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Like a Rolling Stone cover art

Like a Rolling Stone

Written by: Jann S. Wenner
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Jann S. Wenner
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Publisher's Summary

Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a once-in-a-generation memoir from the beating heart of classic rock and roll.

Jann Wenner has been called by his peers “the greatest editor of his generation.”

His deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics, and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. The age of rock and roll in an era of consequence, what will be considered one of the great watersheds in modern history. Wenner writes with the clarity of a journalist and an essayist. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. He was instrumental in the careers of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and Annie Leibovitz. His journey took him to the Oval Office with his legendary interviews with Bill Clinton and Barak Obama, leaders to whom Rolling Stone gave its historic, full-throated backing. From Jerry Garcia to the Dalai Lama, Aretha Franklin to Greta Thunberg, the people Wenner chose to be seen and heard in the pages of Rolling Stone tried to change American culture, values, and morality.

Like a Rolling Stone is a beautifully written portrait of one man’s life, and the life of his generation.

©2022 Jann S. Wenner (P)2022 Little, Brown & Company

What the critics say

“If you were young, alone and in the far lands of New Jersey, Rolling Stone was a dispatch from the front, carrying news of a bigger world and another life awaiting. Like A Rolling Stone is a touchingly honest memoir from a man who recorded and shaped our times and of a grand life well lived. It is wonderfully deep and rewarding reading. I loved it.”—Bruce Springsteen

“A high-octane story of a visionary editor, a sweeping portrait of a generation. When it comes to readable prose, political instincts, rock ’n roll, unvarnished truth-telling and passion for life itself, Wenner is in a league of his own. This memoir is utterly intoxicating."—Douglas Brinkley, Author of Silent Spring Revolution

“Jann Wenner has written a rip-roaring and speedy ride through the excesses, excitements, and tragedies of our generation. Alternately thrilling, bedeviling, and deeply moving, he was the voice, the editor, and the arbiter of all things Rock and Roll. His accomplishments, jaw-dropping experiences, and extraordinary friendships with the most accomplished artists and journalists of his day are unparalleled reading.”—Bette Midler

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The words got music

Quite a life!! Quite a story! A good listen for those that love rock and roll.

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Rock and Roll Baby

An Absolutely fantastic story , really well written, both funny and heartbreaking too ,

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A Rock n Roll History Lesson

Growing up in the 60's.....and still there by listening to the music of the 60s. I will be forever young....

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From Jann Wenner's Lofty Perch-- blah blah blah


It’s taken me a while to get around to this, but I need to say that I would never have listened to this book if it had it been after Jann Wenner proclaimed that he did not believe there were any women or visible minorities in the world of music articulate enough to be included in his book, “The Masters”. I supposed I should have guessed this was his attitude, but well. Anyway.

I read this because Rolling Stone magazine was important to my generation. There was no social media and no way to connect to the tribal drum of what was happening outside of the underground media. Rolling Stone located in Haight Ashbury had its thumb on pulse in the 60s.

I expected that Wenner would have had something to say about it all in retrospect. Why did it happen? Why did it stop happening? What did it mean or did it mean anything, and so on. But no. Nothing.

The only thing he gets fired up is how big tech is sucking the life out of print media which is true. It’s also bad for business.

Unlike pretty well every other underground paper from the 60s, Rolling Stone evolved and survived. On that point, one needs to hand it to Wenner for entrepreneurial skill, as contradictory as that is to the movement that made Rolling Stone famous. But he doesn’t really address how that happened either.

Most of this book reads like a long point form chronicle of six decades or so of history of Rolling Stone magazine. Every time Wenner gets into something interesting, he stops and goes on to the next topic. Some of this is an apparent reluctance to share anything personal. But this mood see-saws quite radically. He never shares how he felt about such things as the murder of his close friend, John Lennon, but then talks very frankly about the turbulent relationship with his father and coming out as a gay man.

Maybe this is a good thing. When he lays bare his true feelings about musicians, he ends up saying something daft like he did about Joni Mitchell.

Wenner’s net worth is about 700 million and some of the book describes his opulent lifestyle in minute detail. Most filthy rich folks in the entertainment business are reluctant to flaunt their riches. Maybe they are afraid of ending up like Marie Antoinette. Or maybe they are afraid that their fans who gave them this wealth will realize that there is really nothing relevant that they have to say to them anymore from their finely feathered perches. The latter is certainly what this book is telling me.

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