Neil Pond: Award Winning Journalist, Managing Editor of Parade Magazine

Neil Pond is an award-winning entertainment journalist, film critic, and the managing editor of Parade magazine. He previously served as editor in chief of American Profile magazine and as editorial director of the nation’s two leading country music publications: Country Weekly and Country Music.

Neil has been an on-air commentator for CNN, the BBC, VH-1 and CMT, and is a recipient of the Media Honors Award, the highest journalistic decoration bestowed by the Country Music Association. Neil is a voting member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and his weekly movie reviews appear in national newspaper syndication, on Rotten Tomatoes and on his website NeilsEntertainmentPicks.com.

When he's not wearing his magazine or movie hats, he plays drums in the Blondie tribute band Blonde Me.

Episode Highlights

Ever wondered what it's like to capture the evolution of music and film through the lens of a seasoned journalist? Neil Pond, the managing editor of Parade Magazine, joins us to share his storied career in entertainment journalism, from a memorable first assignment with country legends Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn to candid interviews with icons like Garth Brooks. We delve into the art of storytelling and Neil's humorous anecdotes, offering a rare glimpse into the rich tapestry of entertainment history that has unfolded over the decades.

Our conversation transitions from Neil’s early misadventures to the complexities of writing with authenticity, where the personal meets the professional. Neil and I discuss the intricacies of interviewing, the humbling nature of country music's biggest stars, and how dabbling in drumming complements his writing life. The harmonious balance Neil has struck between his creative passions and a fulfilling career in journalism is not just inspiring but also laden with practical wisdom for those yearning to follow their own dreams without compromising their nature.

Rounding off this captivating episode, Neil imparts sage advice to aspiring writers and reflects on the profound influence of literature on his craft. We also explore the myth of following your passion to success and the importance of empathy in professional pursuits. With Neil's reflections on receiving top accolades and his musings on life, this episode is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the heartbeat of entertainment journalism or looking for that spark to ignite their own creative journey.

We cover a lot of fascinating topics in this episode including:

• The differences between closeup magic, stage magic, and tv magic
  

• The many different ways to go about creating the same illusion
  

• The many skills and components beyond sleight of hand that go into crafting an effective illusion, including choreography, music, lighting, script writing, joke writing, and interpersonal interaction       

• When magicians play pranks on each other

• Karl's ideas about Penn & Teller's Fool Us       

• Performing on The Pete Holmes Show
  

• The problem with revealing the secrets behind how tricks are done
  

• The differences between just performing magic and actually creating it
  

• On being torn between the desire to understand how everyone's tricks work and retaining the awe and wonder of a viewer

• The secrets and essentials for being a successful creative professional, and so much more!

Listen

Read the Complete Transcript

Shane

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the official Live2cre8 podcast, coming to you from Nashville, Tennessee. I am your host, Shane Almgren, and I am joined today also from Nashville by the managing editor of Parade magazine, Neil Pond. A lifelong entertainment journalist, he previously served as editor-in-chief of American Profile magazine and as editorial director of the nation's two leading country music publications, Country Weekly and Country Music. He's been an on-air commentator for CNN, the BBC, VH1, and CMT and is a recipient of the Media Honors Award, the highest journalistic decoration bestowed by the Country Music Association. Neil is a voting member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and his weekly movie reviews appear in national newspaper syndication on Rotten Tomatoes and on his website, neilsentertainmentpicks.com. When he's not wearing his magazine or movie hats, he plays drums in the 80s cover band Max Headroom, along with yours truly.

Well, Neil. Mr. Pond, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. It's great to have you here.

Neil Pond

My pleasure, Shane. Nice to speak with you.

Shane

You're usually on the other end of these. You've been doing this for what? How many years?

Neil Pond

Well, I had been a writer, an editor, an entertainment journalist pretty much all my professional life, ever since I got out of college, way back in the late 1970s—1979 to be exact.

Shane

Did you go for journalism?

Neil Pond

I studied photojournalism, so my background had a little bit of both newspaper journalism and, at the time, sort of an emphasis in newspaper photography—news photography—and it all kind of came together in a photojournalism degree with a minor in English. When I got out of school, I was thinking I would go into newspaper work, but it ended up being into magazines, and in a magazine that happened to be a country music magazine, and that kind of set the course for me for the next couple of decades as a country music journalist, which gradually sort of morphed into more of mainstream entertainment and sort of became where I am today.

Shane

What was the very first story that you covered professionally?

Neil Pond

The very first thing that I did professionally was for that very first magazine job I had when I got out of college. I went to Canada, out of Nashville, to do a cover story on Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, who were touring together at the time, and that's just one of the quirks of entertainment, I guess, both of whom were based in Nashville, but for the deadline of the magazine, they were going to be available in Calgary, Alberta.

Shane

So you three Nashvillians converged in Calgary.

Neil Pond

The three of us got together in Calgary, Alberta, and the thing I remember most about that is that I flew—it was so long ago, I flew on an airline that no longer even exists, and they lost my luggage. It wasn't the first time I'd been on an airplane, but it was the very first time I had flown, certainly for any sort of business purpose, but they lost my luggage completely.

