CREEM Magazine — more than any of the other numerous bad influences I was exposed to during my reckless youth — probably was the one that finally ruined me for life. In fairness, rock and roll itself had already dug its own hooks pretty deep in my heart, mind, and soul by the time I discovered America's Only Rock And Roll Magazine in 1972 — right around the same time as my sophomore year in high school.

So the damage was at least partially already done.

But by that time, I had pretty much already figured out that I wasn't gonna make it as a rock star. All of the long hair, velvet blazers, and platform heels in the world weren't going to change the fact that I basically had no musical talent. However, within the pages of CREEM, I discovered a new rock and roll dream, and indeed an entire new brand of rock star. For you see, in the pages of CREEM, it was not only the musicians who were the rock stars, but the writers who wrote about them.

Yep. CREEM pretty much ruined me all right.

CREEM became such an obsession with me throughout my high school years in the seventies, that I knew the exact day each new issue would arrive at my corner drug store in the West Seattle Junction. It was always the first Tuesday of the month. After school I would rush there to grab my copy — often before the clerk even put it out on the rack — and rush home to devour it cover to cover in a matter of hours.

Oh sure, there were other rock magazines at the time, and I bought them all too. Circus could always be counted on for the coolest pictures on the glossiest color paper. Rolling Stone usually had the most newsworthy stories before anyone else. But CREEM was hands down the magazine that best celebrated the rock and roll attitude and lifestyle, with it's irreverent — and often hilarious — no holds barred style of rock journalism.

CREEM also had the best writers bar none. By this time, I was writing my own music column for my high school newspaper (called "Rock Talk"), and my greatest influences were CREEM writers like Dave Marsh, Lisa Robinson, Dave DiMartino, Robot A. Hull, Jaan Uhelszki, and of course the late, great Lester Bangs.