With Robert Trujillo of Metallica at Sonisphere in Warsaw, Poland.

What a month June was. A Slayer show in London. Rage Against The Machine twice -- firstly at their 'Victory' concert in celebration of defeating last year's X Factor pawn, and again at Download. Then Metal Hammer's annual Golden Gods shindig. Then, most gobsmackingly, two days in Poland to see the first ever Big Four of Thrash show -- a monstrous experience.

Between all that stuff I interviewed the usual mix of headbangers and SSS (sensitive singer-songwriter) types, namely Tom Araya of Slayer, Jonas Bjorler of The Haunted, Suzanne Vega, Kyle 'son of Clint' Eastwood, Katie Melua, Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Mic Todd of Coheed And Cambria, jazz guitar supremo Mike Stern, Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two guitarists in Avenged Sevenfold, Adrian 'son of Joe' Perry of Tab and finally a chat with none other than Ozzy Osbourne -- the first time I've met him, despite having done the rest of Sabbath on multiple occasions.

Starting to work properly on books 18 and 19 this month. The deadlines are six months away, but I have the fear already...

Kerry King with The Bloody Reign Of Slayer, out in softback shortly,

Very sorry to hear of the deaths of Ronnie James Dio and Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. I interviewed Ronnie in 2004 and he was amazing: humble, funny, clever and still hungry for the prize, even in his sixties.

Books: The Bloody Reign Of Slayer from 2007 (modelled left by Kerry King) has been updated and is coming out in softback shortly, as is a new Kings Of Leon biog and Glenn Hughes' autobiography.

Mags: in May I interviewed Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy, Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine, Joe Perry of Aerosmith (a very decent fellow), Tommy Thayer of Kiss (ditto), Joel O'Keeffe of Airbourne, Joey Jordison of Slipknot, Sam Bosson of Trash Talk and Vinnie Paul of Hellyeah.

That'll do for now...

A review of the deeply silly New Moon in the current issue of DVD & Blu-ray Review magazine.

The hiatus between books is always a relief, and April was a welcome break betwixt Glenn Hughes' autobiography and the next two projects, which I'm writing simultaneously over the next six months or so. More news in a while.

Cool stuff in April, then: interviews with Bob Taylor, CEO of Taylor Guitars, at Harrods; Zakk Wylde; Scott Ian of Anthrax; the guys from Nazareth for more CD liner notes; the lovely Georgina 'Grog' Lisee of Die So Fluid; one of A Certain Ratio; acoustic troubadour Seth Lakeman; and the always-entertaining Alexi Laiho of Children Of Bodom, whose soundbites about a certain heavy metal band I had to edit out so that no-one got lynched. The mighty Opeth blew my mind at the Royal Albert Hall, and so did Eureka Machines and Night By Night at the slightly smaller Islington Academy.

Between all that I wrote reviews of albums and films for Metal Hammer, Record Collector, Rhythm and DVD & Blu-ray Review, mowed the lawn and drank a fair bit of Jagermeister for medicinal purposes.

I also filmed the series for Scuzz TV which I was asked to present a year ago. It's going out in June and a press release is on its way. Surely the One Show is but a step away...

Joel with Glenn Hughes, March 2010. Click here and scroll down for a bigger version.

Finally got Glenn Hughes' autobiography finished: handing the final draft to him (pictured left) was the culmination of four years of circle jerks with various publishing companies. However, thanks to a tireless agent and a visionary publisher, you'll be able to read the story of Glenn's 17-year, million-dollar coke spree for yourself before too long. It's mind-blowing reading, although obviously I would say that.

So that's 16 books in 10 years. Over the next eight months or so I'll be working on two massive biographies of rock/metal icons (details tba), writing for several national and international magaznes (currently Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Classic Rock Presents Prog, Bass Guitar, Acoustic, Record Collector, Rhythm and DVD & Blu-ray Review) and generally attempting to live a reasonably debauched life.

In March I interviewed singer-songwriter Marcus Bonfanti, Rob Halford and KK Downing of Judas Priest, Leo Williams of Dreadzone, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, affable Aussie hippy John Butler, the mighty Les Claypool, Robert Kearns of Lynyrd Skynyrd, singer (and friend of Kiefer Sutherland) Rocco DeLuca, Tim 'Ripper' Owens, ex-Almighty singer Ricky Warwick, Avantasia/Edguy frontman Tobias Sammet, legendary radio DJ David 'Kid' Jensen, Jon Oliva of Savatage, Shawn Drover of Megadeth, Todd Rundgren's bass player Kasim Sulton, acoustic balladeers Ffred Jones and Pete Christie, and Dez Fafara of Devildriver. Now that's a mixed bag of nuts by anyone's standards...

To LIve Is To Die: The Life And Death Of Metallica's Cliff Burton (left) is going into four foreign languages this year, including Japanese (which never happens). Great news, and a slight vindication for me -- as for years I was told by various publishers that no-one would buy a book about Burton because he was 'just a bass player'.

February ended up being busy... very busy. No complaints though, this is still the best job in the world by some distance. While finishing off book 16 and planning 17, I interviewed the great Tom Gabriel Fischer of Triptykon (whose new album blew my mind right from the first listen), Zach Galligan (the actor who played Billy in the Gremlins movies), Kid Rock (for Classic Rock's special Slash-themed issue), Chris Adler of Lamb Of God -- and the great Zakk Wylde, who is supplying the foreword for my next book but one. Interesting people, all of them.

January was one of those rare months between books when the pressure was low and the work interesting, including interviews with Scott Ian of Anthrax, Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine, two of Bleeding Through and Disturbed, two of Foreigner, the bassist out of Wolfmother and the great Jack Bruce.

The new issue of Bass Guitar Magazine (left) has interviews by me with Duff McKagan and many other players of the rock persuasion. Seek it out, it's the only bass mag in the UK and they do a great job in an ever-narrowing market.

I saw Evile in London. If keen modern thrash metal is your thing, see them at all costs.

And I saw Avatar -- 11 out of 10 for visuals, 2 out of 10 for plot...

Here's an old pic I found of me and Bruce Dickinson (click here for a larger version). What a lovely chap.

Another decade over. And what have we done? Well, in my case December was full of end-of-year interviews, including Will Calhoun of Living Colour, the bassist and drummer out of Killswitch Engage, Paul Landers of Rammstein, Charlie Benante of Anthrax, extended-range bass guru Yves Carbonne, Roy Mayorga of Stone Sour and Paulo Gregoletto of Trivium. Other than that it was all about finalising arrangements for Glenn Hughes' autobiography (limited editions available at Amazon here), knocking out lists of albums of the decade/films of the decade for various mags, finishing off my Kings Of Leon biog, setting up the deal for book 17, mulling over the concept for book 18 and drinking, but not necessarily in that order.

I give the Noughties 8.5 points out of 10 -- not bad. Hope it was as good for you. Now onward!