Joel McIver: There are loads that stand out. It was a life-changing experience to meet James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, Dimebag (just a couple of months before his death) and the guys out of Anthrax and Slayer. I remember John Williams, the classical guitarist, trying to speak down to my level. Lemmy, Bill Wyman, the godly Jack Bruce. Tom Jones, Jon Bon Jovi, Mike Oldfield, Michael Nyman, John Simm the TV actor. Having a curry with Rick Wakeman. Helping Bob Geldof write a letter to the Pope. Disagreeing with John Lydon. The Black Sabbath guys filling me with awe every time. The guys in Slipknot making out they knew more than me about death metal and me proving them wrong.
Interviewing every metal band under the sun – Satanists, murderers and rapists among them. Some of them were great, some of them made me feel disgusted. Nik Rhodes phoning me up, and my wife answering the phone and being left speechless. Gene Simmons doing the same thing. Gary Numan. Billy Sheehan. Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. Most of Deep Purple, many times. Boy George telling me about his sex life. Emails with Björk. Alice Cooper – in shock, the week of 9/11. Dweezil Zappa, Faith No More, some of Green Day. Peter Gabriel meeting my daughter. Queens Of The Stone Age, Machine Head. Ice-T telling me about life in the army. Stewart Copeland telling me Italian swear words. Standing on stage at Ronnie Scott’s and pretending to be Miles Davis. Asking Liam Howlett of the Prodigy about Rage Against The Machine. Telling Slash I'd heard him swear on kids’ TV and him being mortified. The great Thomas Fischer of Celtic Frost gleefully reading me a bad review I’d written of his recent album, and me being mortified.It goes on and on – I’ve been doing this for 12 years and have done about 450 interviews. I’ll publish a book of my interviews sometime.
Who was your least favorite interview?
Any interview where the subject couldn’t be bothered, or was a moron, or where I had to share him/her with other journalists. Interviews like that make you want to pack it in and get a job as a librarian.
Who was least like you thought they would be?
I assumed Francis Rossi of Status Quo would be uninteresting, and he ended up lecturing me about evolution theories and how they conflict with Catholic dogma. I was speechless. The guy’s a genius, seriously.
What makes a good interview?
Both people really have to want to be there. The PR person has to not be around, getting in the way, and it helps if nobody’s got a hangover.
What’s the dumbest or most unfortunate question you’ve asked?
When I was a stupid kid and had just started doing interviews, I was interviewing Michael Hutchence of INXS and wanted to ask him how he maintained quality control over his lyrics. The way the question came out was ‘How do you know when you’ve written a really (crap) lyric?’ I’m embarrassed just remembering it. The fact that he died a few months later was, I hope, nothing to do with my pathetic interview.
Who are some artists that you would like to interview, but haven’t?
I’ve done most of my heroes now but I really want to interview Prince and Tom Waits. Otherwise, there aren’t many musicians who I really want to meet. There are plenty of film directors and politicians on the list, though.
What’s the most fun you’ve had doing an interview?
Most of that is detailed above, but interviews are fun when you make a mental connection with your subject and the conversation transcends a simple question and answer session. If you leave the conversation with a raised consciousness of a particular issue, that’s a bonus.
Who are some other metal writers that you respect?
Martin Popoff, Mick Wall, Malcolm Dome, William Irwin, John Doran, Ian Christe, Dave Ling, Christof Leim, Ian Glasper, Jerry Ewing, Dom Lawson, Greg Moffitt. There are many more, including the staffers on the UK metal magazines – apologies to those I’ve missed. It’s a pretty friendly community. I can only think of two metal writers that are pretty universally despised, but let’s name no names here.
What genres of metal are your most and least favorite?
I listen to a lot of thrash metal, death metal and grindcore. Traditional heavy metal isn’t really my thing, although I have tons of respect for Priest, Maiden and so on. I’m starting to get into prog-metal a lot more these days – Mastodon, Opeth, Tool of course, but Dream Theater are too cheesy. Power metal bores me, apart from Dragonforce. Doom metal is perfect if you’re in the right mood, and although I love the malevolence of black metal, I only really listen to four bands – Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone and Emperor. I’d go a long way for any of them.
Who is the most underrated metal band?
Kreator. They should be millionaires, but never will be. Strapping Young Lad, too.
Who is the most overrated metal band?
Korn.
What is your all time favorite metal album?
It’s Reign In Blood, clichéd as that sounds.
What are 5 essential metal albums every fan should own?
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
Metallica, Master Of Puppets
Slayer, Reign In Blood
Mayhem, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Morbid Angel, Blessed Are The Sick
The sum of all human wisdom is contained in those five albums, right there.
What is the biggest misconception people have about metal writers?
That we only like heavy metal. I love jazz, classical, early hip-hop, 70s funk and mainstream rock and so does every other music writer that I know, more or less.
What suggestions would you have for somebody wanting to get into writing about heavy metal?
Bombard the editors of the relevant magazines with ideas and don’t give up until you get a reply. And remember, this is supposed to be fun.
Anything else you’d like to mention?
Yes, come and see me at www.joelmciver.co.uk, my door is always open. And thank you for having me on your site, you do a great job and it’s people like you who keep the whole industry going. Oh, and if you bought one of my books, you rule.
