Growing up in San Diego, it was all about 101.5 KGB radio and CREEM magazine. A documentary about CREEM is about to hit theaters soon. Long before social media, if you loved rock and roll, all we had in town was 101.5 KGB, Circus Magazine, Rolling Stone, AND CREEM.
As a kid, in the 1970's, I would go to 7-11 and buy a Slurpee and then go to the magazine section and flip through the pages. It was Facebook in a magazine long before Facebook was invented.
I would save my pennies so I could buy an issue and bring home the magazine. Having an issue of CREEM was so cool. You didn't want to throw them away. You collected them and you stacked them in your bedroom. In those pages of CREEM were your ROCK STARS. They were young kids back then as well. Most of them in their early 20's if that. Steven Tyler to Eric Clapton to Blondie to Pat Benatar. They were all in their prime in the pages of CREEM.
I called my friend BEBE BUELL on the phone a few minutes ago. Bebe is Liv Tyler's mom. Liv's dad is Steven Tyler. Back in the 70's and 80's, BEBE BUELL was rock and roll royalty. She still is. She was featured in the magazine so many times. I asked BEBE about CREEM and all that she remembered.
Bebe told me that CREEM was the first magazine that treated her and her famous rock star friends with respect. CREEM didn't label BEBE as anything else other than a ROCK AND ROLL personality. CREEM legitimized BEBE for who she was and what she brought to the rock and roll scene. She was barely out of high school when the writers of CREEM would share stories about her and also her famous boyfriends at the time, but they treated her great. That's why today in 2020, BEBE still talks highly of CREEM.
BEBE is in the documentary and she can't wait for it to be released in theaters this year.
In 1981, BEBE was featured as THE CREEM DREEM. She said she will always cherish that memory. She also said that CREEM was the first to say to her you need to get a band and make music on your own. Other CREEM DREEMS were Stevie Nicks, Debbie Harry, KISS, Terri Nunn, The Runaways, and so many great rock stars of the time. CREEM put BEBE in that category.
For me, a fan of ROCK AND ROLL, CREEM was everything to me in the 70's and 80's.
It's so awesome that this documentary is coming out in theaters. Here's to the wonderful writers of CREEM and how they treated rock stars with respect. Those relationships were put down in words and articles for all of us kids to read and to feel we knew those bigger than life stars we were listening to on 101.5 KGB.
CREEM: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine is set for theatrical release soon.
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