It wasn't even the sort of thing where it showed up later. It's like it just vanished—poof. It didn't show up in Calgary. It didn't show up in Nashville. When I got back, it was just gone, and so it was not exactly an auspicious sort of debut for me as a globe-trotting journalist. Um, you know, I go from the South to the frigid North, and I end up without any of my stuff to do a cover story for a magazine, and I end up having to buy everything. I think I did carry on—because that's back in an era when you could carry stuff on a plane, so I probably did have my camera and my tape recorder, but everything else was gone, and it never showed up again. So that was my first story.

Shane

Did you get a good story out of it at least?

Neil Pond

Yeah, I did. I do remember that I misspelled a person's name in the story, and it was the way Conway Twitty pronounced the name. He pronounced the name—

Shane

He pronounced it wrong.

Neil Pond

He said it wrong, and of course, this points out the way technology changes things. This was a time and a decade before the Internet, and you couldn't go online and you couldn't look something up, and today you easily could, but he gave the name of a booking agent that was responsible for bringing him to Canada many, many years ago.

Conway Twitty had a very interesting story because he toured Canada earlier in his career when he was a rockabilly artist, and he toured with a group of musicians, with Ronnie Hawkins, and a group of musicians that went on to become Bob Dylan's band, which went on to become The Band with Rick Danko and Levon Helm and all of those guys, and a lot of those were Canadian cats with Canadian roots and toured a lot in Canada. Conway Twitty knew all of them. And anyway, he gave the name of a fella, and I completely mangled this name because of the way Conway said it, and today, you would have gone online and put that name in there, and instantly it would have come up with the right spelling. But anyway, I got a call from a reader who said, “Man, how could you not have known that that guy's name was not Harold Cutlass instead of Harlow Cudless? And I said—

Shane

Everybody knows that, Neil.

Neil Pond

When Conway pronounced it, it was Harlow Cudless. It wasn't Harold Cutlass.

Shane

If you can wear rhinestones and get away with it, then I think you should get to pronounce names however you want.

Neil Pond

Well, Conway Twitty was an interesting cat because he was almost as big as Elvis for a while. You know, if you watch the musical Bye Bye Birdie, Conrad Birdie was molded on Conway Twitty. The name is even taken from Conway Twitty—Conrad Birdie. And I remember I interviewed Conway Twitty several times over the years, and Conway Twitty was one of the last holdouts of country artists to ever do a country music video because he said country songs are such personal things for listeners that I don't want to ruin what the imagination does to a song, that if someone has an idea of what that song is, why do I want to pop up on a TV screen and pop the bubble of what someone might be thinking that song does?

Shane

Do you agree with that assessment?

Neil Pond

Well, there's something to be said for that. But my goodness, that bull is already out of the barn. I guess there's no way of going back. And even Conway, you know, eventually relented and went on to do music videos, and I think that music is much richer for the interpretation that the videos have done to them through the artistry of music videos. But I think the—I think of what has come to my mind over the years when I've heard so many songs that didn't have music videos. I think of, you know, what music does to trigger the imagination, and it's really wonderful. So I know that if there were a certain music video in existence for so many of those songs, that's what I would have thought of instead. So I'm glad I have the memory of certain songs without a video. So I think what he said has some validity to it.

Shane

Is Calgary the furthest you've traveled for a story?

Neil Pond

No, I actually went to the Riviera with the Oak Ridge Boys one time to do a story. They had been asked to represent America—the United States—at the opening of a big new art center in the Riviera, and they asked a little handful of journalists from country music magazines to go with them. I think there were three of us. So we hopped over there with the Oaks, and this would have been back in the ‘80s. I forget what the name of this place was, but that was kind of interesting. This was back when the Oaks—they were like the hottest vocal group in country music, you know. They had “Elvira” and “American Made.” And “American Made” was a really big song for them because it just sort of screamed, you know, America. And so they were invited to come over there and represent American music, and other international acts had performed and were performing on either side of them on other nights.

But I had never been to Europe, and the Riviera was a really interesting place, and the Oaks were quite the—sort of quite the oddity. The people there had never seen anything quite like William Lee Golden. He was the mountain man. You know, each of the Oaks kind of had their persona, and William Lee Golden was the big, hairy one, sort of the Grizzly Adams. They filmed a thing with Entertainment Tonight one afternoon while they were there, and they were on this beach, and on the Riviera, they have a certain laxity in beach attire that we don't.

Shane

Clothing options.

Neil Pond

Yeah, that we don't often have here in America. And so there was William Lee Golden in his full buckskin outfit and all of his hair just yards away.

Shane

Just fitting right in with the natives.

Neil Pond

[Laughs]. Yes, yes. So it was almost like these one-of-these-is-not-like-the-others kind of children's game where you sort of had to pick out what's the square pig and where's the round hole in all of this. But it was a beautiful, beautiful city. I'd never seen anything like it. You know, the scenery is just so spectacular, and you know, when here—in America—we look at something and we say, “That is 100 years old. That building is really old because it's 150 years old. Over there, you know, something that's old is a thousand years old or 2,000 years old, and that was really striking. So that was cool.

Shane

Was it just the journalism that you were drawn to? Did you care what you were writing about, or did you specifically want to go after entertainment?

