Eduardo Rivadavia (aka Ed Rivadavia) was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and by his late teens had already toured the world (and elsewhere), learning four languages on three continents. Having also accepted the holy gospel of rock & roll as his lord and savior, Eduardo became infatuated with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and all things heavy, crude, and obnoxious while living in Milan, Italy, during the mid-1980s. At this time, he also made his journalistic debut as sole writer, editor, publisher, and, some would claim, reader of his high school's heavy metal fanzine, earning the scorn of jocks and nerds alike, but uniting the small hardcore music-loving contingent into a frenzied mob that spent countless hours exchanging tapes, talking shop, and getting beat up at concerts. Upon returning home to Brazil, Eduardo resumed a semi-normal existence, sporadically contributing music articles to local papers and magazines while earning his business degree. Finally, after years of obsessive musical fandom and at peace with his distinct lack of musical talent, Eduardo decided the time had come to infiltrate the music industry by the fire escape. He quit his boring corporate job, relocated to America, earned his master's degree while suffering the iniquities of interning for free (anything for rock & roll!), and eventually began working for various record labels, accumulating mountains of records and (seemingly) useless rock trivia in the process. This eventually led him back to writing, and he has regularly contributed articles to multiple websites since 1999, working with many different rock genres but specializing, as always, in his personal hobby: hard rock and heavy metal. To quote from the insightful 'This Is Spinal Tap': "People should be jealous of me...I'm jealous of me...." Eduardo currently resides in Austin, TX, with his wife, two daughters, and far more records, CDs and MP3s than he'll ever have time to listen to.
Eduardo Rivadavia
31 Years Ago: Ratt Crawl Out of the Cellar, Hit the Big Time
Ratt's aptly named 'Out of the Cellar' was released on March 27, 1984.
31 Years Ago: Scorpions Finally Hit Jackpot With Their Ninth Album, ‘Love at First Sting’
Not too many bands enjoy the greatest success of their career with their ninth studio album.
The Story of Soundgarden’s Masterpiece, ‘Superunknown’
Soundgarden claimed their rightful place among rock's top bands with the release of the masterful 'Superunknown' in 1994.
21 Years Ago: David Lee Roth Tries Growing Up on ‘Your Filthy Little Mouth’
Ex-Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth released 'Your Filthy Little Mouth' on March 8, 1994.
32 Years Ago: Cliff Burton Plays First Show With Metallica
On March 5, 1983, a scruffy crew of acne-afflicted youths going by the conspicuous band name of Metallica took a major step toward becoming the kings of thrash metal when they mounted a stage for the first time alongside new bassist Cliff Burton.
37 Years Ago: Whitesnake Play Their First Concert
On March 3, 1978, former Deep Purple singer David Coverdale and his new group Whitesnake performed their first concert at Lincoln Polytech.
36 Years Ago: Frank Zappa Releases ‘Sheik Yerbouti’
On many levels — creative, personal, and business-related — 1979 would go down as a banner year in the long and storied career of Frank Zappa.
16 Years Ago: Iron Maiden Welcome Back Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith
The heavy metal community was virtually celebrating in the streets on Feb. 10, 1999, when it learned that British legends Iron Maiden would be welcoming fan-favored vocalist Bruce Dickinson back into the fold after a six-year absence, and guitarist Adrian Smith after a decade.
How Black Sabbath’s Fortunes Turned in the ’90s
By this point, Black Sabbath's inability to retain a lead singer long enough to reclaim their place among metal's leading bands had become something of a tragicomedy of errors.
The Day Lynyrd Skynyrd Pianist Billy Powell Died
Lynyrd Skynyrd lost yet another seminal member when longtime keyboard player Billy Powell passed away suddenly.