Jann Wenner is a giant of rock music history, even though he never fronted a band, composed a hit song, or produced a gold record. As the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, Wenner became a tastemak.
Jann Wenner is a giant of rock music history, even though he never fronted a band, composed a hit song, or produced a gold record. As the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, Wenner became a tastemaking publisher; for years, anybody who was anybody in popular music got a mention in Rolling Stone. Wenner’s clout also allowed him to co-found the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Wenner is also a devoted man of the left. Rolling Stone’s coverage has always been unabashedly left-wing, and its co-founding publisher earned his bona fides protesting in Berkley’s Free Speech Movement and working for hippie rags like Ramparts.
But now the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has removed the publisher from its board, issuing a statement Saturday that read, “Jann Wenner has been removed from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.”
So why did the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame dump Wenner from its board? It definitely has nothing to do with the 2017 accusations that Wenner forced himself on a male staffer. After all, when it comes to Wenner and Rolling Stone, #MeToo isn’t #DudesToo; it’s only for falsified stories of assault on college campuses.
Instead, intersectionality has caught up with Wenner, and it came to haunt him in the form of his new book and an unfortunate interview he gave with the New York Times to promote it.
“Wenner created a firestorm doing publicity for his new 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,” reports the Associated Press.
To me, the book sounds like a Boomer’s dream come true, but it wasn’t enough that Wenner only limited his list of “masters” to white men.
