McNeil's most recent book, Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose is another collaborative effort with Gillian McCain. McNeil is also the co-author of I Slept with Joey Ramone (A Punk Rock Family Memoir) with Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone’s brother. It doesn't hurt that the history of American pornography is inextricably intertwined with all the subjects that captivate us: sex, drugs, beauty, fame, money, the Mafia, law enforcement and violence.' As Publishers Weekly said, 'This compulsively readable book perfectly captures the pop culture zeitgeist. McNeil is also co-author of The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry. The New York Times called the book 'lurid, insolent, disorderly, funny, sometimes gross, sometimes mean and occasionally touching.' McNeil is the co-author (with Gillian McCain) of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which has been published in 12 languages and helped launch the oral history trend in music books. According to McNeil: 'After four years of doing Punk magazine, and basically getting laughed at, suddenly everything was 'punk,' so I quit the magazine.' He says he came up with the name punk because Telly Savalas used the line 'You lousy punk!' on the show Kojak. Nicknamed 'Resident Punk' in the magazine, McNeil claims (to much dispute) that he was the first person (along with co-founder John Holmstrom) to have coined the term ' punk' to describe a certain type of music, fashion, and attitude. Holstrom wanted to call it 'Teenage News Gazette' to which Ged said, 'Absolutely not.' The name Punk was McNeil's idea Dunn agreed to it instantly, Holmstrom rather reluctantly. The name 'Punk' was decided upon because 'it seemed to sum up.everything.obnoxious, smart but not pretentious, absurd, ironic, and things that appealed to the darker side'. Within days of its first publication, Punk Magazine, McNeil, Holmstrom, and Dunn were famous. They settled upon a magazine, assuming that people would 'think cool and hang out with ' as well as 'give free drinks', and it worked. Holmstrom had an idea of combining comics with rock n roll. He is one of the three original founders of the seminal Punk magazine that gave the movement its name as well as being a former editor at Spin and editor-in-chief of Nerve Magazine.Īt the age of 19, McNeil gathered with two high school friends, John Holmstrom and Ged Dunn, and decided to create 'some sort of media thing' for a living. Roderick Edward 'Legs' McNeil (born January 27, 1956, in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States) is an American music journalist. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

Legs mcneil and gillian mccain