‘I never envisaged what lay ahead’: the first issue of Rolling Stone

Jann Wenner, co-founder and editor, recalls significant moments on the magazine

In November 1967, the first issue of Rolling Stone was published. I& was 21, the co-founder and editor. I was still a boy. This picture was taken in our office that month. I never envisaged what lay ahead; never had any idea of the defining journalism we’d undertake or how we’d be interviewing presidents. My ambition was simply& to put out a music magazine for a few years.

If you were to trace our exact origin, you’d probably go back further to October 1965, and a concert at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf: the first time I& met my co-founder Ralph Gleason. I was a 19-year-old student at the University of California; he was a& 48-year-old pot-loving jazz critic with the city newspaper. When I& went over to say I liked his work, he already knew who I was. He said, “I read you in the student paper, kid.” That was a huge deal to me. He became a great friend and mentor.

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