Just finished up about a year and a half full-time gig with Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, on a doc series for VH1 Classic on various metal genres, called Metal Evolution. It's in the editing stages now as we all await its launch on 11/11/11.

But yeah, done with that and back into books with a vengeance. Just had the Black Sabbath FAQ book launch plus The Deep Purple Royal Family - Chain Of Events Through '79 and The Deep Purple Royal Family - Chain Of Events: '80 - '11, and then we've got a couple of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal things planned. I'll also try (half-heartedly) to get Ye Olde Metal: 1979 done sometime in early 2012.

Erstwhile, going to try keep up some editing, review writing and interviews for bravewords.com and Goldmine, but the output had obviously dropped due to the TV gig. I'll see how much more I can do, but once I'm into the guts of a book I try to stay focused so I don't have to re-learn things because of periodically putting a project aside, ya see?

And in the back of my mind, I'd really like to climb that Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs and get back to painting more often. The regular flight path of guys I aspire to in this respect (well, essentially Nick Tosches, a god, essentially the meat puppet on which I base my future life - except for the drinking!), is a move into non-music related non-fiction first, but hell, I'm really feeling that I better skip that step, given impending mortality. So yeah, if you are wandering around the top floor of Maslow's ol' House Of Needs, and happen to spot me there, I'll either be painting or writing non-music stuff, although I think my heart's with the painting. By a country mile, I feel that my greatest work accomplishments ever, in any field, are my favourite ten or 15 paintings from what I've done over the years. I've sold a bunch of them - in fact now all of the ones I'd be willing to let go - and I think I can be a success at it. And the trade off of hours spent and pay received is the best I've ever had, and man, you want to see a driven individual... put me in that position and I'd be on fire.