get to work in journalism and write professionally.

How do you like living in Mississippi? Was it new terrain for you and your family? Had you spent time there previously?
My wife is from Jackson. So she was born and raised here. Her parents are still here. Like Louisiana, Mississippi is a big part of the Deep South. So there’s everything that goes along with that—it’s both wonderful and frustrating. For a music and book nerd like myself, the music and literary history of the state is pretty astonishing. The people are kind and the food is some of the best in the U.S. But there are frustrations. There’s not a state in this country that doesn’t have problems. So we are hanging in there.

What do you like most about editing?
Editing makes you a better writer. I enjoy it. I will say I’m a firm believer in the old adage, everyone needs an editor. (Even editors need editors!) I usually write two features a month. I have a wonderful boss who is a terrific writer, and a co-worker who is a meticulous proof reader. They have saved this editor’s copy many times. I’m grateful for their sharp eyes and counsel.

The bulk of the interviews you conducted for rockcritics.com date back 20+ years ago. Do you still keep tabs on this world? Are there music publications in 2023 you still read? (And/or any particular writers.)
I still do a little. Not close to the way I did in the old days.

Most of the magazines I enjoyed are gone. I will occasionally buy a copy of Mojo or Uncut from my local Barnes & Noble. But that’s pretty rare. I’ve purchased two copies of Uncut this year. That’s it. Rolling Stone and the new Creem are way too expensive to buy. What I have perused online doesn’t catch my attention anyway.

I read that Ted Kessler memoir. And I’m now interested in reading more by the late David Cavanagh. I would love to subscribe to The New Yorker to read Alex Ross on a regular basis. Also, I enjoy reading Steve Smith on classical music. He has a newsletter and works for WYNC I believe.

I still love magazines though. And I subscribe to a bunch because annual subscriptions can still be a bargain—Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Wired, and Texas Monthly.

The first interview you did for rockcritics.com was your great interview with Paul Nelson. What was the impetus for that?
Because of my music and music magazine fandom, somebody in my family—it might have been my grandmother—bought me a copy of Kurt Loder’s RS collection of pieces, Bat Chain Puller. I loved it. Obviously loved him on MTV and I remember reading some of his stuff in Rolling Stone. In the book’s intro he mentions other music writers—both friends and influences. (Bangs, Christgau, etc.) One of them was Paul Nelson, who I had never heard of. Kurt called Nelson, “the legendary Paul Nelson.” I thought, one of my favorite music writers is singing the praises of this guy he calls legendary. That’s all it took. I started researching him and going through microfilm copies of old Rolling Stones reading his stuff. Nelson’s Warren Zevon cover story was especially memorable.

I was weird with rock critics. It’s like the old way we discovered music artists when you read in a music mag that one of your fave artists was influenced by another artist or album. That sends you in that artist’s direction.

So, I researched and read and I wanted to know what happened to him. I wanted to find him and interview him. I did. I found your website—I don’t think it was rockcritics.com yet. Maybe it was Popped? [Yes—ed.] I thought, maybe these folks will want to publish the interview. And here we are all these years later.

What do you recall about engineering that interview? Was it difficult to track Nelson down and get him to agree to talk?
It was difficult to track him down. The catalyst was, of all people, Robert Christgau. I managed to get his contact info and I called him. I told him what I wanted to do and he seemed a little surprised. But he told me that the last time he saw Paul, he was working at Evergreen Video in the west village in NYC. So I called Paul there. It took about three calls to get him on the phone. I told him what I wanted to do. But he said I needed to call him at home. Late. Maybe 11 p.m. or midnight or something like that? He was a night owl. I did and we talked for a while. He was very nice and answered all my questions. Weirdly, he wouldn’t tell me his age. In hindsight, it made sense that he was very vague about any current or future writing projects.

One of the things that I love about that interview was that I got in touch with three other writers to give me their impressions of working with him and their take on his writing. Greil Marcus, Jon Pareles, and of course, Kurt Loder. Reaching out to Kurt was obvious. I can’t remember why I chose Jon and Greil, but I’m glad I did.

What did Nelson’s attitude seem to be about the whole thing—about the idea of being interviewed for a website?
Although he didn’t verbalize anything to me specifically, I got the impression that he was glad I reached out to do the interview. I think that he thought no one cared about his career. I realized later, that the interview meant a great deal to him.

