Sticky fingers : the life and times of Jann Wenner and Rolling stone magazine / Joe Hagan

The first and only biography of Jann Wenner, the iconic founder of Rolling Stone magazine, and a romp through the hothouses of rock and roll, politics, media, and Hollywood, from the Summer of Love to the Internet age. Lennon. Dylan. Jagger. Belushi. Leibovitz. The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone's founder, editor, and publisher, is an insider's trip through the backstages of storied concert venues, rock-star hotel rooms, and the political ups and downs of the latter half of the Twentieth Century, right up through the digital age: connecting the counterculture of Haight Ashbury to the "straight world." Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner's personal archives, Sticky Fingers is the story of a mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of ambiguous sexuality but unambiguous ambition who reinvents youth culture, marketing the libertine world of the late sixties counterculture in a stylish, glossy package that would stand for decades as a testament to the cultural power of American youth. Joe Hagan captures in stunning detail the extraordinary lives constellated around a magazine that began as a scrappy rebellion and became a locus of power, influence, and access--using hundreds of hours of reporting and exclusive interviews. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of Jann Wenner that is also a biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America over the last fifty years.;Prologue: get back -- The wunderkind -- Sympathy for the devil -- It's only rock & roll. Sticky Fingers: The Life And Times Of Jann Wenner And Rolling Stone Magazine Is The Story Of How One Man's Ego And Ambition Captured The 1960s Youth Culture Of Rock And Roll And Turned It Into A Hothouse Of Fame, Power, Politics, And Riches That Would Last For Fifty Years. Drawn From Dozens Of Hours Of Interviews With Wenner, Who Granted Joe Hagan Exclusive Access To His Vast Personal Archive Of Correspondence, Rare Documents, Recordings, And Never-before-seen Images, And Featuring Conversations With Many Of The Greatest Superstars Of Our Time, This Biography Tells How Wenner Partnered With Such Rock Luminaries As John Lennon, Mick Jagger, And Bob Dylan To Manufacture An Unforgettable Cultural Mythology In Words And Images Every Other Week For Five Decades.^ Hagan Renders In Stunning Detail The Extraordinary Lives Behind A Magazine That Began As A Scrappy Rebellion, Reinvented Youth Culture, And Marketed The Libertine World Of Late-sixties San Francisco In A Stylish, Glossy Package That Became A Locus Of Influence, Access, And Headline-making News. From Wenner's Early Days As A Child Of Divorce Intoxicated By The Wealth And Privilege Of His Affluent Boarding School Peers To His Fateful Meeting With The Manhattan Art School Dropout Who Would Become His Wife And Partner In Rolling Stone, Sticky Fingers Chronicles The Life Of A Mercurial, Wide-eyed Rock-and-roll Fan Of Ambiguous Sexuality But Unambiguous Ambition Whose Bottomless Appetite For Music, Drugs, Sexual Liberation, And Political Provocation Epitomized A Generation. Wenner's Eye For Brilliant And Irreverent Writers--from Hunter S. Thompson And Tom Wolfe To P.j. O'rourke And Matt Taibbi--became Legend, As Did His Yen For Controversy.^ Joe Hagan Reveals Wenner In All Of His Excess And Glory, From His Seismic Rise As A 1970s Kingmaker Of Rock And Roll, When He Held Court At A Fabled House On California Street In San Francisco, To His Ascent As An Irascible Media Mogul Of Manhattan Who Turned Rock And Roll Into A Wealthy And Vaunted Institution. Featuring On-the-record Interviews With Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Mccartney, Elton John, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Yoko Ono, Billy Joel, Tom Wolfe, Cameron Crowe, Lorne Michaels, David Geffen, Dan Aykroyd, Bette Midler, And Dozens Of Others, Hagan Depicts Wenner With Intimacy, Nuance, And Complexity--his Marksmanship As An Editor, His Canny Understanding Of The Zeitgeist, His Endless Pursuit Of Fame And Power, And His Capacity For Betrayal That Would Earn Him As Many Enemies As Friends. An Unforgettable Biography Of One Of The Most Significant Cultural Forces Of Our Time.--dust Jacket Flaps. Prologue: Get Back -- Book I: The Wunderkind. Atlantis ; Are You Experienced? ; California Dreamin' ; Like A Rolling Stone ; Born To Run ; Sympathy For The Devil ; Bridge Over Troubled Water -- Book Ii: The 1970s. Temptation Eyes ; Sticky Fingers ; California ; The Cover Of The Rolling Stone ; Whatever Gets You Through The Night ; Love Will Keep Us Together ; Take It To The Limit ; Big Shot ; Stayin' Alive ; Shattered -- Book Iii: It's Only Rock & Roll. Get Back ; We Don't Need Another Hero ; Purple Rain ; We Didn't Start The Fire ; Nevermind ; Bridges To Babylon ; Still Crazy After All These Years. Joe Hagan. This Is A Borzoi Book. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 513-522) And Index. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year • A delicious romp through the heyday of rock and roll and a revealing portrait of Jann Wenner, the man at the helm of Rolling Stone magazine, with candid look backs at the era from major musicians • "Come for the essayist in Hagan, stay for the eye-popping details and artful gossip ." –Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Through his nuanced portrait of Wenner, [Hagan] shows us how thoroughly the publication reflected its founder, warts and all. ” –Margaret Sullivan, The Washington Post The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone 's founder, editor, and publisher, and the pioneering era he helped curate, is told here for the first time in glittering, glorious detail. Joe Hagan provides readers with a backstage pass to storied concert venues and rock-star hotel rooms; he tells never before heard stories about the lives of rock stars and their handlers; he details the daring journalism (Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, P.J. O’Rourke) and internecine office politics that accompanied the start-up; he animates the drug and sexual appetites of the era; and he reports on the politics of the last fifty years that were often chronicled in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner's personal archives, Sticky Fingers depicts an ambitious, mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of who exalts in youth and beauty and learns how to package it, marketing late sixties counterculture as a testament to the power of American youth. