‘Rolling Stone’ Founder Jann Wenner Says He Only Interviewed White Men For New Book On Rock Legends Because Women And Black Artists Aren’t ‘Articulate Enough’
15.09.2023 - 18:33
/ etcanada.com
The co-founder of Rolling Stone is facing some major blowback.
In a lengthy new interview with The New York Times journalist David Marchese, magazine magnate Jann Wenner responded to concerns over representation in his recent book.
READ MORE: Dolly Parton Debuts First Single ‘World On Fire’ Off New Album ‘Rockstar’
The Masters, publishing later this month, features interviews Wenner conducted during his tenure at Rolling Stone with seven rock legends like Mick Jagger, Bono, Bob Dylan and more.
Notably, though, all of the interviews are with white men.
“In the introduction, you acknowledge that performers of color and women performers are just not in your zeitgeist. Which to my mind is not plausible for Jann Wenner. Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the list keeps going — not in your zeitgeist?” Marchese asked.
“When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK?” Wenner responded. “Just to get that accurate. The selection was not a deliberate selection. 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.”
Marchese reacted, “Oh, stop it. You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?” adding, “I’ll let you rephrase that.”
“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 said. “You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind,