| At the beginning of his Sophomore year at Alemany High School, Hank Zevallos was appointed Sports Editor of the school newspaper, the Pow Wow, by the head of the English Department. At the beginning of the second semester, Hank was promoted to Co-Editor of the school paper, becoming Editor-In-Chief for his Junior and Senior years.
During his last two years in high school, Hank also wrote two seperate weekly columns that appeared in the San Fernando Valley SUN and The Valley News & Green Sheet (now the Los Angeles Daily News). It was during this period that Hank Zevallos also wrote his first articles about rock music. Having developed a deep love of music from his mother, who studied under pianist Claudio Arrau, Hank was very fortunate to meet recording artists Ritchie Valens, Johnny Burnette and Jan Davis while still a child. His first article about Johnny Burnette appeared in the Pow Wow, with the second sadly reporting his death in the San Fernando Valley SUN. While majoring in Journalism at California State University Northridge, Hank was also being published in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Free Press, Open City and This Is HAPPENING (a music "underground" he published). Along with John Carpenter, Hank also was an Editor for Zero, the arts supplement for the Los Angeles Free Press. However, he turned down an offer from Jann Wenner to become Los Angeles Editor for a new publication called Rolling Stone and instead went to Vancouver, B.C., Canada, where he accepted a position as one of the publishers and editor of POPPIN, the only Canadian magazine to ever achieve national U.S. distribution. In giving POPPIN its description, Hank was credited by Ralph Gleason with coining the term "Rock Culture." When the U.S. distributor, ACME NEWS suddenly went bankrupt without paying POPPIN a cent, Doors vocalist/poet Jim Morrison lent Hank his film "HWY" for its only public showing, along with other Doors films and shorts in the Jim Morrison Film Festival, a benefit attempt to save POPPIN. An early believer in The Doors, Hank's first recording session had been "Strange Days," prior to Hank and his photographer James Fortune taking copies of the first Doors album to Los Angeles area college radio stations and helping popularize "Light My Fire." In addition to having interviewed and written about the top musical artists, Hank was also asked to write album liner notes and was quoted in industry ads that appeared in Billboard, Variety and popular consumer publications. Not only have his articles been published in international publications, but Hank is also featured in Danny Sugarman's book, "The Illustrated History Of The Doors," and in the National Library of Canada. More recently Hank has written a weekly newspaper entertainment column called "On The Beat," as well as a multi-media cyber column called "Measured Movements" for Our Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Hank has also made his mark as a concert tours promoter, putting together legendary appearances that featured such greats as Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, The Everly Brothers, Willie Dixon & The Chicago Blues All Stars, plus countless others. He has also helped discover talent like Jimmie Bain (Street Noise, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Dio), Linnie Patterson (Street Noise, Beggar's Opera), Dana Strum (BadAxe, Ozzy, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, Slaughter) and David Carruth (BadAxe, Bitch) as an artists manager. Hank's portfolio includes audio and video productions, as well as Internet webpage design. He has also been involved in the subscription TV, solar and satellite TV industries. Currently Hank is the personal manager for Rockabilly King Rocky Burnette, and in addition to continued writings, will soon write a book about his lifestory. |
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