To your knowledge, did he ever see or respond to the finished interview? (I don’t recall if that particular detail was in Kevin Avery’s biography, though I know the piece itself does come up.)
When Paul died, Neil Strauss wrote this sprawling profile/overview of Nelson’s life and career in Rolling Stone. I remember being shocked RS published that piece, frankly. In it, bookseller and friend Michael Seidenberg said he was with Nelson one night during this panic moment about his life—Paul was looking back over his life, his accomplishments, etc. He pointed to two things in regards to his legacy. His copy of my rockckitics.com interview was one of the two things, according to the RS feature. He had it in hands when he mentioned it, I believe. Also, I heard that a couple of people brought the interview up at Paul’s memorial service. Maybe Loder or Anthony DeCurtis, or both?

I believe some of the early interviews you did for the site were conducted as phoners (Nelson himself, for instance), but at a certain point it just became more manageable to conduct interviews by email. Is that accurate, and did you ever feel limited by the email format? If so, how would you work around those limitations?
Emails vs phone interviews. Yeah, obviously the phone interviews were so much better because you get that back and forth. I wish I would have done all of them over the phone. But real life—work and family—became a thing and the email interviews were simply easier for me. Plus, I didn’t have to transcribe. I hated transcribing. I think I transcribed my Anthony DeCurtis interview. You transcribed my gigantic Chuck Eddy opus. (Thank you!)

Did I feel limited by the email approach? Of course. But eventually I looked at it like these writers—many of whom would probably never be interviewed by anyone else again—could write their own stories for posterity. So that’s something. Recording a career the way the writer wanted it to be recorded.

Nelson aside (I’m assuming), what two or three interviews that you conducted for the site are you most proud of, and why?
My favorite interviews besides Nelson? DeCurtis for sure. It was a good back and forth over the phone and I loved that Jim DeRogatis hated Anthony and hated that we even did the interview!

I loved the Chuck Eddy interview as well. His book, Stairway to Hell was incredibly important to me. At the time, I’d never read anything like that. His way of writing about heavy metal as pop, as disco, as country, etc. It was revelatory for me. I fell in love with his style and approach. It was over the phone and we butted heads some at the end, which was great.

But I also loved some of the non-interview pieces—the classical music critics roundtable. That was fun and different for us. And the Circus magazine oral history. I got to interview Loder for that. I tried to interview him later for a solo career retrospective but he wouldn’t do it. There was never anything like that Circus magazine oral history before that time.

Were there any music writing heroes back in 2000-2007 that you tried to nail down for an interview but couldn’t?
Like I said, I really wanted to interview Loder. Also, David Fricke was my dream interview for the longest time. I could never track him down. Maybe I got close once but I think I heard through someone else that he wouldn’t do it. If he would go for it today, I would do it in a second.

Also, one of my big writing heroes is James Wolcott. Wolcott is probably my favorite living nonfiction writer. His writing is perfect. I love his thoughts and ideas about the media, books, TV—pop culture in general. The smartest guy writing about culture today. But he hardly writes much anymore. I hate that.

You can interview any dead historical figure or person you want to: who would it be and what would draw you to them?
Historical? I have no interest in interviewing JFK or Albert Einstein or anybody like that. There’s a ton of dead writers/journalists I would love to interview (Grover Lewis, Chet Flippo, Jimmy Breslin, GQ editor Art Cooper to name a few).

But to answer to your question, if I had to pick one person: Johann Sebastian Bach. How did he do it? What was going through his head? His music is so God-like to me. What he created was so beautiful and long lasting. One of the people who comes to mind immediately when I think of art and beauty.

I’m curious what actually got you into rock criticism? Can you pinpoint what writer and/or publication first captivated you?
Magazines. Eventually that evolved into certain writers, but reading music magazines to find out about my favorite music and artists. Going behind the creative process of how a certain album was made. I loved it. For people like us, before there was an internet, music magazines were everything.

It started out with Circus, probably. Eighth/Ninth grade, I loved a lot of metal and hard rock. Also, copies of Downbeat in the library after school. (The library didn’t have any rock magazines that I can recall.) Later, I graduated to Rolling Stone, some Guitar World. I remember buying a copy of Record in a drug store. Springsteen was on the cover but I bought it because of the Lindsey Buckingham feature. And then when I saw a copy of Musician in a record store one day—I believe it was Mark Knopfler on the cover—that changed everything in a big way.

So to track it down to writers—it was Timothy White, Charles M. Young, and Matt Resnicoff in Musician. J.D. Considine too. His “Short Take” reviews in Musician. Also, J.D.’s taste in music aligned with mine. Certainly Kurt Loder and David Fricke in Rolling Stone.

Top 5 music magazines of all-time—any genre, any era.
Musician—the rest in no particular order: Record, Circus, Rolling Stone, Mojo.

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