Erin Osmon has spent years documenting musicians and the culture surrounding them, with much of her work centered on the Midwest music scene. Now, the DePaul graduate is blending her journalism career with her own experiences growing up in the Midwest in a new book.

Osmon’s newest book is called “Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America.” It explores the legacy of heartland rock, the genre popularized by artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp during the 1980s. The work also examines how this music reflected working class America and became tied to political and cultural issues such as labor movements, LGBTQ+ rights and environmental activism.

Osmon was exposed to journalism as a child, as the daughter of two working journalists growing up in Evansville, Indiana.

 “I grew up in a TV studio,” Osmon said. “I remember when I was a teenager they let me run the teleprompter, and I remembered the buzz of the newsroom, the clacking of typewriters, the sound of the police scanner.”

Her love for music also blossomed in her younger years. 

“I was the kid who knew all the record labels, and the bands on the labels, and I was mail ordering records,” said Osmon, who graduated with a master’s degree in journalism from DePaul in 2009. 

Osmon’s career in journalism began at the Chicago Tribune in 2007 where she helped create the newspaper’s social media strategy team. She then pivoted to focus on music journalism, where she has interviewed countless artists for publications like The Guardian, The New York Times and Rolling Stone. 

Osmon said her childhood prepared her to write “Won’t Back Down” because her family life resonated with the heartland rock genre. Osmon felt like she understood the lyrics of artists like Springsteen and Mellencamp, who’s also from Indiana.

“Heartland rock was very much a genre that espoused a love of its country but also spoke out against the hypocrisies and inequity baked into our system,” she said. “You can love America and all that it affords us, and you can also be critical of the way it disenfranchises certain communities.”

As she sees it, this genre is  for everyone in the country, inclusive at its heart. She wanted her book to recognize that.

“I really wanted to contextualize it as a movement that was led by four very commercially successful white men, yet also included people like Tracy Chapman,” Osmon said. “Bands like Los Lobos and other kinds of voices were crucial to bolstering the movement and for their allyship of the movement.”

At DePaul, Osmon said she learned some of the skills that helped her write the book. Paul Booth, a professor of media and pop culture at DePaul, had Osmon in his first class he taught at the university.

 “Every so often a professor and a student are just simpatico, and they think alike and I felt that way with Erin,” said Booth, who is also the associate dean of student affairs and engagement for the College of Communication. “I just have very fond memories, and I’m so happy with where she is and what she’s doing.”

Osmon said she feels grateful both to DePaul and to the city of Chicago for giving her a start to her career. She recently came back to Chicago for her book tour where she hosted an event at The Book Cellar. 

Suzy Takacs, the book store’s owner, felt that Osmon was a great person to have at her store.

“I thought the talk was terrific,” Takacs said. “We wanted to support a female music journalist and a former Chicago journalist.”

Currently, Osmon lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she works at the Country Music Hall of Fame as a writer, editor and historian. When she is not working there she is writing her books. “Won’t Back Down” is her third book, having already written about the careers of John Prine and Jason Molina, and she says a fourth will be on the way.

“My book is in progress and my work at the Country Music Hall of Fame continues,” Osmon said. “I’m curating a new exhibit right now that’s gonna open in the fall and I’m going to continue to host public programs so I am thrilled about the work inside and outside the museum.”

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