This is not bragging. It is an admission of guilt, probably indictable. I'm coming (going?) clean because I get asked about it a lot.

I appear to be the one who coined the term "heavy metal." I did this while serving as first rock critic of The New York Times. In a 1971 review of the band Steppenwolf, I referred to their "unique hard rock, heavy and metallic." A year later I referred to "heavy metal music." I was thinking not only of the music, but of the increasing number of bands with names such as Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, and Grand Funk Railroad. (No more "Strawberry Alarm Clock," and a good thing, too.)

Steppenwolf did, of course, use the phrase "heavy metal thunder," in reference to mechanized transport of some sort, in their song "Born to be Wild." So they were the logical jumping off point for my coinage. I merely applied the notion to a form of music which, by the way, Steppenwolf didn't play.

I thought that this feat would win me a lifetime supply of hairspray and leather pants. It didn't, but alas, I no longer have use for either.

Mike Jahn