Since Jon Bream began writing about popular music for the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1974, he has interviewed the King of Pop (Michael Jackson), the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin) and Prince, as well as Bob Dylan, U2, three Beatles, four Rolling Stones and all of Maroon 5.

He has performed with Alice Cooper, smoked pot with Paul McCartney, watched the Grammys with Stevie Wonder, walked the streets of New York with Bruce Springsteen, jogged with Willie Nelson, gone to Denny's with Neil Young, McDonald's with New Kids on the Block and some ritzy restaurant with Tina Turner. He's watched Kiss' Gene Simmons mix his famous blood, Linda Ronstadt have a phone date with then-beau Jerry Brown and Bette Midler do an impression of her high-school classmate who worked at Bream's newspaper. He has talked about finding babysitters with Garth Brooks, parenting with Wynonna Judd and strategizing for NBA fantasy leagues with Jakob Dylan. OMG, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake have all called him.  Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant was the first to call Bream out from the stage but Prince, Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang and Sheila E have done it, too.

Bream has attended Watkins Glen (the biggest one-day rock fest ever), the Band's Last Waltz, the first Farm Aid, Woodstock 94 and about 6,000 other concerts.

He has been a voter for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for more than 15 years. He has voted in the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop Poll every year but the first.  Bream’s tenure at the Minneapolis Star Tribune is the second longest of any current daily newspaper pop-music critic in the United States. 

In addition to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, his features and reviews have been published in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Creem, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly and other magazines and countless newspapers from the Los Angeles Times to the Boston Globe. His stories are syndicated on the McClatchy Tribune and Scripps Howard news wires.

Bream is the author of the best-selling unauthorized 1984 biography "Prince: Inside the Purple Reign." He is widely considered THE expert on Prince since he has covered him from Day 1 (he was in the studio when Prince recorded his debut album, at the Hollywood premiere of "Purple Rain" and at Prince's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). Bream has been interviewed about Prince and other music topics by countless media, including the BBC, "Today" show and USA Weekend.

Bream’s “Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin: The Illustrated History of the Heaviest Band of All Time” was greeted with rave reviews on three continents in 2008, and his new book, “Neil Diamond Is Forever: The Illustrated Story of the Man and His Music,” was published in fall 2009. 

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Bream earned a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota. He has been recognized as an outstanding alum of the University's College of Liberal Arts.