Ben Fong-Torres was born in California. He became a writer and Senior Editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where he wrote 37 cover stories and hundreds of articles, and won the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. He had major interviews with many of the most important acts of the 1970s, including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Linda Ronstadt.

He has since written for Esquire, GQ, Parade, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Harper's Bazaar, American Film, Travel & Leisure and People, and has also worked as a radio DJ, TV presenter.