Neil Pond

No, I didn't. When I went into it, I thought entertainment journalism was kind of puffy and kind of light, and my background in college was sort of to chase the news. That's kind of what the photojournalism was, and it was a bit harder, and it was edgier. However, you know, I grew up on Rolling Stone, and that was sort of the—that was the pinnacle of entertainment journalism, and that really brought those two things together because Rolling Stone didn't just report on entertainment. It was also politics, and it was lifestyle, and it had an edge to it, and it had a real attitude. And I thought that's pretty cool, and I thought if I could do that—if I could have some of that sort of synergy, that would be all right. And so that's what I always tried to sort of aspire to in my writing.

And even though it never really—the magazines weren't quite Rolling Stone—I felt like there was always the opportunity to sort of bend it a little in that direction, to bring a little bit of that kind of lifestyle writing and just a kind of a bit of an edge to that. And I got a lot more appreciation for what entertainment journalism was because, at that time, entertainment journalism was becoming a much, much bigger thing in media in general, with People magazine and Us magazine, and with this explosion in the tabloid market and all of these entertainment TV shows—you know, primetime shows about the lifestyles of stars and such—and there was a huge appetite in the audience for entertainment. People really were hungry to find out about what were stars like, and I thought if there's a way to show that and write about that, to humanize people in a human-interest way, but also report the news, which is what the magazines did that I worked for, that was a good way to sort of bridge both those worlds of news and entertainment.

Shane

Who's someone you interviewed that you had sort of an expectation of what they were going to be like, and they completely blew your mind because it was the total opposite?

Neil Pond

I had a really good time with Hank Williams, Jr., and I didn't think I would probably like him very much just because I didn't think we'd have a whole, whole lot in common. I went to see him out in Montana, where he had a place—at his home out there. But he's had a rather really interesting life, a very unique life, and you know, I ended up liking him a great, great deal. We kind of hit it off, even though we still didn't have a whole lot in common other than we really liked music a lot, and we had a real appreciation for that, and we had a real appreciation for roots music. I could really appreciate where he came from, and we sort of found out we talked the same language. He had a real—even though he was country to the core—if ever there was someone that had country music in their DNA, he had a real breadth of knowledge about blues and about rock and about other kinds of music that was quite refreshing. And that’s one thing I found out a lot about country stars: none of them were really just one thing, that they all had a quite diverse kind of grounding in other things too. That was always really interesting to find out—is just what made them tick musically and professionally.

It was always interesting to sit down and talk with just about all of them, and over the years, because I spent three decades writing about country music, I guess I went into their homes, and went on the road, and went on their buses, and went into airplanes with them, and spent really up-close and personal time with just about everybody. That’s really not a stretch, and it's really not hyperbole. I mean, it really is just about everybody who was making music during the ‘80s and the ‘90s and into the early 2000s, and I really enjoyed being with just about everybody because they were really all very interesting.

Shane

When you were doing an interview with somebody, what types of questions were important to you to flush out?

Neil Pond

Well, most of the time, you know, the magazine knew that we probably weren't going to be doing another story on those people for quite a while, so you wanted to find out something about them that they maybe hadn't talked about before and they hadn't talked about a hundred times before. So you're always digging for something new that wasn't dirt, but it was something that was interesting, some nugget that revealed a little bit about them from maybe their childhood, or something that would shine a little light on who they were or how they got to be where they were. So you wanted to find out a little bit about how they came to be who they were and how they got there. It was different with every person. Sometimes it was more specific to what kind of project they were working on, but most of the time, it was sort of, “Let's just talk about how you got here and what makes you tick.”

Shane

Did you have any tricks of the trade to get them to open up to you? I'm sure they did hundreds of interviews over their careers. How were you able to create a unique interviewing experience?

Neil Pond

It takes time, for one thing, and that's why I always would try to ask for as much time as possible. You know, not to try to do it in a 20-minute interview, but to make it more like a 45-minute at least, and to do it in a place where they're comfortable, which is why we always try to do things in somebody's home or at least in a place where they could sit down in a blocked-off area—where it wasn't busy and free of distractions—and just take some time to get comfortable and just kind of let the conversation go and flow. But I always tried to be prepared, and I tried to know what I was talking about. I always tried to research them and be familiar with them a little bit and ask questions that showed that I'd done a little homework. So that was a big part of it. Tried to make it as conversational as possible.

Shane

Who are your most memorable interviews?

Neil Pond

Oh gosh.

Shane

Quickly in the 30 years, which two—run down the list and just tell our listeners some of the people that you have dealt with.

Neil Pond

Well, I remember I interviewed Garth Brooks several times. I remember the first time was when he was just starting out, and we did a photo shoot with him at the same time. We did it in Centennial Park here in Nashville. Just out in the middle of—close to the Parthenon. They had a little rock garden, a little recessed garden that’s still there, and they do a lot of weddings and proms and stuff down in there. So Garth was in there, and he had a huge hit at the time. I think it might have been “The Dance,” but I mean, he already had one big hit. But people didn't know who he was by sight, and so people were just riding their bikes and walking around and stuff, and the photographer had a big light box set up and the camera—click, click, click—and there was the guy in the cowboy hat. Nobody paid him any attention, and I thought, you know, in another year from now, he won't be able to go outside. Another six months from now he won't be able to go outside without being just mobbed with attention. But I remember one of the things he told me at that time, and Garth was always like this—you know, he never really comported himself as the star that he was. He just talked about what he wanted to do, and it was never, “I want to sell 10 million records, and I want to fill arenas.” But I remember one of the things he said was he wanted to do something to help kids.

