I bought my first copy of Rolling Stone in 1969. I was 17, and I thought I had found the Holy Grail. Here was a magazine about Rock & Roll, and they took it seriously. It treated the music I love like an actual Art Form. They had articles about my heroes, and interviews with heroes I didn’t know existed. I read every issue religiously for 30 years. I had to pick & choose more carefully after they started to put Britney Spears on the cover, however.
Anyway, Rolling Stone was an important source of knowledge for me, about what mattered the most to me; Rock &n Roll. They also covered politics, and for the most part, I agreed with their slant. I was - and am - an unabashed liberal, so I wanted to read about the environment and the War on Drugs. I wanted interviews with Clinton & Obama. I loved Rolling Stone.
Jann Wenner, founder of the magazine, just published his autobiography, called Like A Rolling Stone. He’s led a pretty neat life. He’s interviewed all of his heroes, and seen a million shows. Like me, he idolized Lennon, Jagger, Dylan and Springsteen. He became good friends with all of them. Sounds like a charmed life. Like A Rolling Stone is the story of a rich kid growing up in California who went to the right Prep Schools, attended the right debutante balls, got a nice college education, and started Rolling Stone magazine with $7,000.
It’s also a story of a rich kid becoming uber-rich by doing what he loved to do. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? It IS a great success story. It’s also a tale of a gay man trying to find happiness, which I’m happy to say, he finally does. It’s a tale fraught with a lot of tears, but I’m happy to say it’s a tale of a man finally at peace with himself. He talks about the early days in San Francisco and hiring people that would become quite famous in their own rite; Ben Fong-Torres, Annie Leibovitz, John Landau and others.
Most interesting, though, is his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson. He gave Hunter a vehicle to publish his most famous work, Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail, which, if you haven’t read it, you should. The stories of Hunter’s insane antics with drugs, guns and women are both hilarious and a snapshot of a brilliant but troubled soul. In Wenner’s words, Hunter was a cocaine connoisseur. Imagine the expense reports when on assignment. He also wrote some incredible stories, the best-known being Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, later a movie starring Johnny Depp.
Unfortunately, the “Golden Era” of Rolling Stone would end when Wenner moved the magazine to New York City. At that point in the book, it becomes more People Magazine than Rolling Stone. Wenner loves to name-drop, especially on a first name basis; “Had lunch with Bruce & Patti,” and goes on to describe his friendships with Yoko, Jackie (Kennedy, in case you didn’t know), Michael Douglas, Belushi, and others. Trips to Studio 54 are included. He also doesn’t leave out those he didn’t like, such as George Bush, Nixon, and even Trump. Rich people have a harder time being humble than most of us.
There’s lots of tales of stretch limos, ski trips, and vacations to the Mediterranean. When Rolling Stone started to lose money during the internet boon, Wenner “really hated” to sell his jet plane. Yeah, us “little people” are still broke up about it, too. Lots of people dislike Wenner due to his association with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, mostly because their favorite band isn’t in there yet. Geez, give it time. I’m sure eventually Kansas and Styx will make it. All the really deserving ones are already in there anyway. Do you really want to see Blink-182 in the HOF? Yuck. Actually, Wenner already knows this and is no longer Chairman. He did however - along with Ahmet Ertegun - make the HOF a reality. He deserves credit for that.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It’s long read, about 550 pages. Not for the kids with short attention spans. I came away with mixed feelings about Jann Wenner. Reading his magazine gave me a lot of insight into the thing I love most, Rock & Roll. It also helped me form my own opinions about social issues. It didn’t make me love Jann Wenner, but it did make me give him respect, for being successful at something he loved, and for finding peace in his tumultuous personal life.
Jim Johnson was the drumming powerhouse behind most of Willie Phoenix’s bands from 1983’s Shadowlords to the Soul Underground in 2017, as well as Colin Gawel’s League Bowlers cicra 2003-2008 (alongside Dan Cochran & the late guitar genius Mike Parks). He currently drums in Kim Crawford’s 10AHEAD.
Jim is a lifer when it comes to the rock & roll.