‘Rolling Stone’ Wins Eight L.A. Press Club Awards

Rolling Stone took home eight top honors at the Los Angeles Press Club’s 18th Annual Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards event Sunday night, Dec. 7. The victories covered a wide array of categories, including features, profiles, interviews, art design, obituaries, and investigative reporting. 

Kory Grow, Jon Blistein, and Tomás Mier received the David Robb Investigative $5,000 Cash Prize for their March 2025 cover story, “’Brilliant, Lost, Damaged’: Inside the Tragedy of Liam Payne.” The judges commended the piece as a “comprehensive investigation” into the life and death of the former One Direction star, which “revealed the singer’s struggles with addiction” and examined “wider issues about the pressures of fame and a lack of support for people in the spotlight.” 

Andy Greene won the Investigative Reporting category for his story, “Eric Carmen Was a Power-Pop Legend. Then He Vanished.” It was praised as a “compelling telling of how the Raspberries’ Eric Carmen rose to pop music’s pinnacle only to ruin it all with drugs and booze.” 

David Browne received the Prize for Music/Performing Arts Industry Feature (Over 1,000 Words), Print for “‘I Was Taken Hostage’: How an American Metal Rocker Landed In Russian Prison.” The piece digs into the story of Travis Leake, a musician and computer geek from California, who was sentenced to 13 years in Russia for attempted drug smuggling. 

Andre Gee was recognized for Personality Profile, Music (Over 2,500 Words), Print for his story about Clipse (“Clipse Are Dropping an Album and Headed on a National Tour”) ahead of the release of Let God Sort Em Out, their first album since 2009. The judges called it an “entertaining and insightful profile” of the rap luminaries.

And Stephen Rodrick won the Personality Profile, TV/Streaming Industry (Over 2,500 Words), Print category for his “prescient” and illuminating interview with Jimmy Kimmel (“Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Now I See Myself More as a Place to Scream’”).

Brian Hiatt won for One-on-One Interview, Music Personalities for “My Life With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Mike Campbell Looks Back,” which the judges said took “the listener on a journey worth hearing.” Rob Sheffield won for Obituary/In Appreciation, Music Personalities for his tribute to Marianne Faithfull (“So Long, Marianne Faithfull: The Woman Who Refused to Go Quietly”), which the judges celebrated for capturing “the pathos of getting older in the original culture in a way that is seldom seen.” 

And to cap it all off, illustrator Simon Prades was honored for his “technically beautiful” and “emotionally impactful” illustration of the Cure, which accompanied a review of the band’s latest album, Songs of a Lost World.

Along with the eight victories, Rolling Stone journalists and pieces placed second or third in 10 other categories. They included: TV Critic (Alan Sepinwall); Celebrity Investigative Reporting (Grow, Blistein, Mier, “‘Brilliant, Lost, Damaged’: Inside the Tragedy of Liam Payne”); Page Layout (Toby Fox, “Chappell Roan: Pain & Pleasure of a Supernova”); Cover Art (Fox, “Chappell Roan”); Obituary/InAppreciation, TV Personalities (Sepinwall, “‘Twin Peaks’ Was the Most Bizarre Show on TV — and David Lynch’s Biggest Success”); Personality Profile, Music Industry (Over 2,500 Words) (Hiatt, “My Brother, Eddie Van Halen: Alex Van Halen Tells All” and Angie Martoccio, “Stevie Nicks: ‘I Believe in the Church of Stevie’”); Music/Performing Arts Industry Feature (Over 1,000 Words) (Mankaprr Conteh, “How the Inseparable Lijadu Sisters Fought for Afropop as We Know It”); Soft News, Music/Arts (Joseph Hudak, “The Hit Song About Cannibalism Written by a Yacht-Rock King”); Diversity in the Music/Performing Arts Industry (Joshua Crutchmer, “Being Trans in Country Is Dangerous. It Didn’t Stop This Singer From Coming Out”); and Personality Profile, TV/Streaming Industry (Ky Henderson, “The Slings and Arrows of Being Tony Hale”).