Former Rolling Stone editor Chet Flippo dead at 69

Former Rolling Stone editor Chet Flippo has died, aged 69. The revered journalist, who began writing for the music magazine when he was a student at the University of Texas in Austin, became Rolling Stone’s New York bureau chief in 1974 and took on the title of senior editor in 1977.
He left the publication in 1980 and devoted his life to becoming a biographer, penning tomes on Hank Williams, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones.
He also became a journalism teacher at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, before moving to Nashville in 1995 to work as Billboard’s bureau chief. He later joined CMT and wrote the country music network’s online Nashville Skyline column.
Paying tribute to the writer via Twitter on Wednesday (19Jun13), Taylor Swift wrote, “We’ve lost Chet Flippo, one of my favorite journalists, who devoted his life to writing about music from a place of integrity. So sad.”