Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner has been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors following some racist and sexist comments he made during a recent interview with The New York Times.
During the interview, Wenner discussed his new book The Masters, which is compiled of conversations he’s had with “the philosophers of rock.” These artists are Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, and Bono. Wenner was asked why this list consisted only of white men, to which he defended his decision as “intuitive.” He went on to further state that none of the female artists he’s encountered during his RS tenure were “articulate enough” to make his little list.
Wenner stated:
“It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses,” Wenner said. “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 [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.”
He continued, “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.”
Wenner has since made an apology which, to be honest, seems shallow, and he still managed to make it about himself. In this interview, Wenner also admitted to letting interview subjects edit their own transcripts. What a guy.