Born On This Day- January 7th... Jann Wenner

Because we were just taking about magazines... I gave up on Rolling Stone, a favorite for 35 years, when the artist of the year was someone I had never heard of, making me feel impossibly old.

Jann Wenner set up Rolling Stone in 1967 in a small loft in San Francisco with a $7000 loan. The first print run was 5000 copies. Since then, he has won countless awards & transformed his business into a multimillion-dollar global publishing empire, licensing the magazine in 15 countries & setting up two other lifestyle magazines in the US.

If you believe the tales of impossible deadlines, late nights & general debauchery he experienced with rock stars and hard-living journalists such as his friend the late Hunter S. Thompson, he should be 6 feet under… or at least showing a bit of wear & tear at 64 years old. Here he is pictured describing our 1 evening together, years ago:

In 1995 he separated from his wife of 28 years- Jane, with whom he has 3 children. He then moved to New York & started a relationship with the fashion designer Matt Nye (20+ years younger than Wenner). The couple have adopted three children. He & Jane never divorced & they share custody of their 3 children. She own 49% of Wennermedia.

Wenner: "The mainstream became closer to the counterculture, 50 years ago there were no black people on TV. You couldn't even say the word gay; & then the evolution happened really rapidly, & the mainstream came over & adopted styles of long hair, jeans, rock 'n' roll & the anti-war movement, because it wasn't necessarily counterculture, it was youth culture, it was generational. But now news is on the web as soon as it happens."