Rock ’n’ roll legend Jann Wenner lost his position on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board of directors after he said that Black and women artists do not “articulate” as well as their white male counterparts.
Wenner, who co-created both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone magazine, showed his bigotry when he did an interview with The New York Times to talk about his new book.
In the book, “The Masters,” Werner compiled a collection of interviews that he had with famous rock stars over the years that he felt would illustrate rock ’n’ roll’s impact on the world.
The book includes interviews with Bono, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Pete Townshend, but includes no women or any people of color. It was reported that in the introduction of “The Masters,” Wenner wrote that people of color just were not in his “zeitgeist.”
When The New York Times asked Wenner to clarify what he meant he said, “When I was referring to zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers. OK?”
He went on to say, “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.”
He then said that none of the women “were as articulate enough on this intellectual level” as the men he chose.
Wenner then claimed that female acts like Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell were not “philosophers of rock” and that Black musicians like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield were not “masters,” and that they did not “articulate” at the level of the seven white men he chose.
The 77-year-old said that people like Townsend and Jagger could articulate better about the deep generation, spirit, and attitude of rock.
Wenner said that he should have thrown one Black or women artist in the book just to dodge the criticism, but he said that maybe he was “too old-fashioned”.
Immediately after the interview dropped, readers condemned Wenner for his misogynistic and racist views on rock & roll.
“This wasn’t even a ‘Gotcha!’ question. It was a completely legit question to which he gave the worst possible answer and then thought, wait, if I keep going, I can make it even worse.”
“To be fair, I would not have thought the founder of Rolling Stone magazine was a smart or deep guy. This all checks out.”
“The most articulate man in the history of rock & roll is Chuck Berry. Also, he invented rock & roll.”
“The irony of the founders of most American musical art forms were in fact black Americans. I would say those historic musicians don’t need the validation from an obvious racist.”
The most articulate man in the history of rock & roll is Chuck Berry.
— Judy Mam (@Grandenchilada) September 16, 2023
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation caught wind of Wenner’s controversy and released this statement: “Jann Wenner has been removed from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.”
Wenner has since released an apology 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.”
He continued to say that “The Masters” was meant to illustrate how rock ’n’ roll affected him personally, and not a reflection on the genre’s true legacy.