He said, “One of my dreams is to open up some kind of ranch or something.” And I said, “Well, like, what would it be? And he said, “Oh, you know, kids just need to know things.” He said, “Like, there's boys that don't have parents. They don't have dads that tell them that—like the way to tuck a shirt in.” And I said, “Like, to tuck a shirt in.” And he said, “Yeah, like, when you tuck a shirt, in you need to—" And then he showed me, and he said, “Like, you tuck a shirt in, and then you take your thumbs and you put them in the front, and you kind of smooth the shirt back with your thumbs before you snug your pants up, and you kind of smooth it back around behind you, and you snap your pants, and then your shirt looks good from the front.” And he says, “Nobody shows you that. You just don't know how to do it.” And I thought, well, yeah, okay. But that always has stayed with me, that image of Garth Brooks showing me how to tuck a shirt in, and him thinking that, you know, there needs to be a ranch for boys to know how to do that.

And another time I was with Garth, and he was one of the ones I was on a plane with, and he was doing this tour across—literally, a cross-country blitz of cities to promote a Christmas album, the proceeds for which were going to Feed the Children, the organization. So he was making 5 stops within 48 hours. We were sleeping on the plane, and again, he had, like, three or four different journalists and TV crews that were going with him, and every stop of this plane, Garth would get off and carry his own luggage, just one of the people. Entertainment Tonight was there with him. So we were in the plane, back in the back of the plane, getting ready to come off on the tarmac, and all of the local press was down there. And we're in the back of the plane, and Garth is changing.

This was a plane that Garth had chartered, and it was, like, a modified 747 that basketball teams used to go to their tournaments and stuff, and it was, like, the nicest kind of plane you could possibly have. So it was really, really special. And so in the back was an area where you could go back and lounge and stuff. I was back there with Garth, and he was changing out of his sweatsuit into his Garth clothes, and what do you think he was doing? He was doing that thing where you put on your jeans and your shirt and smoothing his pants out. And I said, “Well, I got the lead to my story now. ‘Garth Brooks takes off his sweatpants and—‘” He says, “Oh, so you're gonna write that you saw Garth with no pants on.” And I said, “Well.” He said, “Well, if you do that, just be kind.”

Shane

There's so much more to the story.

Neil Pond

Yes. Yes. But Garth was somebody that I saw several times throughout the years, and he continued to just build and build and build and build until he was just the biggest star practically on the planet, but he still was so much more down to earth than you would ever expect him to be when you were around him, so that always was so disarming when you were around, Garth.

Shane

Who was the antithesis of that? Whose head was way up in the clouds?

Neil Pond

Oh, gosh, I don't know with country stars. It's almost like they all were just so, kind of, normal. I can't think of anybody that really had just the really big head and the really big ego, although I'm sure some of them must have.

Shane

You know, of all the different genres, country music, I guess, does strike me as the one where that would be most applicable, just because the message of the music—it's about home and family and good old boys, as opposed to the outlandish rock or pop acts that have these really fabricated personas.

Neil Pond

Yeah, you know, so many of the country stars—and this is especially true a generation or two ago—they came from such humble beginnings that, you know, they were genuinely humble people. You know, that's probably changed now because there's been a great leavening of entertainment, and so many people singing country music now have grown up on MTV and grown up on entertainment and grown up in so many ways that aren't the way people grew up, you know, 30 years ago and 40 years ago, in a rural sort of situation. But, for the most part, when I was interviewing country stars, they were really pretty down-to-earth people that were really sort of humbled by what success had done for them and had allowed them to do.

Shane

Do you ever go on an interview and then get roped into some crazy escapades with your subject once the interview was over, or would that have been unprofessional?

Neil Pond

[Laughs]. I had some interesting times with stars. I think one of the first times I was ever officially personally offered a joint was with Willie Nelson, and that's probably not surprising.

Shane

I mean, if you're ever going to try it, that's—either Willie or Snoop Dogg.

Neil Pond

You know you're getting some good stuff, I guess, if Willie offers you from his stash. But that was in Willie's office. That was in Texas to do a cover story on Willie, and the very first thing he did right off the bat—he was partaking, and he just leaned over his desk and said, “Do you want some of this?”

But I was doing a story with Tammy Wynette in her home, and she made biscuits and country ham and jam for everybody—for the photographer and all of us—one morning. That was pretty cool. I went to Hawaii to do a story on Randy Travis. He had a place over there, he and his wife. That's where they went to get away, and so we thought that is an interesting place to go do a piece on Randy Travis. And it was. And they had a really interesting kind of big guest house on Maui. And one morning, I was over there, and I looked out the window. I hear some clanking. And I looked out the window, and there's a guy that's not Randy Travis lifting weights in the driveway. And I looked out the window, and it's Chuck Norris.

Shane

Well, of course.

Neil Pond

Um, yeah. I'm thinking, “I'm not in Kansas anymore.”

Shane

Chuck Norris works out in whatever driveway Chuck Norris wants to.

