The Critic Who Taught Chad Radford To Write Without Fear

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Chad Radford knows the importance of developing a thick skin. Creative Loafing Atlanta’s music editor has spent some 15 years covering – and critiquing – the city’s ever-changing rock, rap and electronic music scenes, and he knows well the sting of reader criticism in response to his work. It’s the sort of scrutiny that could lead a less self-assured writer to call it a day.

But Radford says he’s learned how to stand by what he writes from the example set by one of the nerviest music writers ever to pen his thoughts – the late Lester Bangs, who wrote for Creem, Rolling Stone, and other music magazines in the 1970s and ‘80s.