NEW YORK — Jann Wenner, who founded Rolling Stone magazine and was a co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has been faraway from the hall’s board of directors after making comments that were seen as denigrating Black and feminine musicians.
“Jann Wenner has been faraway from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” the hall said Saturday, a day after Wenner’s comments were published in a Latest York Times interview.
A representative for Wenner, 77, didn’t immediately respond for a comment.
Wenner created a firestorm doing publicity for his recent book “The Masters,” which features interviews with musicians Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend and U2’s Bono — all white and male.
Asked why he didn’t interview women or Black musicians, Wenner responded: “It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You already know, Joni (Mitchell) was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test,” he told the Times.
“Of Black artists — you understand, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose once you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Perhaps Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they simply didn’t articulate at that level,” Wenner said.
Wenner founded Rolling Stone in 1967 and served as its editor or editorial director until 2019. He co-founded the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which was launched in 1987.
Within the interview, Wenner looked as if it would acknowledge he would face a backlash. “Only for public relations sake, possibly I must have gone and located one Black and one woman artist to incorporate here that didn’t measure as much as that very same historical standard, simply to avert this type of criticism.”
Last yr, Rolling Stone magazine published its 500 Biggest Albums of All Time and ranked Gaye’s “What’s Going On” No. 1, “Blue” by Mitchell at No. 3, Wonder’s “Songs within the Key of Life” at No. 4, “Purple Rain” by Prince and the Revolution at No. 8 and Ms. Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” at No. 10.
Rolling Stone’s area of interest in magazines was an outgrowth of Wenner’s outsized interests, a mix of authoritative music and cultural coverage with tough investigative reporting.
