When George Harrison died on December 1, 2001, the phone started ringing – it was those damned media outlets again – before I had time to sort out my thoughts about him. I’d covered a tour of his for a Rolling Stone cover story in 1974.
Download FileSo, here’s how I got to write a column in GQ.
As a kid daydreaming about one day writing for a big newspaper--and, as a teenager in Oakland, the Oakland Tribune rated as a big one--and being a columnist, like Bill Fiset, who did random items he picked up around town.
When in the mid-Sixties San Francisco came to represent nothing left to lose, there was a handful of identifiable pioneers that changed the face, the sound and the style of pop culture.
Download FileIn June, I got a call from Paul Wasserman, publicist for the Rolling Stones. Now, the Stones were known as one of the few bands that engaged a publicist for the purpose of keeping the press away.
Download FileGrowing up trapped in a Chinese restaurant family in the Fifties and early Sixties, I had radio as my lifeline to the outside world—to music, to baseball, and to other wonders.
Download FileBen Fong-Torres
Almost Famous Since 1969