Rock Criticism’s Biggest and Best: Rob Sheffield At a Glance

Writer. Editor. Journalist. Critic.

Pioneering prior writing positions at publications like SPIN, Details and Blender, Rob Sheffield has maintained his role as a contributing editor for Rolling Stone Magazine since 1997. With five published books to his name, including a heart-wrenching memoir titled, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, Sheffield continues to dominate his competition with a witty delivery and a love for his craft.

A Massachusetts native with a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, Sheffield has dedicated his career to the covert analysis of rock history, from publications spanning the lifetimes and accomplishments of the Fab Four to stories of personal young love within the cultural scope of Duran Duran and David Bowie.

With such a vast career with a catalogue of countless cover stories and critical approaches to music, Sheffield has continued to solidify himself amongst his biggest career competition. His work still continues to make an impact, even 26 years into his career alongside Rolling Stone.

Nearly 50 years into her career, Stevie Nicks, the White Witch, was on top of her game. From appearances on popular television to the release of her album 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, Sheffield douses her character in what can only be interpreted as deep admiration in his 2014 cover story, “Stevie Nicks on Twirling, Kicking Drugs and a Lifetime With Lindsey.” The article originally appeared in the October 2014 issue of Rolling Stone but was featured on TIME’s front page for its inherent quality.

“Of all the elite bands of the Seventies, we’re the only one touring with the same lineup we had in 1975,” said Nicks, in response to her then current tour with Fleetwood Mac. She described the group as, “the five original cast members,” including the, at the time, elusive Christine McVie. After traversing an extremely successful solo career, it only seemed fit that Nicks would find her way back to the band that jumpstarted it all.

“Years ago Lindsay would have said, ‘You can not do the Crackhead Dance onstage. Lose that,’” said Nicks. “When Christine saw it, she said ‘Wow, we’ve always known that ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was about the serious drug days, but this really depicts how frightening it was for all of us and what we were willing to do for it.’ We were dancing on the edge for years.”

Fleetwood Mac had seen, what seemed like, every possible situation that had potential to separate bandmates from one other. Scandalous inter-band romances. Drug habits. It was hardly a question to reunite the group after years of reflection and healthy practice. Sheffield dove into the innerworkings of the long-awaited reunion tour through the eyes of Nicks herself and an encyclopedic knowledge of one of the largest classic rock bands of the seventies.

Sheffield, with a unique sense of wit and personal connection to the reader, writes in such a way that not only biographically highlights his subject, but communicates his interests through the use of receptive dialogue, feeling much more like a relaxed and intellectual conversation with one’s peers.

From rock’s living to pop’s deceased, Sheffield continued to genre-bend his career subjects, paying homage to the stars of yesterday, and their impact today. It is clear, through most of his work, Sheffield has an affinity for remembering some of music’s most influential, as the Beatles frequent his catalogue. Two years after his Stevie Nicks tell-all, Sheffield turned to the memory of 80s pop superstar George Michael in his article, “Why George Michael Was a True Pop Visionary.”

“One of the great Eighties glam eccentrics,” said Sheffield. “[Faith] is one of the briefest Number one smashes of recent decades – under three minutes. Yet every moment is coded with sexual and stylistic provocations…the way he sabotages his own straight-boy makeover by tricking out that leather jacket with a string of pearls. Even when George was draping himself with scantily clad supermodels, he made it seem like a statement of principle.”

A global superstar, with ‘the voice of an angel,’ Michael staked his claim on the eighties pop industry with his perfectly stated sex appeal and raw talent. This article, published not even 24 hours after Michael’s untimely death, highlighted his biggest accomplishments, hard-hitting career moments and encompassed the reception of his personal beliefs.

“George always took his pop devotion seriously, which is why he redefined the art of pop stardom in the Eighties,” said Sheffield. “For him, every hit meant a radical revision of who he was and what he stood for.” It was a true feat, the longevity of Michael’s career, as his participation in the band Wham! tiptoed the line between musical genres and defined an entire generation of young listeners.

Sheffield, with a continuance of personal anecdotes and a true love for his craft, delivers the passing of Michael’s death in a remembrance piece of true passion. With niche references to current pop culture – i.e. “Harry Styles ended up getting ‘Careless Whisper’ lyrics tattooed on his feet…Now that’s true pop immortality,” – Sheffield weaves his writing with everything a reader strives to consume. His stylistic way of filtrating personality through the scope of his subject creates a strong relationship between writer and reader, a talent not easily found.

Where Sheffield takes time to reflect, he also looks to the future. With such a lustrous career in the field of music criticism, he continues to pursue analysis of music, even in the modern age.

If it was the George Harrison-esque folky croon, or his association with the aforementioned Harry Styles- of whom Sheffield maintains a strong personal relationship, – one cannot be too sure, but one thing remains true: Sheffield’s writing continues to shine past his competition now more than ever in one of his most recent cover stories, reviewing and interviewing musician Mitch Rowland for his recent debut album release titled, “Come June.”

Published in October 2023, Sheffield went one-on-one with ‘Mr. Mysterious’ in, “Mitch Rowland Is Harry Styles’ Favorite Guitarist – and He Might Become Yours.”

“Mitch Rowland could have been designed in a mad scientist’s laboratory as the prototypical soft-spoken guitar dude,” said Sheffield. “He’s a shy rock geek from small-town Ohio who just won a Grammy for Album of the Year, for his work on Harry Styles’ global blockbuster Harry’s House.” An increasingly relevant newcomer to the industry, Rowland, a longtime friend and collaborator of Styles’, entered the scene with a Grammy Award and a substantial cult following.

Rowland has spent the better half of a decade on tour with Styles as the lead guitarist in his stage band; what does he do with the time in-between performances?

“On his gorgeous solo debut…he ignores pop trends and finds his own voice,” said Sheffield. “It’s all introspective acoustic beauty, a deeply personal song cycle inspired by his hero, the British folk legend Bert Jansch. As [Rowland] admits, ‘I still feel like I’m walking off a building going onstage to play.’”

An indie-folk jump, in the complete opposite direction of his pop co-writing in recent years, but a necessary and expected jump nonetheless. Sheffield put it best, “Come June is the album everyone hoped Rowland would make, except even better…Some people might think it’s a pop guy trying to cross over to an indie-rock fold sound, but it’s the other way around.”

In yet another methodically personal approach to a new entry in his critic catalogue, Sheffield connected an audience of rock ‘n’ roll purists to a new-age folk rocker, one with a pop music past and a notable performance history.

With an industry many are far removed from, it may become difficult to find oneself able to connect with a writer’s work as much as Rob Sheffield’s. Journalism, and music criticism by proxy, has the potential to feel impersonal, as the subject matter sits atop a grand scale.

What better way to feel passionate about music’s cultural impact, than to read of someone’s own firsthand musical passion?

Someone who’s life is a mixtape of accomplishment and charisma.