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Joel Miller (AKA Joel Roadie, AKA Rifken) was born in Cambridge, England. His parents emigrated to Los Angeles when he was a child, and he grew up in Southern California. He is the oldest of three children. When he was four years old, Miller's mother was stopped in a shopping mall by talent agent Dorothy Day Otis. Soon after he began working as a child actor and model. One such fun ad campaign featured Miller as one of the young faces for Borax Soap - alongside Tony Randall and an also very young Jaleel White (Steve Urkel.)
In 1998 he graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Art History and a minor in History.
Fresh out of college Miller began working in the art department for Feature films. Some of the films he worked on are, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, It's the Rage, Lucky 13, Durango Kids, and Second to Die.
In 1999, Miller worked at Brian Reeves recording studio the Jungle Room. While there he worked for acts such as Poison, Billy Idol, and Keanu Reeves’s band Dogstar.
In 2006 Warner Bros. released Miller's The Still Life. Miller wrote, produced, cast, and directed the film. Much of the screenplay was written in hotels and on tour buses while working for the band Stone Temple Pilots. The film was screened in over 50 international film festivals and won the bronze medal at the Park City Film Music Festival.
Accompanying the film Warner Bros. released The Still Life soundtrack. Miller co-wrote most of the songs on the album including the song "God's Reasons", performed by Darius Rucker. In 2006 Miller was a recipient of the ASCAP Plus award for the song "God's Reasons". In 2010 another song from the soundtrack "Silent Light", co-written by Miller and performed by Dizzy Reed (Guns N’ Roses,) appeared in the film Holyman Undercover.
In August 2020, Miller released his autobiography, Memoir of a Roadie: Axl Said I Made a Great Cup of Tea, Scott Weiland Liked the Carpenters, & Ozzy Drinks Rosé. The book is an intimate behind the scenes look at the music industry from a young roadie’s perspective. Miller toured under the employment of Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N' Roses, Poison, and the Cranberries. The book tells of his life touring with these bands and his further touring experiences with Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Oasis, Papa Roach, Disturbed, Godsmack, Warrant, Quiet Riot, NSYNC, Bush, No Doubt, Fishbone, Fuel, Korn, Metallica, Green Day, Kid Rock, Rage Against the Machine, Enuff Z'Nuff, the Turtles, Violent Femmes, Static-X, Third Eye Blind, Goo Goo Dolls, Slipknot, 3 Doors Down, and Veruca Salt.
The book found immediate attention among music critics and was the #1 new release on Amazon’s best seller’s list in Biographies. A year after it’s release it is still sitting amongst the top twenty books in Amazon’s best seller’s section. In addition, an astonishing two million pages have been read by the Kindle community. In July 2021 the audiobook version of Memoir of a Roadie was released with Miller narrating. It features a new song titled “Circle of Friends,” written by Joel Miller and Dizzy Reed.
In 2021 Miller took on the role as producer and host of the Party Like a Rockstar podcast. Guests on the show have been mostly roadies and rockstars. Recent guests have included Corey Glover “Living Colour”, Snake Sabo “Skid Row”, & Doug ‘Cosmo’ Clifford “Creedence Clearwater Revival.” The podcast is streaming on all platforms and boasts an already powerful presence in the podcast community with thousands of monthly listeners.
Special Mentions:
Party Like A Rockstar Podcast, Memoir of a Roadie: Axl said I made a great cup of tea... Scott Weiland liked The Carpenters... & Ozzy drinks rosé. Roadie Free Radio Merch, RFR Podcast Bundle, Follow Your Drishti Yoga Podcast, roadiecare.com, musicares.org, Roswell Pro Audio Mini K87