In this New York Times bestseller, Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a "touchingly honest" and "wonderfully deep" memoir from the beating heart of classic rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen).
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 Barack 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.
About the Author
Jann S. Wenner was born in New York City and raised in San Francisco and Marin County. He founded Rolling Stone in 1967. Over the ensuing decades, Rolling Stone won many awards for its design, photography, public service, and journalism, and was instrumental in launching the careers of many groundbreaking journalists and photographers. He also founded and published Outside, US Weekly, Family Life, and Men’s Journal. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the youngest inductee in the American Society of Magazine Editor’s Hall of Fame, Wenner lives in New York and Idaho. He is married and has six children.
Praise For…
“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.”—Bruce Springsteen
"Rollicking read."—Paul McCartney
“[Wenner's] readers—for nearly half the century—get the best of him in these pages. I had a lot of fun getting lost in him and no interest in being found.”—Bono
“A rip-roaring and speedy ride through the excesses, excitements, and tragedies of our generation. Alternately thrilling, bedeviling, and deeply moving...unparalleled reading.” —Bette Midler
"Over the top."—Jackson Browne
"Entertaining in spades."—Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
“Jann S. Wenner takes us on a long, strange trip with his accessible and entertaining rock ‘n’ roll memoir.”—Associated Press
“Rock may be dead, but Jann Wenner is still rolling…he still has something of the whirlwind about him.” —Maureen Dowd, New York Times
"Like a Rolling Stone is something of an immoveable feast....When he finally ascends to Magazine Heaven, Mr. Wenner will be eligible to join Harold Ross, Henry Luce, Clay Felker, Helen Gurley Brown and a few others at the high table reserved for editors who created or revitalized great and enduring American magazines like the New Yorker, Time, Life, New York and Cosmopolitan."—Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal
“What we haven’t really heard until now is a full-throated inside account of how music came to define American life in the first place, starting in the late ’60s and onward—written by the man who channeled that revolution into a magazine, Rolling Stone, that became a cultural force of its own...Jann came, he kicked ass, had his own ass kicked, and walked away with his head held high."—Corey Seymour, Vogue
"A wildly entertaining romp that will stir feelings of envy."—USA Today
"Readers will surely feast on all the behind-the-scenes candy featuring the likes of Bono, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, and countless other stars, plus media icons like Annie Leibovitz and Hunter S. Thompson."—Vanity Fair
"A panoramic cultural history viewed through the prism of an icon."—Oprah Daily
"Wenner demonstrated great vision when he created… a publication that treated rock and politics as subjects equally deserving of serious examination…thrilling…fascinating.”—Washington Post
"Incredibly candid, open and honest."—Walter Isaacson
"A mind-blowing and insightful trip through the life of one of the principal sculptors of Rock 'n' Roll culture....Thoughtful, opinionated and open-hearted."—Tom Morello
“A high-octane story...a sweeping portrait of a generation....Wenner is in a league of his own. This memoir is utterly intoxicating." —Douglas Brinkley, Author of Silent Spring Revolution
"The founder, coeditor and publisher of Rolling Stone takes readers through his heady years at the most influential music and pop culture publication of its era.”—AARP, "45 Best Books of Fall"
"A frank, sharp memoir by a zeitgeist-savvy entrepreneur who ranks among the earliest of modern influencers.”—Kirkus Reviews
"It’s not possible to overstate the impact Jann Wenner has had on the world’s pop culture...Wenner seems to have retained every letter he ever received, and even somehow has copies of letters he sent. It’s a treat to hear John Lennon in his own words, as he regrets having eviscerated Paul McCartney, or Mick Jagger. These are priceless historical documents, and add reportorial credibility to Wenner’s recollection of long ago events.”—Book & Film Globe
