Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil (born January 27, 1956) is an American
music journalist
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
. He is one of the three original founders of the seminal ''
Punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
'' magazine; as well as being a former editor at ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles
* Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
'' and editor-in-chief of ''Nerve Magazine''.
''Punk'' Magazine
At the age of 19, McNeil gathered with two high school friends,
John Holmstrom
John Holmstrom (born 1954) is an American underground cartoonist and writer. He is best known for illustrating the covers of the Ramones albums ''Rocket to Russia'' and '' Road to Ruin'', as well as his characters Bosko and Joe (published in Sc ...
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.
Later work
In 1985, McNeil became a
''SPIN'' magazine staff writer.
In December 1991, Legs McNeil wrote about the Los Angeles
rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
culture/scene in "A Woodstock of Their Own", published by ''
Details''.
In 1993, Legs was the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Nerve.
McNeil is the co-author (with
Gillian McCain
Gillian McCain (born January 1, 1966) is a Canadian poet, author, and photography collector best known for ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'', which she co-wrote with Legs McNeil. McCain is the author of two books of poetry: ' ...
) 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
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' called the book "lurid, insolent, disorderly, funny, sometimes gross, sometimes mean and occasionally touching."
McNeil is also co-author of ''The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry''. As ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' said, "This compulsively readable book perfectly captures the pop culture zeitgeist. It doesn't hurt that the history of American
pornography
Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
is inextricably intertwined with all the subjects that captivate us: sex, drugs, beauty, fame, money, the
Mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...
, law enforcement and violence."
McNeil is also the co-author of ''I Slept with Joey Ramone (A Punk Rock Family Memoir)'' with
Mickey Leigh
Mitchel Lee Hyman (born July 15, 1954),Leigh 2009, p. 3. best known by his stage name Mickey Leigh, is an American musician and writer. He is the brother of Joey Ramone, lead vocalist of the punk rock band Ramones.
Career
Mickey Leigh formed his ...
,
Joey Ramone
Jeffrey Ross Hyman (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001), known professionally as Joey Ramone, was an American singer, songwriter, and the lead vocalist and founding member of the punk rock band Ramones, with Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone. His ...
’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
History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
to
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
, and has produced and hosted a three-hour TV special on
Court TV
Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former pay-television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cover ...
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
Danny Fields (born Daniel Feinberg; November 13, 1939) is an American music manager, publicist, journalist, and author. As a music industry executive from the 1960s to the 1980s, he was one of the most influential figures in the history of punk ...
, appearing alongside Fields,
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...
,
Alice Cooper
Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...
, and others.
Works
Oral histories
* ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'' with Gillian McCain (
Grove Press
Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United S ...
, 1996).
* ''The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry'', with Jennifer Osborne and Peter Pavia (
Regan Books
ReganBooks was an American bestselling imprint or division of HarperCollins book publishing house (parent company is News Corporation), headed by editor and publisher Judith Regan, started in 1994 and ended in late 2006. During its existence, Reg ...
, 2006).
Memoir
* ''I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir'' with Mickey Leigh (
Simon and Schuster
Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
, 2009).
References
External links
Legs McNeil Gothamist interviewLegs McNeil Glorious Noise interviewpleasekillme.com - Legs McNeil's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McNeil, Legs
1956 births
Living people
American magazine editors
American music journalists
American magazine founders
Punk writers
Writers from Connecticut