Jeff Slate

Jeff Slate is an American music journalist and singer-songwriter. As a journalist he has been best known since 2013 as as contributor of music and culture articles to Esquire. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, NBC News, the Daily Beast, Guitar World, Rock Cellar, InsideHook, Guitarist/MusicRadar and elsewhere. He is co-author of the 2017 biography The Authorized Roy Orbison and a contributor of commentary and liner notes for projects on Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Small Faces and the Rolling Stones among others. As musician and songwriter he was co-founder of the Mindless Thinkers and founder of The Badge, and has worked with Simon Townshend, Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick, Jeff Tweedy, Sheryl Crow, Roger McGuinn and others.
==Biography==
Born February 6, 1967 in Connecticut, Slate attended New York University where he earned a bachelor's degree.
==Career: Journalist/Author==
Slate conducted interviews with artists including Roger McGuinn, Ernie Isley, Jimmy Page, Brian Wilson, and Noel Gallagher for MusicRadar beginning in 2012. From 2013–2015 he contributed articles regularly to Guitar World. In 2015 he began contributing to The Daily Beast, interviewing artists such as Ringo Starr, David Crosby, the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones (musician)|Steve Jones, and Linda Ronstadt. In the same year he was the "man on the inside" daily blogger for Monty Python when the troupe reunited.
In 2017 he wrote liner notes for the 50th anniversary expanded edition of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 
In 2018 he wrote the liner notes for Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood More Tracks. and interviewed Tony Visconti for the Brooklyn Museum's David Bowie is exhibit.
His 2019–2021 articles for Guitar included an interview with Pete Townshend. In 2020 he wrote liner notes for the Jimi Hendrix box set and documentary The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui, and in 2021 he wrote the hardcover book accompanying the remastered box-set re-release of the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You.
In April 2021 Slate caused a stir in music journalism circles with a piece for NBC News that was interpreted as a dis of Paul Simon.
In 2022 he interviewed Bob Dylan for The Wall Street Journal about Dylan's book The Philosophy of Modern Song.
===Selected Publications===
* 2013: The Difference We Make (co-author) 
* 2017: The Authorized Roy Orbison (with Roy Orbison Jr., Wesley Orbison and Alex Orbison)
* 2018: "Bob Dylan's First Day with 'Tangled Up In Blue'", The New Yorker
* 2018: The Bootleg Series, Volume 14: More Blood, More Tracks, book accompanying Bob Dylan’s box set 
* 2021: Tattoo You (Remaster), book accompanying re-release box set.
===Radio===
Since 2017 Slate has served as a guest host on SiriusXM The Volume (Channel 106) and Faction Talk (Channel 103). He has appeared as a guest on podcasts and radio for NPR, BBC, RadioNZ and others.
==Career: Musician and Singer-Songwriter==
In the 1980s Slate co-founded the punk band the Mindless Thinkers. In 1997 he founded the band The Badge, which released three albums, two best-of compilations, and in 2013 a 15th anniversary edition of its debut album Digital Retro.
In 1993 he released an EP, The Townshend Tapes, executive produced by Pete Townshend. It included the song “My Dolly,” which he co-wrote with Simon Townshend.
In 1995 Slate opened for Sheryl Crow on her “Tuesday Night Music Club” tour. 
As "Jeff Slate & Friends" he has had a longtime residency at Hill Country Live! in New York City. The series has included birthday tributes to Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and George Harrison.
In 2019 he appeared at the University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies, at the first World of Bob Dylan conference, interviewing The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn and joining McGuinn in a performance of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” That year he served as musical director and performed at a fundraiser at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles in honor of Tom Petty on what would have been Petty's 70th birthday, featuring performances by former Heartbreakers Steve Ferrone and Ron Blair and others. In 2020 he appeared with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy at New York's Town Hall performing Woody Guthrie's songs "This Land Is Your Land" and "California Stars" on the occasion of the former song's 80th anniversary.
During the pandemic he performed an online concert series that resulted in the 43-track album Lockdown Live.
Slate is a Martin Guitars-endorsed artist. He lives and works in New York City.
===Discography===
* "The Poacher" (single), 2022
* "Heartbreak" (single), 2020 [featuring Duff McKagan and Earl Slick]
* Lockdown Live (album), 2020
* Imposters & Attractions: Music Inspired By Elvis Costello (album), 2013
* Birds of Paradox (album), 2012
* "Dreamtime" (single), 2010 [featuring Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar]
* The EP Collection (2004-2005) [with The Badge] (album), 2005
* EP No. 3 [with The Badge] (EP), 2005
* EP No. 2 [with The Badge] (EP), 2004
* EP No. 1 [with The Badge] (EP), 2004
* Calling Generation Mojo [with The Badge] (album), 2003
* Digital Retro [with The Badge] (album), 1998
* The Townshend Tapes (EP, single), 1993
* "My Dolly" (single), co-written with Simon Townshend, 1993
* Anyone for Anything [with the Mindless Thinkers] (album), 1985
}}
Category:1967 births
Category:People from Connecticut
Category:New York University alumni
Category:American music journalists
Category:Musicians
Category:Singer-songwriters