British author (born 1971)
Joel McIver (born 10 February 1971) is a British author. His best-known work is Justice for All: The Truth About
Metallica, first published in 2004 and appearing in nine languages since then. McIver's other works include biographies of
Black Sabbath,
Slayer,
Thunder,
Ice Cube, and
Queens of the Stone Age. His writing appears in newspapers and magazines such as
The Guardian, the
Daily Telegraph and
Classic Rock, and he is an occasional guest on
BBC and commercial radio and television.
Education and career
McIver is an alumnus of
Backwell School
[1] and the
University of Edinburgh.
McIver was the editor of
Bass Player magazine from 2018 to 2022, having spent six years before that editing
Bass Guitar magazine.
[2]
Works
Since 1999, McIver has written 35 books.
[2] In the introduction to
Neil Daniels' 2009 book All Pens Blazing, writer
Martin Popoff described McIver as "probably the top [rock] scribe in the world".
[3] In a review in April 2012, Classic Rock magazine described him as "...by some distance, Britain's most prolific hard rock/metal author..."
[4]
As well as writing his own books, McIver co-wrote several musicians' autobiographies. The first of these was the memoir of sometime
Deep Purple bassist
Glenn Hughes, published in 2011.
[5] Other memoirs co-written by McIver include those of
Max Cavalera of
Soulfly,
[6]
Megadeth bassist
David Ellefson,
[7]
David Bowie's former drummer
Woody Woodmansey
[8] and blues veteran
John Mayall.
[9]
Awards
As editor of
Bass Guitar magazine, McIver received the 2018 Award of Excellence for Best Educational Project from the Players School of Music in
Clearwater, Florida.
[10]
The same year, Sony's 35th-anniversary-edition reissue of
The Alan Parsons Project's 1982 album
Eye in the Sky, for which McIver wrote extensive
liner notes, won its category at the annual
Prog magazine awards.
[11] Parsons, along with surround mastering engineers Dave Donnelly and
P. J. Olsson, won the
Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album for the box set at the
61st Annual Grammy Awards.
[12]
In 2018, McIver co-hosted a podcast called Dead Rock Stars with fellow writer
Mick Wall. In June that year,
The Guardian named Dead Rock Stars their podcast of the week.
[13]
[14]
Bibliography
As writer
- Extreme Metal (foreword by
Jeffrey Dunn of
Venom, 2000)
- Slipknot: Unmasked (2001)
- Nu-Metal: The Next Generation of Rock and Punk (foreword by
Casey Chaos of
Amen, 2002)
- Ice Cube: Attitude (2002)
- Erykah Badu: The First Lady of Neo-Soul (2003)
- Justice for All: The Truth About Metallica (foreword by
Thomas Gabriel Fischer of
Celtic Frost and
Triptykon, 2004)
- Extreme Metal II (foreword by
Mille Petrozza of
Kreator, 2005)
- No One Knows: The Queens of the Stone Age Story (foreword by
Kat Bjelland of
Babes In Toyland, 2005)
- The Making of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik (2005)
- The Making of the Sex Pistols' The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle (2006)
- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (2006)
- The Bloody Reign of Slayer (foreword by the members of
Municipal Waste, 2008)
- The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists (foreword by
Glen Benton of
Deicide, 2009)
- Unleashed: The Story of Tool (2009)
- To Live Is to Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton (foreword by
Kirk Hammett of
Metallica, 2009; updated with afterword by
Frank Bello of
Anthrax, 2016)
- Holy Rock'N'Rollers: The Kings of Leon Story (2010)
- Crazy Train: The High Life and Tragic Death of Randy Rhoads (foreword by
Zakk Wylde of
Black Label Society, afterword by
Yngwie Malmsteen, 2011)
- Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead (foreword by
Glenn Hughes, 2011)
- Machine Head: Inside the Machine (foreword by
Chris Kontos, formerly of
Machine Head, 2012)
- Ultimate Rock Riffs (foreword by
Robb Flynn of
Machine Head, 2013)
- Know Your Enemy: Rage Against the Machine (2014)
- Sinister Urge: The Life and Times of Rob Zombie (foreword by Jeremy Wagner of
Broken Hope, 2015)
- The Complete History of Black Sabbath: What Evil Lurks (foreword by
Robb Flynn of
Machine Head, 2016)
As official biographer or co-writer
- Deep Purple and Beyond: Scenes from the Life of a Rock Star (with
Glenn Hughes, foreword by
Lars Ulrich of Metallica, 2011)
- My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (with
David Ellefson, foreword by
Alice Cooper, 2013)
- My Bloody Roots: From Sepultura to Soulfly and Beyond (with
Max Cavalera, foreword by
Dave Grohl, 2013, revised in 2022 with afterword by
Randy Blythe)
- Glen Matlock's Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File (with
Glen Matlock, foreword by
Chad Smith of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2014)
- Bible of Butchery: Cannibal Corpse, The Official Biography (foreword by
Gene Hoglan, 2014)
- Thunder: Giving the Game Away: The Official Biography (foreword by
Andy Taylor, formerly of
Duran Duran, 2016)
- Spider from Mars: My Life with David Bowie (with
Woody Woodmansey, foreword by
Tony Visconti, afterword by
Joe Elliott of
Def Leppard, 2016)
- Blues from Laurel Canyon: My Life as a Bluesman (with
John Mayall, foreword by
Mick Fleetwood of
Fleetwood Mac, 2019)
- I Am Morbid: Ten Lessons Learned from Extreme Metal, Outlaw Country, and the Power of Self-Determination (with
David Vincent, foreword by astrophysicist
Matt Taylor, 2020)
- The Saga of
Skálmöld (foreword by
President of Iceland
Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, 2021)
- Fathers, Brothers, and Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, and
Anthrax (with
Frank Bello, foreword by
Gene Simmons of
Kiss, 2021)
- Still Too Sexy: Surviving
Right Said Fred (with
Richard Fairbrass and Fred Fairbrass, foreword by
Eddie Kidd, 2022)
Forewords and introductions
References
External links
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