Dick Steele. Lest We Not Forget.

Outside of video games, I've only killed one man. He wasn't necessarily a good man, however, he wasn't necessarily bad. He started to get lost in the grid and I had to put him out of his misery in a three issue story arc. That man was Dick Steele.

He was pretty much me streaming consciousness, wasted on cheap whiskey at 2:30 AM on a Saturday after my shift at the bar. It's kinda dated when I go back and read some of the articles, but still mildly entertaining. I'm vain enough to have every one of them as the electronic versions have disappeared from the Synthesis website. They are much bigger now. Anyway, if you read them in order, it's very similar to the HughVoltage thing. There are ups and downs and twists. There are fuck-yous and inside jokes galore. In fact, I used to put secret crap in some of the text to communicate with a girl that had a boyfriend. The girl became my wife and then ex-wife. She was the sole owner of the one "I love Dick...Steele" shirt that we gave away in a rigged contest because I liked her. Be weary of the asshole with the pen because it is indeed mightier than the sword somehow.

So, I found an old interview with the bass player of Galactic that turned from a regular interview into a Dick Steele interview quite rapidly. He even questions how I'm going to make an article out of it and I'll admit that Dick Steele leaned very heavily on his editor Max Sidman who was a practitioner of tough love and even refused to run the column one week because it was shit. He was a good man that saved me from myself a lot and was also part of the Panama's three man drinking team that was training to drink 31 20 oz. long island iced teas in one sitting. We got to eight a piece with tequila shots in between them and then it all got a little weird. The project was abandoned when we learned how dangerous it was. We also aged five years that day.

Also might add that the Coreys dodged a huge bullet because we had an interview lined up with them and Dick if Dick agreed to review Corey Feldman's album. I reviewed it and had the interview lined up, but Haim cancelled the day of the interview. Fucker.

Here's the article Hipness Test Administered by Dick Steele.

Here's a quote from an interview that I did with Dee Snider from Twisted Sister.
"You know what? It is a very short plane flight, in reality, for me to be out there and in your face. I’m ripped and in great shape. I wear a loin cloth and I promise you I am loin cloth worthy. Matter of fact, it’s a little bit loose."


Holy crap. I scanned the Van Halen Dick Steele and have it on my Flickr account. I use Van Halen or David Lee Roth song/album titles 36 times in the column. Check that Link: "Reach Down Between My Legs/Ease The Seat Back"