[citation needed] Guns N' Roses performed their last club gig for the third-anniversary RIP party at the Park Plaza Hotel in October 1989, prior to their four-night opening stint for the Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

He penned weekly columns for the influential industry tip sheets HITS and the Album Network, and co-authored the Rolling Stone cover story on Slash from Guns N' Roses (with Jeffrey Ressner).

In the style of a high-school yearbook, Friend wrote the liner notes to the Alice Cooper box set Alice Cooper "Old School" (1964-1974) (Universal UK)..[citation needed] Friend is a frequent contributor to VH1, having appeared in numerous Behind the Music documentary episodes, including "Metallica," "Bon Jovi," "The Year 1987," "Red Hot Chili Peppers Ultimate Albums: Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik," "Mötley Crüe," "Anthrax," "Top 40 Hair Metal Bands of All Time" and "When Metal Ruled the World."

[citation needed] The U.K.'s Sexy Intellectual Productions featured Friend extensively in their recent DVD releases, Guns N' Roses: 2 Classic Albums Under Review (Use Your Illusion I and II) and AURAL Amphetamine: Metallica and the Dawn of Thrash.

I wrote my memoir while in Las Vegas, during those 29 transforming months on the sands of Babylon, chronicling my journey for local publications and encountering the light people amongst America's most shadowy metropolis.His second book, Sweet Demotion: How an Almost Famous Rock Journalist Lost Everything and Found Himself (Almost), was published by AuthorHouse in 2011.

Picking up at the end of Friend's stint as an executive at Arista Records, Demotion follows his move to Las Vegas and the spiritual pursuits that shaped his further involvement in the music world.

As resident video archivist and board member for the Guitar Center's Hollywood Rock Walk, Friend conducted interviews in 2008 and 2009 with such notable inductees as Michelle Phillips, Lou Adler, Keb' Mo', George Thorogood, Zakk Wylde, Terry Bozzio, Slash, Ronnie James Dio, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Yngwie Malmsteen, the Germs, Kenny Loggins, The Smashing Pumpkins, Steve Vai, and others.

The musicians he interviewed for the volume include Steven Tyler, Ted Nugent, Kevin Cronin, Steve Lukather, Phil Collen, Orianthi, Dave Navarro, Fred Coury, Rudy Sarzo, Share Pedersen Ross, Scott Ian, Pearl Aday and Serj Tankian.