An old press pic from 2000.

November, often a stressful month for me because I tend to have massive deadlines in December and January, was too much work and not enough play, although whether what I do really counts as "work" is debatable.

Anyway, I interviewed Hellyeah bassist Bobzilla, guitarist Lulo "great-nephew of Django" Reinhardt, Letterman Show musicians Anton Fig and Paul Shaffer, Motorhead producer Cameron Webb, Disturbed frontman David Draiman, legendary guitar maker Grover Jackson (for my Randy Rhoads biography, now thankfully nearing completion), my journo colleague Kris Needs, bass guru Billy Sheehan, one of the actors out of Skins (it's a long story), Joey Jordison and Roman Surman of the Murderdolls, the great Ralph Santolla of Deicide and Obituary, Barney Greenway of Napalm Death, Tony Choy of Atheist and Cynic and the very affable Pat Thrall (for the Glenn Hughes book, of course). You probably think I make this list up every month, but no, the audio files are all there, waiting to be transcribed...

I also saw the mighty Annihilator, visited this amazing place and had dinner with the venerable Mick Wall, one of the few rock biographers who have been doing this longer than me. To put it into context, my agent describes me as "the best-known rock author in the world -- apart from Mick Wall", which made Mick chuckle when I told him.

Watch this!

Buy the current issue of Total Guitar, why don't you? The cover feature is on Iron Maiden, whose three guitarists I interviewed about their generally intimidating skills.

Life as a rock hack and author continues to be the usual challenging combination of being chained to a hot computer and being grateful that I don't have a real job. Between working on the Randy Rhoads and Motorhead biographies I interviewed a wholesome bunch of musicians for various books and magazines, including the always-affable Phil Demmel of Machine Head, the veteran bassist Herbie Flowers (who played on 'Space Oddity' and 'Walk On The Wild Side', don't you know), the lovely members of Girlschool, the philosophical Alan Lancaster (ex of Status Quo), the charming Gary Numan, the excellent Karl Sanders of Nile, the slightly sleepy Chrissie Hynde (I think I woke her up when I called) and her chum JP Jones, the very chirpy Julian Lennon, the very helpful Gary Husband, the very talented Craig Ogden, the very witty Ginger of the Wildhearts, the genuinely very nice Bryan Adams (I still think this song rules after 25 years) and finally the always thoroughly decent Charlie Benante. Not a tosser, whinger, whiner, egotist or irritating halfwit among them. Makes a change.

And I was interviewed here about Black Sabbath. I wonder if they'll read it...?

Crazy Train: The High Life And Tragic Death Of Randy Rhoads (available for pre-order soon)

Overkill: The True Story Of Motorhead (click here to pre-order)

After much cloak-and-dagger secrecy, rendered pointless because they were announced at Amazon ages ago, here's a first look at books 17 and 18, which will be published next spring...

Crazy Train: The High Life And Tragic Death Of Randy Rhoads (Jawbone Press) features a foreword by none other than Zakk Wylde, who wrote: "When Joel asked me to write the foreword for this book about Randy, I was beyond honoured. I figured it was the least I could do, considering how much impact Randy has had on my life." The honour is all mine, Zakk.

One of the ideas behind this book was to reveal the impact of Randy's all-too-brief career on today's generation of rock and metal guitarists, and to that end six-stringers from the entire spectrum of heavy music have either been interviewed or have agreed to be interviewed for it. These include, but are not limited to, Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Gary Holt (Exodus), Jeff Waters (Annihilator), Ron Jarzombek (Watchtower, Blotted Science), Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse), Mille Petrozza (Kreator), Jack Owen (Deicide), Ralph Santolla (Obituary), Jeff Dunn (Primevil, ex-Venom) and Tomas ‘Samoth' Haugen (ex-Emperor and Zyklon). There's a ton of other interviewees to be announced. Crazy Train isn't just about Randy's guitar playing, though: I wanted to show what the guy was really like as a person, and so I also spoke with Randy's oldest friend Pete Wilkinson and his colleagues in Ozzy Osbourne's band, Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake.

I'm also about to submit Overkill: The True Story Of Motorhead to Omnibus Press. This one has a foreword wrtten by my chum Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Black Country Communion), an old friend of Lemmy's who, as eagle-eyed readers will recall, I've been working with on his autobiography. As with the Randy Rhoads biography, the response from a wide range of musicians to interview requests has been astounding, but perhaps that shouldn't be a surprise. After all, Lemmy is God.

