CARLSBAD, Calif. — San Francisco and Los Angeles are known as music hot spots and for a time San Diego made some noise with its own Rock n' Roll magazine. In this Zevely Zone, I went to Carlsbad to take a trip down a musical memory lane.
"Well we have the Talking Heads right here," said T.K. Arnold while holding an issue of his old magazine.
In 1979, when the biggest bands came to San Diego such as Jefferson Starship or Journey, they called T.K. Arnold first because he was running Kicks: San Diego's only Rock and Roll Magazine.
"I was largely driven by ego because I liked being 21 years old and walking into a nightclub and having the deejay stop the music and say 'T.K. Arnold of Kicks Magazine just walked in the door. I loved that stuff," said T.K.
News 8's Doug McAllister featured the magazine in 1979. His report stated, "Kicks was started by San Diego State students Thomas Arnold and Albert Carrasco. After two years of planning, they published their first magazine last Friday."
T.K. was interviewed in 1979 and said, "San Diego is no longer in the shadow of Los Angles it is becoming a major music market on its own."
We showed that interview with T.K. He couldn't only look at his style back then and say, "I keep thinking Napoleon Dynamite."
From Gary Puckett to Steppenwolf, a young T.K. met them all and even spent a day at the zoo with the Ramones. He even took them out to dinner once.
"Of course, I took them to Jack in the Box. We had tacos," said T.K.
Decades later the last surviving Ramone told him, "Yeah, you introduced us to Mexican food. I said wait you had tacos at Jack in the Box and he goes that was the very first time anyone of us had had Mexican food," said T.K.
Being in the music business meant writing reviews like the one on Billy Joel's new release.
"I hated the album. It wasn't Piano Man it was 'I Love you just the way you are'," said T.K. A few days later, T.K. took a call from Billy's wife.
T.K. recalls she said, "How dare you say that about my husband he put his heart and soul into this album."
Just like T.K. put his heart and soul into a magazine that unfortunately was forced to face its own music and fold in less than two years.
So what does a 61-year old T.K. Arnold do for a living now?
"I'm doing the same I did 41 years ago. I run a monthly magazine."
Media Play News is one of five Hollywood insider magazines.
So, is a trade publication as cool as a rock and roll magazine? "No, but I am having a lot of fun," said T.K.
Despite T.K.'s negative review, "Just the Way You Are" became Billy Joel's first Top Ten hit in the U.S.