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A day after publishing an interview with the New York Times in which Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner said that black and female musicians “aren’t articulate at the level” of white musicians featured in his new volume of interviews “The Masters” were introduced, “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that he had been removed from its board of directors.
“Jann Wenner has been removed from the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” a representative’s brief statement reads in full; A representative for the hall contacted by Variety had no further comment.
Wenner is a co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was established in 1987, and served as its chairman until 2020. The Rock Hall Foundation and the museum have separate boards, but Wenner was not on the latter board.
Representatives for Wenner did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
The comments came after Times writer Dave Marchese asked why Wenner didn’t include people of color in “The Masters,” which features interviews with white male musicians including Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Bruce or female musicians Springsteen, Pete Townshend and Bono from U2, all of whom Rolling Stone had long celebrated when it was under Wenner’s editorial direction.
“It’s not that they aren’t creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, but have a detailed conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please be my guest. You know, Joni [Mitchell] was not a philosopher of rock’n’roll. In my opinion she failed this test. Not through her work, not through other interviews she has done. The people I interviewed were rock philosophers,” Wenner said. “From black artists – you know, Stevie Wonder, a genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “master,” the mistake is in using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just couldn’t articulate themselves at that level.”
“I mean, look at what Pete Townshend wrote about, or Jagger, or any of them,” he continued. “They were deep things about a certain generation, a certain spirit and a certain attitude to rock ‘n’ roll. Not that the others didn’t do it, but they were the ones who could really articulate it.”
Wenner, who founded Rolling Stone in 1967 and served as editor or editorial director until 2019, added that he could have reconsidered his decision and “for publicity reasons, maybe I should have found a black artist and a female artist to include.” .” Here it wasn’t up to the same historical standard, just to avoid that kind of criticism. Which I understand. I had the chance to do it. Maybe I’m old fashioned and don’t care [expletive] or what ever. In hindsight, I wish I could have interviewed Marvin Gaye. Maybe he would have been the guy. Maybe if Otis Redding had lived, he would have been the guy.”
In the interview, Wenner also made several controversial comments about his own editorial policies and admitted that he had allowed his interviewees to edit the transcripts of their interviews with him before publication, including an explosive 1970 interview with John Lennon.
Wenner resigned from Rolling Stone in 2019, a few months after the publication was fully acquired by Penske Media Corporation. In December 2017, PMC acquired a majority stake in Wenner Media, Rolling Stone’s parent company, at a valuation of just over $100 million, according to sources close to the deal. He remains editorial director of Wenner Media. PMC is also the parent company of Variety.