Jann Wenner, founding father of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone journal, amongst different enterprises, is coming below hearth for his head-turning remarks in a latest interview.
In a dialog with The New York Times, Wenner was requested why no feminine or Black artists had been featured in his new e book, Masters, which boasts interviews with “extraordinary musicians who dominated rock ‘n’ roll.”
“The selection was not a deliberate selection,” Wenner defended. “It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”
Given the chance to rephrase his remarks, Wenner as a substitute doubled down on the opinion.
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“It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest,” Wenner mentioned. “You know, Joni [Mitchell] was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.
“Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word,” Wenner continued, turning his consideration towards the exclusion of individuals of coloration from his e book. “Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I imply, they only didn’t articulate at that degree. You know, only for public relations sake, possibly I ought to have gone and located one Black and one girl artist to incorporate right here that didn’t measure as much as that very same historic customary, simply to avert this type of criticism. Which, I get it. I had an opportunity to try this. Maybe I’m old style and I don’t give a [expletive] or no matter. I want on reflection I may have interviewed Marvin Gaye. Maybe he’d have been the man. Maybe Otis Redding had he lived, would have been the man.”
Who Is Jann Wenner?
Born and raised in San Francisco, Jann Wenner founded Rolling Stone in 1967. It went on to become one of the most popular music magazines ever created, helping launch many artists to stardom, while also giving a platform to such hailed writers as Hunter S. Thompson and Cameron Crowe.
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In 1983, Wenner and a team of veteran record executives founded the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. The organization began inducting artists three years later. In 1995, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum officially opened in Cleveland.
Wenner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. He left Rolling Stone in 2019 after selling his remaining stake in the company.
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