UK-based journalist / author Neil Daniels is featured in a new interview with Classic Rock Revisited. Founder Jeb Wright comments:

"Rock Scribe Neil Daniels has paid homage to rock writers in a way never done before... he interviewed 'em. Just about all of them. He even interviewed me, Jeb Wright. He put the interviews in his books, All Pens Blazing Volumes I & II. If you want to find out what its like to talk to rock stars then read these books and see how things have changed over the years and what crazy things have occurred behind the scenes and in-between the lines."

An excerpt is available below:

Q: Where did you come up with the idea to do a book of interviews on people who do interviews?

Neil: "I started a little archive of my site neildaniels.com of original interviews with writers; not just music but a lot of non-fiction writers too and some authors including, Kim Newman and Ramsey Campbell. I was just interested in interviewing people that I thought would be interested and interesting. I wanted to self-publish a book of some kind because I’m a fan of Martin Popoff’s stuff; so I thought it would be a nifty idea to round up a load of original interviews with rock scribes - including some, though not all, interviews from the site - and compile them into a book which I’d self-publish. Well, I went down the print on demand route which is not strictly self-publishing but something similar. When the book came out I got a lot of good feedback and decided to publish a second volume a year later, and then I had the first one redesigned so they now make a really cool matching pair. Those two volumes add up to 134 interviews with rock writers. There’ll be a third and final one next year thus making the All Pens Blazing trilogy. It’s really the place to start if you are interested in being a rock writer and just interested in rock journalism in general. Martin Popoff and Mick Wall wrote forewords for vol 1 and 2, respectively."

Q: What was the most challenging part of this book? Was it getting the writers to open up to their bad experiences?

Neil: "The hardest part was actually getting in touch with so many writers – Facebook was great for that. I then had to come up with enough questions for each writer and then wait for them all to be finished and compile them all into the one document. It was very, very time consuming but certainly worthwhile. The first volume was a nightmare to make because I had no idea what I was doing in terms of the technical side of designing the cover and formatting the text, but I had a lot of help from my webmaster-friend Rob McKenna. The second book – plus my third POD book Rock ‘N’ Mercenaries – were easier because I knew what I was doing and I paid for a professional designer, James Gaden (who also designs Fireworks melodic rock mag)."

Q: Were you disappointed in any of the writers? In other words did you know of someone and thought they were cool but then learned the opposite by doing this project?

Neil: "Like I said, most of them were really cool but a couple were immensely arrogant and think that by writing about rock music it makes them the equivalent of Hunter S Thompson. There are some big egos in rock journalism. BIG egos. I have tried to stay away from all that. It’s kinda pathetic. You have to laugh, really. But most are really great, interesting people."

Go to this location for the complete interview.