A day after the publication of a New York Times interview in which Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner said that Black and female musicians “didn’t articulate at the level” of the white musicians featured in his new book of interviews, “The Masters,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that he has been removed from its board of directors.
“Jann Wenner has been removed from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” a terse statement from a rep reads in full. Contacted by Variety, the rep clarified that the foundation and the Rock Hall museum have separate boards, but Wenner was not on the latter board.
Wenner is a co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was launched in 1987.
The comments came about after Times writer Dave Marchese asked why Wenner had not included any people of color or female musicians in “The Masters,” which features interviews with white musicians that Rolling Stone had long celebrated when it was under Wenner’s editorial direction.
“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. You know, Joni 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,” Wenner said. “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. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”
“I mean, look at what Pete Townshend was writing about, or Jagger, or any of them,” he continued. “They were deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock ’n’ roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.”
More to come…
