Robert Greenfield

Career

Greenfield began his career as a sports writer. He has published book reviews in New West magazine and The New York Times Book Review.

From 1970 to 1972 Greenfield was employed as an associate editor with Rolling Stone magazine's London bureau. During this time he interviewed numerous musicians and writers, including Jack Bruce, John Cale, Neil Young, Elton John, Nico, the Rolling Stones, Jackie Lomax, Leon Russell, Stone the Crows, Woody Allen and Germaine Greer. His 1971 interview with Keith Richards in the south of France at Villa Nellcôte, Villefranche-sur-Mer, was included in the book Exile, a collection of photographs by Dominique Tarlé, Genesis Publications (2001).

Greenfield was a popular music critic for Boston After Dark. He was an adjunct professor of composition and literature at the University of San Francisco, and has taught at Chapman University and Cabrillo College.

He worked as a freelance journalist for Eye and Cavalier magazine. A 1969 Eye article profiled early free-form radio at WFMU in East Orange, New Jersey and other locations. The magazines Esquire, Playboy, and GQ have published his short fiction.

Greenfield writes primarily on pop culture, and has published two novels. His first novel was Haymon’s Crowd (1978). In 1983 Greenfield wrote Temple, a semi-autobiographical book and play about a young man who is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and is obsessed with soul music.

In 2000, his one-man play, Bill Graham Presents, ran at the Canon Theater in Los Angeles. It was based on the biography Greenfield co-wrote about the rock music promoter. Ron Silver played Graham.

Personal life

Greenfield lives in Carmel, California.