37. Nikki Sudden

Great American Music Hall, San Francisco

Long before I knew of and idolized Nikki Sudden as a rock 'n' roll star, I knew of and idolized Nikki Sudden as a byline in Zigzag and The New York Rocker. His amiable account of a clothes-swapping encounter with Johnny Thunders sparked my own rock journalist aspirations by proving that you could be both a good friend and a good writer. "I just did it for something to do," Nikki once told me with an unassuming smile and a shrug. "But I used to have to take a gram of speed every time I wrote an article – and I would get paid just about enough to buy the gram of speed!" RIP