Apart from working on these planet-sized behemoths, I also interviewed the usual bunch of chancers for various magazines in September, including one of Antony & The Johnsons, the awesome rockin' vicar Rachel Mann (read it here), Alex Paterson of The Orb, one of Alter Bridge, another one of Monster Magnet, the godlike Joe Satriani, the even more godlike Gene Hoglan, the lovely members of Girlschool, someone out of Less Than Jake and the blues axeman Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Check out the new issue of DVD & Blu-ray Review magazine, whose cover feature on the Alien film franchise was tapped out by me in a froth of sci-fi geek fanboy excitement.

What else... well, I went to Ronnie Scotts to see the James Taylor Quartet, then to a hidden nuclear bunker (OK, John Henry's) to see Black Country Communion, and finally to a small Buckinghamshire village library to give a talk about my chequered career. Lots of fun.

And I was interviewed by the New York Times here, who wanted to know what I thought about Iron Maiden, bless 'em. I was also interviewed at this blog, where the writer described me as the greatest music writer of this or any century, or words to that effect. Very flattering, but hardly true -- I'm at least the second or third greatest. [JOKE]

If you're still reading, you'll no doubt be intrigued to learn that -- contracts pending -- I'm about to co-write the autobiography of a certain thrash metal musician. The first person to guess who it is and mail me gets a signed copy...

Reviews are coming in for Holy Rock & Rollers: The Story Of Kings Of Leon, notably this one (left) from none other than The Sun. Are their seven million daily readers Kings Of Leon fans? Let us hope so. Q magazine also gave it a half page, God bless 'em, and several other publications have got on board too.

Interviews in August, then: singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy, Iron Maiden guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, one of Pendulum, Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge and Creed, Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit, Peter Hook, ex of New Order and now of Freebass, his singer Gary Briggs, Gary 'Mani' Mounfield of Primal Scream, one of Antony & The Johnsons, Philip Anselmo of Down, Steve Morse of Deep Purple, Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks, acoustic maestro Kaki King and one of Stone Sour. That's a fair few interviewees considering that I also took a long holiday in the middle of nowhere.

Among the usual stuff for various music magazines, I also wrote a feature on 13 horror-movie franchises that refsue to die for DVD & Blu-ray Review magazine. All good, clean, friendly dismemberment.

I also saw the amazing Ihsahn play in London. More people should listen to this guy: in a just world, he'd be as big a prog sensation as Opeth or Dream Theater.

It looks disturbingly as if I will have between four and six books coming out in 2011, contracts pending. Ah well -- who needed sleep anyway?

Here's book 17, the first biography of Tennessee's finest, Kings Of Leon. It's a tale involving all the usual rock'n'roll debauchery and then some. Amusingly, one early review has claimed that I wrote it in a particularly British style -- as if I was wearing a monocle and waxing my handlebar moustache as I typed the thing. Anyway, why not pick up three copies (one to read, one to give to your nephew and one to bury in the back garden in case of nuclear attack) here?

July was a blur, with me running around like a fool a lot. I went to Berlin to listen to Dimmu Borgir's new album for one thing. Then I did the Guilfest and Sonisphere festivals. I also did a load of work on the next two books, wrote features and reviews for a ton of magazines and interviewed the usual surreal group of chancers, as follows: two of Los Lobos, Sugar Hill hip-hop legend Keith LeBlanc, cult folkie Meic Stevens, Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy again, sometime Kyuss bass guru Scott Reeder, model/reality star/uber-sleb Katie 'Jordan' Price (I kid you not -- read it here), David Draiman and Dan Donegan of Disturbed, Pete Shoulder of The Union, Blasko, Tommy Clufetos, Gus G and Adam 'Son of Rick' Wakeman from Ozzy Osbourne's band plus Ozzy himself (read the interview here), Korn bassist Reginald 'Fieldy' Arvizu, Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Dave Lombardo of Slayer, sometime Guns N'Roses axe legend Slash and finally Corey Taylor, singer with Slipknot and Stone Sour. That's way too much transcription for any human.

My Scuzz TV show is on its way to your screen shortly: transmission dates as I get them. Until then, why not watch this?

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!