For 40 years Peter Guralnick has been turning out beautifully written magazine profiles and books about key figures in blues, country, and early rock ’n’ roll. When he speaks about writing and American music, he reveals an intense desire to be rigorously honest and to express himself clearly. During the spring semester he made a temporary home at Vanderbilt as a visiting professor of creative nonfiction writing. In an interview Guralnick talks about how he approaches the craft of writing biography and explains how his twin passions for American music and for writing came together to create a career quite different from what he initially imagined.