In his 30 years as a journalist, Mick Wall has lived the life that many budding music journalists can only dream about.
Through his work with magazines such as Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, RAW, Classic Rock and Mojo, Wall has travelled all over the world, conducted interviews with some of the biggest names to grace the hard rock/metal scene, and earned a reputation as one of one of the U.K.’s premier music journalists.
Although still contributing to a variety of magazines across the globe on a part time basis, and hosting a couple of radio shows in his spare time, most of Wall’s time these days is spent writing books, with his most successful and critically acclaimed effort being When Giants Walk The Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin, which emerged in 2008.
Although it’s hardly what you would call an official follow-up to his Led Zeppelin tome, Wall has managed to find the time to compile a new book in the form of Appetite For Destruction: Legendary Encounters With Mick Wall. As the title would suggest, the book is a collection of interviews conducted by Wall from 1985 through to 1995 with some of the biggest names in the hard rock/metal scene.
With Appetite For Destruction: Legendary Encounters... finally hitting the shelves, I decided to catch up with Wall in Oxfordshire (U.K.) to find out what it was like being a journalist through what is undoubtedly hard rock/metal’s classic era (The late ‘80’s/early ‘90’s), working alongside his co-conspirator/friend Ross Halfin and just where the idea for such a book came from.
“Appetite For Destruction is essentially an expanded version of my book Star Trippin’: The Best Of Mick Wall 1985-91, which came out in 2006 in celebration of Kerrang!’s 25th anniversary,” begins Wall. “Star Trippin’ was a self published effort, low key release with a very modest print run. You could only buy it via my website, and each copy was signed by me. It was never meant to be anything other than a memento really for some people that enjoyed those stories the first time around. We only did a few hundred copies, and they all went. I thought there would be hundreds of these things sitting in a garage somewhere in years to come. But lo and behold, they all went. And people bought them from all over the world. I really didn’t expect that there would be so many people interested in the book. But the idea to re-release the book came about when my editor asked if he could get a copy. As it so happens, I only had two copies left. One thing led to another, and eventually, Star Trippin’ became a kind of springboard to a more expanded version, which is now called Appetite For Destruction. Originally, Star Trippin’ had 16 stories, along with introductions to all the stories.
“This new version now has 31 stories, and I’ve modified and improved some of the introductions that had originally appeared in Star Trippin’ to bring them up to date. I think it made them slightly better in my view, because I realise now that I’m writing for a much wider audience, especially given the unexpected success of Star Trippin’ And the codas for all of the stories are all brand new as well. There were no codas in Star Trippin’. Unlike Star Trippin’, Appetite For Destruction is now something that everybody can get a hold of. I think this version is edited better, presented in a much more appealing package and it’s more than twice as long. I’m very happy with how it’s turned out.”
While the stories themselves are timeless, and the introductions provide a nice build up for the story that ensues, it’s actually the codas where Wall indulges in some retrospective and personal insight based on the stories. But while some of the codas reflect on the subject matter with words of warmth and good will, there are others when Wall isn’t afraid to speak his mind.
“These days, in complete contract to the time when those stories were written, I almost care nothing about what people might think of what I have to say,” admits Wall. “Obviously there are exceptions. There are certain people that I have a deep regard for, and therefore I don’t want to insult them or offend them in any way. But by and large, I just feel that if you’re honest and say what you sincerely feel, without necessarily coming over too heavy about the whole thing, you should be allowed to express your own opinion. In those days though, it was a completely different ball game. Almost every artist that is in that book is someone that I would have interviewed at least seven, eight, nine or maybe ten times, whether it is for radio, television, or perhaps in preparation for future books.
“The key in those days was always access,” he continues. “I would interview Iron Maiden three times a year, and the only way you keep getting welcomed back was because they felt comfortable with you. They felt they could trust you. In other words, you weren’t going to go away and write the kind of story that they would absolutely hate. And again, there are always exceptions. But by and large in those days, I tried very hard to make it seem that I didn’t care. But really I did care, because I wanted to go back and do more stories with the same people later. At the time, there was no internet or satellite television (At least in the U.K.), and Kerrang! was the only game in town for groups like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses and Bon Jovi. So they were always pleased to see you as well. There was a great sort of camaraderie, a kind of ‘us against the world’ thing. It was simply more fun to be on the team, than not. I didn’t want to be that guy from the NME that thinks everyone is a fucking idiot, and all the music sucks. I loved that whole world, because they were such personalities, and often they had such great stories to tell. And of course, you travelled in style. It was everything I wanted rock ‘n’ roll to be as a kid. But I kind of got sick of that in the end, especially around the turn of ‘90’s. These days, I’m in a different place, and I try hard not to give two hoots what anyone thinks, and really try the best I can to say what I really mean.”
Having conducted so many interviews throughout the years meant that selecting stories for the new and improved Appetite For Destruction was always going to be a hard choice. But despite the challenge, Wall’s selection criteria for the book were really quite simple.
“Originally with Star Trippin’, I simply decided to select one story each from the biggest artists,” he adds. “ ou have to remember that it was done very much as a side project. At the time that we did it, I really didn’t put a lot of thought into it. It was a very small thing, put together by a very small amount of people. It wasn’t like I had any intention of making any money from it. Consequently, we actually lost money on the book. But originally, my only thought was, ‘Hey, let’s put in one Black Sabbath, one Deep Purple, one Guns N’ Roses and one Metallica story. And that’s what I did. I just added what I hoped would be some of the more interesting stories to others out there.
“When it came to adding stories to Appetite For Destruction, there were quite a number of stories that I really wanted to add in there. The problem was that there were some that I simply couldn’t. The simple reason for that is that I don’t have the original manuscripts. These things were written on typewriters. And in those days, we had absolutely no idea that in 20 years there would be any interest or value in them at all. I mean I would bash this stuff out, hand it in to the editor and off it would go. I wouldn’t even make a copy of it for myself. So I had to literally try scanning the stories in from the original magazines. Now the thing about Kerrang! is that through most of the ‘80’s, and again, before computers, a lot of it was hand designed. You know, with tracing paper and projectors. And they used to use a lot of background tones. You couldn’t read the damn thing, let alone scan it. There’s a great interview I did with Rob Halford of Judas Priest which I so wanted in this book. But when I found the original, the opening double page spread - I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was unbelievable. It was yellow words, on a pink background! (Laughs) I stood there in my office, with the thing by the window, and I could barely read the thing. I thought, ‘To hell with this’. You couldn’t scan it that’s for sure. And then I thought about hand typing the thing in, because I really wanted this story. There were a few stories like that, where you would get a few pages that were scannable or readable, but then you would come across some that would have something like a beach scene, which was all sea and sand, clouds and people in colourful outfits, and you can’t read the bloody things. So there were plenty that I couldn’t use for that reason.”
