Bill Flanagan is executive vice president of MTV Networks, where he created and produces series such as VH1 Storytellers and CMT Crossroads. He is also Ombudsman of the Sundance series Spectacle: Elvis Costello With...

Flanagan is an author whose books include U2 at the End of the World, Written In My Soul and the novels A&R and New Bedlam. His latest novel Evening's Empire was called "sharp and hilarious" by Rolling Stone, "complex, humorous and touching" by Publisher's Weekly and "as wittily observed as a Kinks song" by The New York Times. He has also written for Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair and Spy.

He has interviewed virtually every major figure in rock and roll, from Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles to Axl Rose and Madonna. Flanagan is also an on-air essayist on CBS News Sunday Morning.

Flanagan has been to The Forum before, as moderator of The Power of Music in 2001.

Note: Bio is as it appeared in the Forum program from May 1, 2010.