As a music reporter, Melissa Ruggieri has kept vampire hours for more than two decades. She started at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in September 2010 writing about music and entertainment as well as covering the Georgia Aquarium and Zoo Atlanta. In 2012, she created the Atlanta Music Scene blog and has regularly been on the front lines at the Grammy Awards, CMA Awards and Super Bowls as well as hundreds of concerts every year. She's seen Billy Joel live nearly 60 times and remembers when MTV was awesome. Melissa is a regular contributor to the AJC's Access Atlanta podcast, as well as co-host of Cox Media's "2 Girls Talking" podcast. Melissa has a master's in English from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s in journalism from Florida International University. She previously worked as the pop music critic at the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and two rescue cats.