Uhelszki grew up in Detroit, Michigan, listening to Motown and FM rock radio, and worked as a "Coke Girl" selling sodas at the Grande Ballroom, which allowed her access to early shows featuring Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Stooges, the MC5, and Janis Joplin.
[5][6] She wrote movie columns and feature-length profiles, eventually becoming a senior editor while working alongside fellow writer Lester Bangs.
Creem at the time employed what was considered a “dream team” of rock writers, including Uhelszki, Bangs, Marsh, Ben Edmonds, and Roberta Cruger.
Performing in full makeup and costume in front of 6,000 people, Uhelszki noted: I think that experience has impacted everything I've written afterward because I know what it's like to live, if only for five minutes, on the other side.
[9]She traveled with Lynyrd Skynyrd for a feature article about their second-to-last tour, and was captivated by the late Ronnie Van Zant's spirit, although he told her that he didn't expect to live to see thirty.
[12] She was senior editor at Harp from 2002 to 2008, and presently works as Relix's editor-at-large[13] besides being a regular contributor to UK music magazines Uncut and Classic Rock.
Uhelszki's features have been published in New Musical Express, The Village Voice, Spin, Mojo, Alternative Press, Blender, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Directed by Scott Crawford, the film chronicles the formation and turbulent history of Creem and how its writers and editors impacted the American music scene throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.