Jann Wenner Apologizes for Controversial Comments After Being Removed From Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Board

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 didnt articulate at the level of the white musicians featured in his new book of interviews, 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, a rep for the Hall had no further comment.

Later on Saturday, he issued an apology through his publisher Little, Brown and Company, saying In my interview with The New York Times I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius and impact of Black and women artists and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks.

The Masters is a collection of interviews Ive done over the years, he continued, that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock n rolls impact on my world; they were not meant to represent the whole of music and its diverse and important originators but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career. They dont reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists whose music and ideas I revere and will celebrate and promote as long as I live. I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologize and accept the consequences.

Wenner is a co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was launched in 1987, and had served as its chairman until 2020. The Rock Hall Foundation and museum have separate boards, but Wenner was not on the latter board.

Reps for Wenner did not immediately respond to Varietys requests for comment.

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, male musicians including Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia,Mick Jagger, John Lennon,Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend and U2s Bono, all of whom Rolling Stone had long celebrated when it was under Wenners editorial direction.

Its not that theyre not creative geniuses. Its not that theyre 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 didnt, 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 didnt 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 werent, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.

Wenner, who founded Rolling Stone in 1967 and served as its editor or editorial director until 2019, added that he could have reconsidered his decision and just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didnt measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism. Which, I get it. I had a chance to do that. Maybe Im old-fashioned and I dont give a [expletive] or whatever. I wish in retrospect I could have interviewed Marvin Gaye. Maybe hed have been the guy. Maybe Otis Redding, had he lived, would have been the guy. Not surprisingly, Wenner received a torrent of negative comments online after the interview published.

In the interview, Wenner also made several controversial comments about his own editorial policies, admitting that hed allowed his interview subjects to edit the transcripts of their interviews with him before publication, including an explosive 1970 interview with John Lennon.

Wenner stepped down from Rolling Stone in 2019, a few months after the publication was fully acquired by Penske Media Corporation. In December 2017, PMC acquired a controlling interest inWenner Media, parent company ofRolling Stone, at a valuation just over $100 million, according to sources close to the transaction. He remains editorial director of Wenner Media. PMC is also the parent company of Variety.