Bruce Springsteen takes Jan Weiner to the ‘Born to Run’ mission

To paraphrase d. Hook and medicine show, get cover rolling rock He was a prime target for any rock artist, and halfway through a one-hour conversation with the Rolling Stone founder Jan Weiner In the 92 Street In New York City on Tuesday night, Bruce Springsteen He had a bone to pick about on this very topic.

He noted, “I wasn’t on the cover of Rolling Stone when ‘Born to Run’ came out, you know.” When this record is issued. I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek.”

Weiner responded by saying that those magazines were “the establishment” and that Springsteen’s making of the covers had been the subject of fierce controversy. Springsteen lamented that the attention had attracted an unexpected fan: the Internal Revenue Service.

I hadn’t paid a penny in taxes when I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek, the IRS found out and it took 10 years [to pay it]”, Mocked.

Not everyone wanted to be on the cover. Winner revealed that Joni Mitchell was the only artist to decline this honor.

While Springsteen’s financial problems were covered in a previous book talk with Tom Hanks at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 to promote his autobiography, “Born to Run,” the president was present as moderator to discuss Wenner’s new memoir, “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Springsteen began the hour-long talk with Weiner onstage for a chat, which delved deeply into Weiner’s childhood growing up as a “post-war baby boomer,” composing his own boarding school pamphlets (he called one “Sardine”) and eventually becoming a student at Berkeley, before dropping out of school and founding Rolling Stone in 1967.

Weiner, who had undergone open-heart surgery, back surgery and four eye operations, slowly sat back to his seat, but was excited at the recollection of the details of his life and jokes with Springsteen about mutual Catholic upbringing, and high school experiences (Weiner joined the Student Council.; Springsteen did not ) and rock and roll.

“It was the beginning of student protests in the United States,” he recalls, sit-ins, bus rides, and student demonstrations. He said the epiphany was after hearing Joan Baez sing at a protest. It was his political vigilance coupled with his discovery of rock music. Undeterred by a disapproving review of the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club “for High Fidelity magazine, Wenner founded his own group, named after one of the songs of one of his favorite artists, Bob Dylan.

“There was a call for people to seize the moment,” Weiner said. “Timing is important.”

Springsteen remembered reading the magazine growing up in his hometown of Freehold, praising the bimonthly magazine as the first time he remembered writing about rock music in a serious way.

“It was the first periodical that wrote about rock the way I felt about it,” Springsteen said. “It was a survival guide.”

“I wanted to send that message and spread it,” Weiner said.

When Springsteen said his calling to serve in rock was through songwriting and picking up an instrument, Weiner joked, “This is where you and I part.”

Springsteen was also curious about Weiner’s job as an editor, and how writers like Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson were organized. Springsteen compared Weiner’s editorial role to his producer and director, John Landau, who primarily played the role, cutting down on excessive wordplay after his first two recordings.

We’ve given them space. The star is the writer. You want to direct the talent in the direction you want it to be,” Wiener said.

Sometimes the interviewees had easy marks. Weiner said interviewing Springsteen, U2 member Bono, and Who’s Pete Townshend makes interviews easier, as they only need one question to get the conversation going, while Dylan and Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, are more difficult.

“Neither of them really want to say too much about themselves or reveal too much and almost kind of get bored of it,” he said.

Who else is hard to break? Policy.

“Politicians are powerful because they are so programmed… [Everything has] It’s been pre-tested and investigated and what the right situation is,” he said, describing former President Barack Obama as unwilling to “displace” incoming President Donald Trump the morning after the election. “It’s hard to get them off the message.”

While going through the list of artists he wished he had interviewed – Elvis Presley was mentioned – Weiner was also asked what Springsteen considers “important questions”. To wit: Did Wenner fire an editor for refusing to put Hootie and Blowfish on the cover? [The incident actually had to do with a bad review.] Weiner defended the band, saying the employee in question had a “wrong attitude”. He didn’t hesitate to mention that he fired writer Dave Marsh.

Winner also sent in some audience questions sent on index cards, delving into how many issues of Rolling Stone Winner will be destined for aliens (answer: any magazine with Springsteen or Dylan on the cover) and whether rock ‘n’ roll has an important message for the next generation. Weiner noted that while artists like Springsteen and Dylan still have something to say, works like the Rolling Stones no longer write new material, and when you see the show now, it’s “old” work.

“Not quite as sharply,” he said, “but rock ‘n’ roll was connected to that very historical moment in the 1960s.” “I don’t think we can see that again.”

Springsteen also joked about getting additional stars for album reviews and referred to himself and Weiner as “two old men trying to safely face our extinction”.

“Is it appropriate to continue doing rock and roll at this age?” Weiner said. “There is still life and it is vital. I think with age, the best thing to look for is to feel good. lose FOMO. You’ve got what you want. What I got is lucky. I don’t need to strive for anything else, whatever it may be.”

Host Jim Rotolo said the chat with Springsteen and Wenner will later air on Sirius XM’s E Street radio. diverse.

(for diverseWenner questions and answers, click over here.)