Neil Pond

That's true. [Laughs]. Well, come to find out, Chuck Norris and Randy Travis were big buddies. Chuck Norris also has a place in Maui. Chuck Norris came in, and we all sort of had, I think, lunch together, as I recall. Randy Travis was a big fitness buff, and they were working out together. They ended up doing some jiu-jitsu or some sort of martial arts workout together, but that was kind of interesting to watch. I thought this is a side to Randy Travis that you don't see when you listen to his music—him working out with Chuck Norris in Hawaii.

Shane

I certainly would have never guessed that.

Neil Pond

No, no, no. So that was kind of neat.

Shane

We were in your basement the other day, and—that sounded creepy. I should probably clarify. We were having band rehearsal in your basement the other day, and you started telling us a story about Merle Haggard. Can you share that?

Neil Pond

Oh, yeah. Well, this was back in those early days, and I went on the road somewhere. I think it was maybe out to Kansas to hook up with Merle Haggard to do a cover story. I flew in and took a cab to this motel where Merle was staying. He was doing a show that night, and it had all been arranged. I went to the room where Merle was expecting me to come to, knocked on the door, and he said, “Come in.” He’s sitting on the edge of this bed and has his guitar out, and, I mean, it's just like a movie scene practically. But he's watching something on TV. I, you know, I come in, and I'm the young reporter. He's kind of intently watching this western, and he watches it for a couple minutes, and he says, “You know, I was almost in that movie.” And I said, “Really?” And he said, “Yeah.” And he watches it a couple more moments, and he says, “You can turn it off.” I said, “Okay,” because we had to do the interview. And I said, “Well, tell me a little bit about that—you almost being in that movie.”

And so he tells me that, you know, he migrated—as a lot of people did—from the Dust Bowl out to California with his family, and he was quite a looker. And when he first got his music thing going, he had some interest from Hollywood. He, indeed, was considered for the part of Billy the Kid in this western that was on TV at the time in the motel. He thought it was going to be too much of a conflict with his music career he was trying to get going, and so he turned it down.

I had the thought that there was a little bit of regret when he was telling it. You know, he probably realized he couldn't do both things, and he went on, of course, to be Merle Haggard, the country music legend. But there were some country stars that had a little bit of movie success and a little bit of music success. But Merle Haggard went on to write some of the greatest songs in country music, but he never got to play Billy the Kid, probably just as well.

Shane

I want to go back and clarify for the listeners why I was in your basement, and that's because we rehearse in there. Neil is not just a journalist. He's also a movie critic, and he's been an on-air commentator for a number of—CNN, VH1, CMT. And he is also a pretty great drummer. How early in life did you start drumming?

Neil Pond

I've been drumming since I was in elementary school. I got my first set of drums, I guess, when I was in the seventh grade. There haven't been too many months ever since then when I wasn't playing in some kind of band or another. And, of course, now, Shane, you and I play together in Nashville's most punctual ‘80s band.

Shane

That's it.

Neil Pond

Max Headroom.

Shane

Most punctual, well-organized ‘80s band. So, for you, you were all into the country music scene. Why are you playing ‘80s instead of country?

Neil Pond

Well, you know, I always kind of felt like country music was almost sacred ground, since that was where I feathered my nest. I didn't want to play that music since that was work, and if I wanted to do something avocationally, I needed to do that somewhere else, in some other sort of music for fun because country music was work. I also grew up listening to other music. I never really listened to country music. I grew up on pop and rock. So I sort of had multiple streams of music coming in, and country music never really was on full blast. I certainly had a knowledge of it, and a really good working knowledge of it, but I got into ‘80s music because ‘80s music was around in the ‘80s. I started playing in an ‘80s band, and that was the music at the time, and it just kind of carried on through.

Shane

As far as drummers go, who are you listening to? Who are the guys for you?

Neil Pond

Oh gosh, geez. You know, I listened to—I don't know if I listen so much to drummers as I just listen to drums. I listen to drum parts. I just saw a YouTube video of Sheila E. playing with Prince on a clip that he did on—it was either The Jay Leno Show—I think it was The Jay Leno Show, back in the ‘90s, and it was amazing. It was just incredible.

And then I still listen to some of the—I guess I call them the classic drummers—and I listen to just how simple they—how much they can do with so little, like Ringo Starr or Charlie Watts. And then I go on YouTube, and I watch drummers that I don't even know their names, that just blow me away, young drummers that just have such incredible style and chops that just, you know—I'm just dazzled by watching them. So I don't really get starstruck with drummers because there's such a galaxy of talented drummers out there. I've always been a—you know, I'm a kind of meat-and-potatoes drummer. I know that if you can't keep the beat, nothing else really matters, and so I've always tried to build it around that, and then you dress it up a little bit, but you just gotta keep the anchor down, and I've just tried to try to build on it from there.

Shane

If you had to pick between journalism and music, which one do you go with?

Neil Pond

Oh, I think I'd have to—that would be so hard because they've always kind of fed my left brain, right brain thing. That would be such a Sophie's choice for me.

Shane

You just said something really interesting that's sort of been a theme for this, and that is left brain, right brain marriage. So I will retract that question. I won't make you make a Sophie's choice. I won't make you make a Sophie's Choice. Talk about how the left brain and the right brain—how the music and the writing—how they've possibly influenced each other for you.

