Jann Wenner was removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame panel after the interview

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation said Saturday that it has removed Jann Wenner, co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, from its board of directors.

The Rock Hall referred reporters to a publicity firm that confirmed in an emailed statement Weiner’s removal from the board of directors of the organization he helped found in 1983.

This news comes one day after the New York Times published it Interview with Weiner Regarding his upcoming book “The Masters,” which contains interviews with musicians — all white men — including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Bono. Weiner was asked why the book did not include interviews with women or people of color.

“None of them were articulate enough on that intellectual level,” Weiner was quoted as saying of the women of rock.

In the interview he expressed similar thoughts regarding black rock artists, some of whom created the music and culture that Weiner contemplated and tapped into with Rolling Stone.

“From black artists – you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?” Weiner said, according to the interview. “I suppose when you use a broad word like ‘masters,’ the mistake is in using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they didn’t talk at that level.”

Weiner said in the interview that his choice of musicians for the book was “intuitive” and “what I was interested in”, and admitted that there might be criticism of his choice.

“You know, just for the sake of PR, I probably should have gone and found one black artist and one artist to include here that doesn’t measure up to the same historical standard, just to avoid that kind of criticism,” he said in a statement. the interview. “Which I understand. I had the opportunity to do that.”

On Saturday night, Weiner issued a statement apologizing for his comments.

He said: “In my interview with The New York Times, I made comments that belittled the contributions, genius, and influence of black artists and women, and I deeply apologize for those statements.”

The author said the upcoming book was “not intended to represent the entirety of music and its diverse and important creators, but rather to reflect highlights of my career and interviews that I felt demonstrated the breadth and expertise of that profession.”

Weiner said he admires the “world-changing artists” not represented in the book and whom he will “celebrate and promote for the rest of my life.”

His publisher, Little, Brown & Company, did not respond to a request for comment Saturday night.

Weiner’s statements in an interview with The New York Times were widely criticized.

Evelyn McDonnell, a journalism professor at Loyola Marymount University and an expert on music, gender and politics, said in Facebook That Weiner expressed sexism and racism for decades was the basis of many “false” major “narratives” about music history.

That exclusion, she said, inspired her to organize and edit “Rock She Wrote” in 1995 with NPR populist critic Anne Powers, report on gender inequality for the Hall of Fame, and edit the book “Women Who Rock.”

Author Downey Walton Named Weiner’s quoted words are “disgusting, disgusting and insulting”.

Craig SeymourThe popular music industry includes “an oppressive system of value that Rolling Stone helped create and perpetuate,” he said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, who identifies himself as a “black gay music critic.”

Rolling Stone famously initially ignored the waves of music, from hip-hop to electronic dance music, that might have existed outside of its vision of rock ‘n’ roll culture—a vision typically dominated by white people, music created by baby boomers with poetic ambition and anti-establishment undertones.

Weiner founded Rolling Stone with journalist Ralph J. Gleason in San Francisco in 1967.