Jann Wenner Removed From Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Board Following Comments About Black and Female Artists

One day following the publication of an interview with The New York Times in which he criticized female and Black musicians as not being "articulate" enough to include in a new book, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame co-founder Jann Wenner has been dropped from the Hall's board of directors.

“Jann Wenner has been removed from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” the organization said in a statement.

Wenner, who co-founded the Hall that launched in 1987, served as the Hall's chairman until 2020. 

Wenner's comments that came under scrutiny originated from a query by Times writer Dave Marchese as to why his new book, The Masters, does not contain any input from women or artists of color, choosing instead to focus on interviews with solely white male rock stars.

Wenner replied that it was not a “deliberate selection" and that "the people had to meet a couple criteria."

He clarified that he found female artists to be not "articulate enough on this intellectual level" to be included in the book, and that Black artists also failed at being "articulate at that level."

When pressed further, Wenner noted, "Just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up," and added, "Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive]."

The Masters contains interviews with U2's frontman Bono, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Bruce Springsteen, and the late John Lennon and Jerry Garcia. It comes out on Sept. 26.