Neil Pond

Well, okay, that's a great question, and it's a great thing to pursue because I do feel like there's a part of me that I love the idea of this vagabond spirit and this unfettered creative bird that needs to be free to fly, this music that can soar, and the brothers of the road and all of that, that just live life to the fullest.

I love that idea, but at the same time, I love the structure of the profession of journalism that I've always had and sort of the four walls that that has provided me and the solidity of a career that that has been, because I know that music can be a very fickle thing, and there's a sort of instability there if you try to build a career on that.

Certainly, at the level at which I feel like I have as a drummer. It's been a really, really good sideline for me. It's been a great hobby, and it's been a great thing for my passion. But I feel like for me to have pursued that as a career and as a front line would have probably led to a burnout and a sense that I might have peaked a lot earlier, and I might have been facing an uncertain future at some point a lot sooner. So I feel like it's been a really good balance for me, and I feel like I've found a nice sort of way that the left brain and the right brain can kind of coexist.

Shane

Well, I think you certainly went with the better option. I mean, you really found your niche with the writing, and I know you're a recipient of, I believe, the Media Honors Award.

Neil Pond

Yes, that was an honor bestowed by the Country Music Association for distinguished service to the country music industry, so that was a pretty cool thing.

Shane

That's one of the highest journalistic awards they give out, isn't it?

Neil Pond

It is. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Shane

How old were you when you decided that you needed to pursue writing?

Neil Pond

I think—I guess it was in college that I really sort of decided that was a track for me because I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was in high school, and I thought that that might seriously be something for me to do. And when I went off to college, that was really sort of where I initially thought I was going to go, and then that sort of became photography when I realized I didn't really have any experience making movies, but I did have a camera. And so I could do still photography, which became photojournalism. And with photojournalism came some print journalism, which became writing. I was always good at writing, and I was good at English. Eventually, the writing won out over the photography when I got out of college and then I became much more of a writer and an editor, much less of a photographer, which in the magazine world, kind of became more of the specialty of the photographers, and so I moved more into writing and editing.

But even when I wasn't thinking of becoming a writer, you know, when I look back at it, in elementary school and in high school, I worked on the high school newspaper. I was the editor of the high school newspaper. I remember working on a mock screenplay when I was in early high school, just for fun. I was always doing some kind of writing, so I think it was kind of fated that I would probably go into some kind of profession where I'd be writing because I was always putting words together. I just didn't know it at the time.

Shane

Did you become a movie critic? Was that part of an assignment, or was that something that you pursued independently because you had that love for film?

Neil Pond

No, that was something that our company asked me to do because they were looking for somebody to write movie reviews every week.

The company that I work with now is Parade Magazine, which is a magazine that goes in newspapers around the country to about 30 million homes every week, distributed through local newspapers in most major American cities. But our company said, “Would you write a movie review every week that we could syndicate to all those newspapers? We don't have room to put it in the actual Parade Magazine, but we would distribute it as free content to any of the newspapers that might want to use it because a lot of them don't have their own newspaper critic, but they might like to run a movie review.” And I said, “Heck yeah, I'd love to do that.” So that's how I started doing that about six years ago, I guess. Now, for every week for six years, I've been writing movie reviews that get syndicated to newspapers around the country, and they're also on Rotten Tomatoes. So that's become sort of a major part of my job as the managing editor of Parade Magazine.

Shane

I've got a few questions about just advice for aspiring writers. I know Stephen King famously advocated writing 2,500 words a day. I guess that was probably more geared towards novelists, but were there any standards or habits or things like that that you held yourself to or thought were important?

Neil Pond

For aspiring writers?

Shane

Mm-hmm, or you personally? Did you have any daily habits? Try to get so many words down or so many pages down?

Neil Pond

Well, not as such, because I do it every day. I am working so much every day with words, and I'm generally writing something or I'm editing something every day, so it's not something I'm trying to do like that. But for someone that is trying to develop any sort of a routine or get on a track to improvement or anything, one of the first things I would say is, if you want to be a better writer, be a reader because you can learn so much about writing from reading how other people do it and trying to see the process of how other writers put words together and the different ways they express themselves, and also looking at ways that they could have said something but didn't, and trying to understand why they said it, why they wrote it that way, and looking at the different ways that different publications—the different voices that different publications have, different styles. There’s a lot you can learn about writing from just reading, and so I really encourage writers who want to get better at what they do to pay a lot of attention to what they read and to be voracious readers because that's a big step toward understanding writing.

Shane

Who were some writers that really inspired you?

Neil Pond

Well, I was a big fan of Hunter S. Thompson because he was one of the first people that really wrote in such a participant journalistic way. I mean, that kind of journalism really was so fresh to me. It was the first writer I had ever read that—I mean, it was just so—well, gonzo is the word that was used so much for Hunter S. Thompson, and that's what it was. It was just—it was so immersive into his world that when I was in college and getting out of college, I really enjoyed reading Hunter S. Thompson. I really enjoy reading Kurt Vonnegut's works because he had a way of saying and writing things that just expressed—he just expressed it so concisely and just cut to the chase and the emotion and just captured his mind. So his writing is kind of sacred to me.