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of man and era, and an irresistible biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America. "The first and only biography of Jann Wenner, the iconic founder of Rolling Stone magazine, and a romp through the hothouses of rock and roll, politics, media, and Hollywood, from the Summer of Love to the Internet age. Lennon. Dylan. Jagger. Belushi. Leibovitz. The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone's founder, editor, and publisher, is an insider's trip through the backstages of storied concert venues, rock-star hotel rooms, and the political ups and downs of the latter half of the Twentieth Century, right up through the digital age: connecting the counterculture of Haight Ashbury to the "straight world." Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner's personal archives, Sticky Fingers is the story of a mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of ambiguous sexuality but unambiguous ambition who reinvents youth culture, marketing the libertine world of the late sixties counterculture in a stylish, glossy package that would stand for decades as a testament to the cultural power of American youth. Joe Hagan captures in stunning detail the extraordinary lives constellated around a magazine that began as a scrappy rebellion and became a locus of power, influence, and access--using hundreds of hours of reporting and exclusive interviews. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of Jann Wenner that is also a biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America over the last fifty years."-- Provided by publisher A delicious romp through the heyday of rock and roll and a revealing portrait of the man at the helm of the iconic magazine that made it all possible, with candid look backs at the era from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and others. The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone's founder, editor, and publisher, and the pioneering era he helped curate, is told here for the first time in glittering, glorious detail. Joe Hagan provides readers with a backstage pass to storied concert venues and rock-star hotel rooms; he tells never before heard stories about the lives of rock stars and their handlers; he details the daring journalism (Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, P.J. O'Rourke) and internecine office politics that accompanied the start-up; he animates the drug and sexual appetites of the era; and he reports on the politics of the last fifty years that were often chronicled in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner's personal archives, Sticky Fingers depicts an ambitious, mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of who exalts in youth and beauty and learns how to package it, marketing late sixties counterculture as a testament to the power of American youth. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of man and era, and an irresistible biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America. " --Amazon The first and only biography of Jann Wenner, the iconic founder of Rolling Stone magazine, and a romp through the hothouses of rock and roll, politics, media, and Hollywood, from the Summer of Love to the Internet age. Lennon. Dylan. Jagger. Belushi. Leibovitz. The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone 's founder, editor, and publisher, is an insider's trip through the backstages of storied concert venues, rock-star hotel rooms, and the political ups and downs of the latter half of the Twentieth Century, right up through the digital age: connecting the counterculture of Haight Ashbury to the "straight world." Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner's personal archives, Sticky Fingers is the story of a mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of ambiguous sexuality but unambiguous ambition who reinvents youth culture, marketing the libertine world of the late sixties counterculture in a stylish, glossy package that would stand for decades as a testament to the cultural power of American youth. Joe Hagan captures in stunning detail the extraordinary lives constellated around a magazine that began as a scrappy rebellion and became a locus of power, influence, and access?using hundreds of hours of reporting and exclusive interviews. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of Jann Wenner that is also a biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America over the last fifty years A delicious romp through the heyday of rock and roll and a revealing portrait of the man at the helm of the iconic magazine that made it all possible, with candid look backs at the era from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and others. The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone 's founder, editor, and publisher, and the pioneering era he helped curate, is told here for the first time in glittering, glorious detail. Joe Hagan provides readers with a backstage pass to storied concert venues and rock-star hotel rooms; he tells never before heard stories about the lives of rock stars and their handlers; he details the daring journalism (Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, P.J. O'Rourke) and internecine office politics that accompanied the start-up; he animates the drug and sexual appetites of the era; and he reports on the politics of the last fifty years that were often chronicled in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner's personal archives, Sticky Fingers depicts an ambitious, mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of who exalts in youth and beauty and learns how to package it, marketing late sixties counterculture as a testament to the power of American youth. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of man and era, and an irresistible biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America. Prologue: Get back Book I. The wunderkind Atlantis Are you experience? California dreamin' Like a rolling stone Born to run Sympathy for the devil Bridge over troubled water Book II. The 1970s Temptation eyes Sticky fingers California The cover of the Rolling Stone Whatever gets you through the night Love will keep us together Take it to the limit Big shot Stayin' alive Shattered Book III. It's only rock & roll Get back We don't need another hero Purple rain We didn't start the fire Nevermind Bridges to Babylon Still crazy after all these years Afterword.