Dom Lawson, one of the most recognisable bylines in British metal journalism, suffered a heart attack at Bloodstock Open Air this past weekend and was taken to hospital, where he is currently awaiting surgery.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by his friend Alex, seeking £6,600 (roughly $8,900). The reasoning is blunt and familiar to anyone who has freelanced: Lawson is now "forced to do lots of resting and recuperating for weeks, if not months", which means he cannot take on work during that time. Freelance writing offers no sick pay and no cushion.
Lawson confirmed the news himself in a social media post on Wednesday, August 12. "Unfortunately, I had a heart attack on Sunday and was rushed to hospital," he wrote. "Managed to avoid dying, so that was a good start. Looks like I will be having some kind of surgery in the near future. Close shave but you won't get rid of me that easily."
He also offered a characteristically unvarnished review of the experience itself, noting that heart attacks hurt a great deal and that he would not recommend one.
Lawson began working as a music journalist in 1999 and spent seven years at Kerrang! before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog in 2007. From 2014 to 2016 he served as editor-at-large at Metal Hammer, overseeing the front section of the magazine and shaping much of what ran in print each month. He currently writes for BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Metal Hammer, Prog, The Guardian and other outlets, and hosts "The Dompilation Tapes" on TotalRock — a show whose remit is essentially any genre he finds worth playing.
Over more than two and a half decades, he has been one of the writers responsible for putting extreme and underground bands in front of mainstream readerships, and for treating metal as something worth writing about seriously.
We wish him a full recovery and a swift return to the notebook.
Source: blabbermouth.net