NICK TOSCHES was first generation, one of the original rock and roll writers who wrote about rock and roll by being rock and roll, by not giving a single f*** , and by making sure that you, by the time you were done reading anything he had written, would give all sorts of f***s, often about people you barely knew before you began reading. His best-known books were about JERRY LEE LEWIS, DEAN MARTIN and boxer SONNY LISTON. The ones that made my eyes and ears pop were COUNTRY, which tells the story of the genre largely through its overlooked (and sometimes strange) pioneers and heroes and which is my go-to source for any argument about where the phrase "rock and roll" comes from, and WHERE DEAD VOICES GATHER, which documents his obsessive and not completely successful search for information about minstrel singer EMMETT MILLER while making a case for Miller as one of the great 20th century voices and for minstrel shows as a major contributor to American musical culture. A problematic subject, to say the least, for a writer whose biggest fans understood that he, too, was "the embodiment of problematic." His prose sometimes made you want to sing and sometimes made you want to pull your hair out. Occasionally both. GEORGE JONES' voice, he wrote, "is one of rare prismatic inflections that transmute the familiar light of the timeworn into subtle new glimmerings." He was "maybe the greatest stylist in music writing." He could also spill encyclopedic research with textbook clarity. At CREEM and ROLLING STONE, he sometimes reviewed records without listening to them and sometimes reviewed records that didn't exist. He made up his own death, too, adding the date of his demise to his entry at BIOGRAPHY.COM some 20 years ago. He had it at 2021. He missed by only 15 months. RIP... At some point in your life, because people can be awful, you've heard a man at a gig yell "take your top off" at whoever happened to be onstage. This is what it's like to be that person onstage, courtesy the wonderful MAGGIE ROGERS. Pro-tip: Don't do it... The ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, bowing to complaints from fans and the band, has reversed itself and decided that longtime MOTÖRHEAD guitarist PHIL CAMPBELL (32 years) and drummer MIKKEY DEE (23 years) are official members and will be inducted with the band if it's voted into the Hall. Pro-tip: Lean toward generosity and inclusiveness, always... AMAZON WEB SERVICES has released the BLACK MADONNA from her contract to perform at its upcoming INTERSECT FESTIVAL in Las Vegas, while refuting the DJ's claim that Amazon's name wasn't on any of the paperwork she signed for the fest and that she had no idea it was an Amazon event. JAPANESE BREAKFAST tweeted on Friday that she wasn't told either, while expressing ambivalence over whether pulling out of the fest was her best option. Pro-tip: Most people have no idea what the initials "AWS" stand for, on an offer sheet, a URL or anywhere else... RIP RAY SANTOS.