An American classic that I keep going back to is Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which is really a slog. I mean, my God, it's just an ordeal to get through, but it is such a chronicle of seafaring and whaling. It's an amazing book. People that think of Moby Dick think of it as this one thing about an obsessed captain chasing a whale—and it is that—but it's cloaked in this amazing book about this minutia of whaling and ships and knots and sails and rigging and barnacles on wood hulls. There’s really no other book that's ever been like that. And I go back and I look at Moby Dick, and I just—again, I'm just taken into this world of, you know, 19th-century New England whaling like nothing else. And that's what good literature does: it transports you to a place and a time. So those are just three examples, but—

Shane

Do you think maybe that's what Conway Twitty was talking about, why he was opposed to doing the music videos? Because how many people have, you know, seen a movie and gone, “Ah, the book is so much better?”

Neil Pond

Uh, yeah. I think it is. I think that that's the common thread of great art of any kind. It takes you somewhere. It has that power—for just a moment or longer—to sort of lift you up and make you forget. In movies, they call that the suspension of disbelief. The ability—for just an instant—to make you forget that you are at a movie, that you're seeing something that you don't really believe, but it suspends your disbelief for just a second, that, oh wow. So, you know, it maybe scares you because you're really frightened, but I think any kind of really great art can do that and does that. So, yeah, whether it's a Conway Twitty song or words on a page or an image of light on a screen or oil on a canvas, I think it can have the power to do that.

Shane

Do you ever get writer's block, or are you infinitely above that?

Neil Pond

Writer's block? Yeah, generally not for long, because I had an editor—my very first editor, in fact—that said, “A lead to a story is just like a spot around the edge of a swimming pool.” And he said, “You can jump off any place.” He said, “Just pick one and get in.” So that's what I've always thought. You know, you just gotta type something in and go, and if that doesn't work, you just back up and pick another spot. And that's kind of how I've always approached writing.

Now, that blank page or that blank Word document on your computer can be really intimidating, and when I know I've got something that I've got to write the next day, sometimes I go to bed thinking about it. I'll think, “Oh, what's my lead going to be?” You know? And, just as important, “What's my finish going to be?” You’ve got to think about how you're going to finish something. That's one of the biggest flaws I see in a lot of stories, even a lot of assignments we get in at the magazine, is writers don't know how to finish a piece. You may know how to start it, but you gotta have—you gotta put a cherry on top of it. You gotta tie the knot at the end of it, and you gotta be thinking even as you start it, “How am I gonna end it? How am I gonna wrap it?”

Because it's almost gotta kind of loop around. It's got to—you know, it's got to have an arc. But anyway, you've got to get into it, and sometimes you've just got to jump. You can always back up and start again, but the hardest part is not always the beginning. Sometimes the hardest part is the ending. It’s really not a bad analogy to think of jumping in a pool because you know how intimidating it can be, especially if the water's cold, but once you get in, it's not so bad. That's kind of what writing is like. Once you get into it, you feel like now I can kind of paddle around, but it's just jumping in. That's hard.

Shane

What's the best piece of advice you've got for, say, a college kid who comes to you and says they want to do what you're doing? What do you tell them to help get them there?

Neil Pond

I would say start writing and start a blog. Get something out there that people can see, but first of all, make sure it's good. Don't just throw stuff. Don't just throw up on the page. Get input from people that you trust. Start reading a lot, find people that you like, that you respect, and see what it is that works about what they do. Don't copy them, but see what you can learn from them, see what it is about them that inspires you, and then start writing, and if you can, get published and build on that. Find local publications, local newspapers, and be willing to work for free, to write for free, just to build yourself up and start at the bottom and work up from that.

Shane

Okay, the follow-up to that last question was if somebody came and said, “I want to be a writer,” and you were trying to dissuade them, what cautionary tales would you give them?

Neil Pond

Well, there's a lot of people who want to write and think they can write, but it's not as easy as it seems. There's a lot more people who can write than there are jobs for people who can write, so be aware of that. However, like a lot of things, the cream tends to rise to the top, and if it's really something you love doing, you know, hang with it and keep at it, and you may have to do it while you do something else. You may have to do it on the side, but if you keep cracking at it and you keep plugging at it, maybe a position that would be your dream job is going to be there for you, so don't give up on it.

Shane

That seems to be a pervading theme so far with all of these: don't quit, don't give up, persevere.

Neil Pond

Yeah, because if you do, then it's just gone. If you let it go, it's not going to come back. I think you find a lot of people who are kind of keeping the fires burning doing other things, whether or not they consider it dual careers or just passion projects. I think there's a lot of that, and I think that's what feeds a lot of people, feeds a lot of us, because I think life is pretty—you know, it can be pretty mundane, and it can also be pretty hard for a lot of people to just pay the bills with doing one thing. So you have to do other things, and so why can't some of those other things be things you really like?

I think it's probably not true. What that old saying is: Do what you love, and success will follow, or riches will follow. I mean, I think that's just, you know, that sounds good, but it's probably not true, because there's a lot of people who love to do what they love and be wealthy because of it and be successful because of it, but a lot of times, doing what you love won't pay the bills, and you might not be successful doing that because there's not anybody looking to hire somebody doing what you do so well. So you have to do something else, but that doesn't mean you can't still do what you want to do and do what you do well at some other level somehow. So you can't give up on that.

Shane

Well, that's a great segue into our final round of questions here. If your job only paid the bills and not a penny more, would you still continue to do it?

