Jann Wenner, co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone journal, has been faraway from the Hall of Fame’s board of administrators in the future after an interview together with his controversial feedback about feminine and Black artists was revealed.
“Jann Wenner has been removed from the board of directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” the Rock Hall stated in a short assertion issued in the present day.
In Friday’s interview with The New York Times, Wenner defined that his new ebook Masters, which is centered on conversations with “extraordinary musicians who dominated rock ‘n’ roll,” consists of solely white male rock stars as a result of “none of [the women] were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”
Addressing the lack of Black artists, he declared that they too “simply didn’t articulate at that degree.” He continued, “You know, only for public relations sake, perhaps 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 customary, simply to avert this sort of criticism.”
READ MORE: 20 Women Who Should Be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
His comments quickly ignited an angry firestorm of criticism, with Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine declaring Wenner a “vapid, self-important, self-appointed arbiter of what’s deserving of consideration in rock” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Earlier today the Montclair Literary Festival canceled Wenner’s planned Sept. 28 appearance, at which he was to promote Masters. According to NJArts.net, the festival said the event was being canceled “for just a few causes.”
135 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.
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