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Bob Dylan rarely speaks in his concerts beyond a “thank you,” so when he says even something trivial from the stage, people listen — and when he suddenly breaks with form to defend a controversial figure, they lean in even more.

At a show Thursday night at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, he defended Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner, who in September was removed from the board of directors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation — which he also co-founded — after remarks in a New York Times interview that were perceived as sexist and racist.

Dylan said he would “like to say hello to Jann Wenner, who’s in the house,” as heard in an audio snippet tweeted by Dylan.FM Podcast. “Jann Wenner, surely everybody’s heard of him. Anyway, he just got booted out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and we don’t think that’s right; we’re trying to get him back in.”

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“All right, like to say hello to Jann Wenner who’s in the house. Jann Wenner, surely everybody’s heard of him.

Anyway, he just got booted out of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame – and we don’t think that’s right, we’re trying to get him back in.”

— Bob Dylan 11/16/23 pic.twitter.com/Vkgt8klzYS

— Dylan.FM Podcast (@TheFM_Dylan) November 17, 2023

Dylan’s account was a shorthand version of what happened to Wenner. He remains “in” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an inductee in good standing, having been installed in a 2004 ceremony by Ahmet Ertegun. It’s his place on the board of directors of the Hall Foundation that was taken away, when the board voted to remove him one day after the controversial New York Times interview.

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At the time, Wenner was promoting a book titled “The Masters,” which includes his Q&As with some of rock’s all-time greats — including Dylan, whom he first interviewed for Rolling Stone in 1969.

Wenner got in hot water when a Times interviewer asked him about the lack of women and people of color represented in the book’s choice of interview subjects. Of women in music, Wenner said that none from the generations he focused on “were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” and questioned whether Joni Mitchell counted, he said that she “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.” Bringing up Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, he said they “just didn’t articulate at that level” of the rockers he did include in the book. The outcry was immediate, and even Rolling Stone magazine, now run by his son, Gus Wenner, distanced itself from the founder.

Wenner, for his part, has had his own issues with both the Rock Hall and Rolling Stone, describing his estrangement from both institutions in a memoir, “Like a Rolling Stone,” published in 2022. The former publishing mogul was critical in the book of some of the choices made in recent year by the Hall. Although he remained on the board of directors until September of this year, he had stepped down as chairman of the board in 2019, and was succeeded by John Sykes in that role.

Although Dylan has had eras in which he was chatty on stage — including his 1965 tour and, most notably, his initial “gospel tour” in 1979-80 — he has rarely registered opinions in concerts in the last few decades.

Dylan also made a point of shouting out another New Yorker at the Beacon, by way of starting the concert with a partial version of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.”

Although it seems most likely that Dylan was speaking off the cuff, Variety has reached out to Hall of Fame reps for comment on whether there has been any movement to have Wenner reinstated on the board.

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Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-07-22

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