Jann Wenner, who co-founded Rolling Stone journal and likewise was a co-founder of the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, has been faraway from the corridor’s board of administrators after making feedback that have been seen as disparaging towards Black and feminine musicians.
“Jann Wenner has been faraway from the Board of Administrators of the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame Basis,” the corridor stated Saturday, a day after Wenner’s feedback have been printed in a New York Occasions interview.
A consultant for Wenner, 77, didn’t instantly reply for a remark.
Wenner created a firestorm doing publicity for his new e-book, The Masters, which options interviews with musicians Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend and U2’s Bono — all white and male.
Requested why he did not interview ladies or Black musicians, Wenner responded: “It’s not that they’re inarticulate, though, go have a deep dialog with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my visitor. You realize, Joni [Mitchell] was not a thinker of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my thoughts, meet that take a look at,” he instructed the Occasions.
“Of Black artists — , Stevie Surprise, genius, proper? I suppose while you use a phrase as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is utilizing that phrase. Possibly Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I imply, they simply didn’t articulate at that stage,” Wenner stated.
Wenner co-founded Rolling Stone in 1967 and served as its editor or editorial director till 2019. He additionally co-founded the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, which was launched in 1987.
Within the interview, Wenner appeared to acknowledge he would face a backlash. “Only for public relations sake, possibly I ought to have gone and located one Black and one lady artist to incorporate right here that didn’t measure as much as that very same historic commonplace, simply to avert this type of criticism.”
Final 12 months, Rolling Stone journal printed its 500 Biggest Albums of All Time and ranked Gaye’s What’s Going On No. 1, Blue by Mitchell at No. 3, Surprise’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 pursuits, a combination of authoritative music and cultural protection with powerful investigative reporting.
