Timothy White

Who was Timothy White?

Timothy White was a noted American rock music journalist and editor.

White began his journalism career as a writer for the Associated Press, but soon gravitated towards music writing. He was an editor for the rock magazine Crawdaddy! in the late 1970s and a senior editor for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1980s, where he wrote a ground-breaking article detailing the destruction of Bob Hope's face in a logging accident when Hope was in his teens, accounting for Hope's unusual nose and jaw. White was editor-in-chief of Billboard from 1991 until his death at age 50 of a heart attack in 2002.

White wrote several music-related biographies, including books on The Beach Boys, Bob Marley and James Taylor, as well as several collections of columns and short pieces.

He also hosted and co-produced a nationally syndicated radio series, "Timothy White's Rock Stars/The Timothy White Sessions".

Sometimes eccentric in appearance, White seemed an unlikely rock writer but was well respected for his honest, meticulously documented, and lively writing.

White was also the subject of a lyric by Eminem, in which he raps: "Let me recite 'til Timothy White, pickets outside the Interscope offices every night." This lyric appears in the song "Bitch Please II" featuring Xzibit, Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, and Snoop Dogg.