Neil Pond

Uh, yeah, you know, I'm very fortunate because I enjoy my job. I get to do something that combines the thing that I like—entertainment—with the things that I know, journalism—and it's something I've spent all my professional career honing, writing, and I get to do it in a creative environment with creative people. So the fact that it pays my bills is both a necessity and a perk, so yeah.

Shane

What talent or skill do you not have that you wish you did?

Neil Pond

Oh man, I wish I knew how to dance.

Shane

Fill in the blank. I am a success if I _____.

Neil Pond

If I'm happy, if I have no or few regrets, and I've made a decent life for my family and myself without crushing the lives of anyone else.

Shane

And what about: I am a failure if I _____?

Neil Pond

I'm a failure if I get to the end of my life and I feel like there were so many things I wish I could have, would have, or should have done differently.

Shane

What is the single best piece of advice that you followed to get where you are today?

Neil Pond

My dad used to quote an old country song: “Do what you do, do well.” I was about seven years old, I guess, when it came out, but that message has stayed with me all my life. Anything that you do is worth doing right. Don't do anything halfway, half-assed. I was never really an overachiever. I never really thought of myself as an overachiever, but I was the valedictorian of my high school senior class, and I graduated with honors from college. I think I definitely carry that advice along with me to this day. I know I do when I'm writing. I'm a tough critic on myself. I definitely still try to do what I do well.

Shane

What piece of well-intentioned advice are you glad you ignored to get where you are today?

Neil Pond

I had a boss one time early on in my career tell me that I was too nice, that I needed to be meaner, tougher, more aggressive, more of a sort of pushy asshole journalist like him. I remember thinking then, “You know that's not me, and I'm not him,” and I'm glad I didn't take that advice.

Shane

What character trait do you like best about yourself?

Neil Pond

I think I'm a really good listener. I look at people when they're talking to me, and I really try to hear what they're saying. I think that's also made me a good empathizer.

Shane

What about the character trait you like least about yourself?

Neil Pond

I wish I wasn't so much of a worrier. I wish I didn't, and I wish I didn't have to.

Shane

Fill in the blank. I believe every child should have the opportunity to _____.

Neil Pond

To grow up and be loved.

Shane

If you could suggest one piece of self-improvement that everyone on Earth would adopt, what would it be?

Neil Pond

Well, it's one of the most ancient pieces of advice on the planet, but it's still so true. Row your boat so that you don't capsize anybody else's, just like you want them to row theirs.

Shane

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Neil Pond

I don't really care anything about super strength or super speed, but x-ray vision and invisibility would be cool. I guess that's the journalist, the observer in me.

Shane

Other than Jesus, if you could have dinner with anyone alive or dead, who would it be?

Neil Pond

Well, I would invite the two dead Beatles and the two living Beatles for the ultimate Beatles reunion to see if they could finally work it out. And then I'd ask Director Stanley Kubrick, too, because not only is every film that he ever made a master class in filmmaking, his box set is like the Torah at our house. I've had people ask to borrow it, and I said, “No, it cannot leave. It can't leave the temple here.” I've got just a few things I'd like to ask him about 2001 and The Shining. But I think if Kubrick and the Beatles got together, we'd have a nice little discussion.

Shane

Is your house booby-trapped with a giant boulder should anyone try to steal this sacred box set?

Neil Pond

No, but it's up at the highest point on my shelf, so even I have to get up on a chair to get it. So it's hard to get to.

Shane

All right. A hospitable nearby planet has been discovered, and you have been recruited to help colonize it. You can take any three items with you that you wish. What are they?

Neil Pond

A comfortable pair of shoes, because I count that as one item, a versatile dinner jacket that can double as sportswear, and backup contact lenses. Dude's got to read, you know.

Shane

Dude's got to read. Finally, you have just won a lifetime achievement award, and we want your acceptance speech. No music is going to cue you off the stage, so you can get to all the “thank yous” that you need, and if there are any personal causes that you want to champion, this is your soapbox, so let her rip.

Neil Pond

Well, this is fairly conventional. First, I’ve got to thank my parents, who saw the first signs of what I wanted to be and watered that seed and let it grow, even though I know they thought—at times, they must have wondered about what kind of weeds they were getting into and what I was getting into. I have to thank my wife, who stuck by me all the years and over all the miles. I've also gotta thank my many, many coworkers because that's been a big part of my experience—is making a lot of friends—and the source of so many memories in lifelong relations because every wind in the road has brought me to something new and something good and something onto which the next mile was added. And I thank everyone and everything that got me to where I am today, and it's really true that I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for where I'd been.

Shane

That was very beautifully put, sir, and that means you are officially off the hot seat.

Neil Pond

Well, Shane, uh, it's been a real pleasure. Well, thanks for including me in the project.

Shane

Yep, it was wonderful to have you here, Neil. Thanks so much for joining me.

Neil Pond

Okay, Shane, we'll see you around.

Shane

All right. Talk to you soon. Thanks.

Once again, that was award-winning entertainment journalist, film critic, and the managing editor of Parade Magazine, Neil Pond. You can read his movie reviews on his personal website, neilsentertainmentpicks.com. I'd like to thank everyone for joining me today. You are listening to the Live2cre8 podcast, and this is Shane Almgren reminding you to dream big, be inspired, and live creatively.