Ballinger, Lee: - Lee Ballinger is the West Coast Editor of Rock & Rap Confidential, the magazine edited by Dave Marsh that's known as "the conscience of the music industry." Ballinger is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame voter and certified welder, a combat veteran of Vietnam who came out of the steel mills in Ohio to forge a career as a writer. He has written four books and his work has appeared in publications ranging from the The New York Times to the Village Voice, from Entertainment Weekly to Inside Sports to Rolling Stone. Lee Ballinger was once a homeless teenager yet he went on to be a local leader of the steelworkers union and wound up introducing Kurt Vonnegut at a Chicago banquet. A well-known performer on the Southern California poetry scene, he has worked as a media advisor to pro football players and was a publicist for the anti-apartheid Sun City record which featured musicians ranging from Miles Davis to Ringo Starr to Run DMC.