Stephen K. Peeples
Stephen K. Peeples is a Grammy-nominated multi-media writer-producer and radio/record-industry veteran raised in Miami and Los Angeles.
His first music reviews and features appeared in the U.S. music industry trade magazine Cash Box in 1975 during a nine-month stint as an associate editor (radio, West Coast country & western). He went on to write reviews for L.A. Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and Performance, and features and columns for Circus, RePlay, Rock Around the World, Rocky Mountain Musical Express, Music Retailer, Modern Recording, and Picking Up the Tempo (1976-1978), and, much later, the Audio-Video Revolution website (mid-2000s).
From 1977-1998, Peeples was a West Coast music industry media relations executive, editorial director, and producer (Capitol Records, Elektra/Asylum Records, the Westwood One Radio Network, Rhino Entertainment). At Westwood One, he was a staff writer-producer from 1983-1989, working untold hours creating short- and long-form programs and specials broadcast worldwide. He was also the original, award-winning producer of The Lost Lennon Tapes radio series (1988-1990).
At Rhino, Peeples co-produced and wrote the book for the Monterey International Pop Festival box set (MIPF/Rhino, 1992), nominated for a “Best Historical Album” Grammy. He segued from Rhino's co-director of Media Relations to Online Media Director and was project manager and first content webmaster for the first Rhino website (1995-1997). Post-Rhino, he was writer/editor for Warner Music Group websites operated by Rhino parent Warner New Media (1998-2001).
Based in Santa Clarita, California, just north of Los Angeles, since 1988, Peeples went local as a music and entertainment features writer/columnist for the Santa Clarita Valley Signal newspaper (2004-2011), and became The Signal's award-winning website editor (2007-2011).
Moving back into radio and adding television to his outlets, he then wrote and voiced news, features, and local entertainment news for Santa Clarita's KHTS-AM 1220 News (www.hometownstation.com) and community TV station SCVTV (SCVNews.com (2011-2016).
Additionally, he hosted, wrote and co-produced the WAVE-nominated House Blend local music/interview show on SCVTV, creating 69 original half-hour episodes and a dozen best-of compilations (2010-2015).
Peeples served as Senior Vice President/New Media & Editorial with L.A.-based pop culture multimedia company Rare Cool Stuff Unltd. (2010-2017), and as a news editor and photographer for SCVNews.com (2017-2021).
In 2021 he was an editor and the lead proofreader of Bring Music Home, a massive coffee-table art book documenting the COVID-19 pandemic's devastating effects on the live music industry in the U.S. in 2020.
While developing other book projects, Peeples continues to write rock- and pop culture-related stories for his website at https://www.stephenkpeeples.com and post interviews on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/skpscv.
For more information, visit his website or email skp (at) stephenkpeeples.com.
22 articles
List of articles in the library
Jessi Colter, Waylon Jennings: Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by Stephen K. Peeples, Cash Box, 31 May 1975
WALKING INTO the Civic one could feel an incredible aura of positive anticipation from the audience. They welcomed Jessi Colter (Ms Jennings) with exuberant applause ...
Jerry Jeff Walker & the Lost Gonzo Band: Palomino, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Stephen K. Peeples, Cash Box, 5 July 1975
Jerry Jeff Cooks At Palomino ...
Ronnie Milsap: Palomino Club, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Stephen K. Peeples, Cash Box, 12 July 1975
MUSIC IN full cycle best describes Ronnie's rotund set; this man plays everything from mournful lost love blues to wall-busting rock and roll with a ...
Report and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Cash Box, 12 July 1975
MANY ARTISTS project a schizophrenic split between their music and their personal lives; not so with Waylon Jennings. Waylon's personal life is his music and ...
Report by Stephen K. Peeples, Cash Box, 26 July 1975
HOLLYWOOD — This year's Willie Nelson 4th of July picnic was streamlined in production and presentation: narrowed to one day as opposed to three last ...
ZZ Top: Exploring What's Behind That Li'l Ol' Texas Band
Report by Stephen K. Peeples, Cash Box, 27 December 1975
HINTS THAT interesting things were happening with ZZ Top have come from time to time as attendance and gross statistics for the Top's concerts were ...
Profile and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Circus, June 1976
SHE'S ON THE Midnight Special stage wearing a Happy Days T-shirt given her by Anson Williams, leaning into Dennis Linde's 'Burnin' Love' with so much ...
Waylon Jennings' Are You Ready for the Country
Report by Stephen K. Peeples, Picking Up the Tempo, 7 July 1976
The Texas country outlaw's bid for a wider audience with Are You Ready for the Country gets a closer look. ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Hogtown Boys Make Good
Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Rock Around The World, October 1977
TOM PETTY casually strolls into the room, looking slightly slept-in and slightly more bored. ...
Reflections on Solid State Neon Faces
Comment by Stephen K. Peeples, RePlay, 1 November 1977
SEATED AT A back table near the Golden Rooster's alleyway exit, my eyes fix a stare on the joint's '50s neon face (jukebox). Thirty years ...
Willie Nelson: Willie And Family Live (Columbia KC2-35642)
Review by Stephen K. Peeples, L.A. Weekly, 21 December 1978
WILLIE NELSON, whose maverick approach to country music helped him achieve widespread popularity in the last four years, is finally represented accurately on an album. ...
Linda Ronstadt: The Forum, Inglewood CA
Live Review by Stephen K. Peeples, L.A. Weekly, 4 January 1979
Linda Ronstadt: Going Strong ...
Tom Waits on Heartattack and Vine
Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Elektra-Asylum Records, Spring 1980
NOTE: With the appointment made to conduct a Tom Waits interview on the Zoetrope Studios lot in Hollywood on Sept. 4, 1980, I listened to my ...
Carole King: A Natural Woman – The Ode Collection
Sleeve notes by Stephen K. Peeples, Sony Records, 1994
ON FEBRUARY 6, Legacy will premiere a video of King's 1971 BBC live studio performance with James Taylor accompanying on guitar. The set includes live ...
The Byrds, Roger McGuinn: Roger McGuinn Interview
Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, unpublished, 2 April 1999
AUTHOR'S NOTE, Oct. 11, 2014: The following is an expanded version of my Roger McGuinn interview, a shorter version of which was first published at ...
The Eagles: Boyd Elder: Encounters of the Southwestern Kind
Report and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 31 March 2015
A close encounter with the artist who created the skull art for Eagles' One of These Nights and Their Greatest Hits. ...
Doug Sahm: Joe Nick Patoski on Doug Sahm
Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 25 July 2015
Totally true tall tales from Texas about Biblical floods, Doug Sahm, Texas music, Texas Tornados, rednecks, cowboys, hippies, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Huey P. Meaux, ...
Kinky Friedman: Is Kinky Friedman "The Loneliest Man I Ever Met"?
Report and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 5 December 2015
THE NIGHT after Kinky Friedman finished recording The Loneliest Man I Ever Met, between the epic floods of spring 2015, the Texas-based singer-songwriter, humorist, entrepreneur and ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Del Shannon: Del Shannon on Tom Petty and Drop Down and Get Me
Retrospective by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 8 January 2017
ROCK 'N' ROLL HALL of Fame member Del Shannon of 'Runaway', 'Hats Off to Larry' and 'Little Town Flirt' renown in the early '60s – ...
The Eagles, Bobby Fuller Four, The : (No) AMF, Boyd Elder: Texas "Artlaw" Dead at 74
Memoir by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 30 October 2018
LEGENDARY TEXAS multi-media fine artist and rock 'n' roll "artlaw" Boyd Elder, who spent a lifetime expressing his artistic vision with often flagrant disregard for convention ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 30 September 2019
The well-received September 2019 theatrically released film documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice altogether skipped Keeping Out of Mischief, the unreleased album of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, stephenkpeeples.com, 6 March 2021
BHASKAR MENON, EMI Music Worldwide founding chairman and CEO and one of the record industry's most respected leaders, died at his home in Beverly Hills ...
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