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Fifty years of Rolling Stone

Over the course of five decades, Rolling Stone has managed to capture the rock and roll counterculture of the 1960s and bring it into the mainstream. Its co-founder and publisher, Jann Wenner, went from a 21-year-old Berkeley dropout with no business experience to one of the most influential forces in pop culture. His career has been chronicled in Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. Kathryn Ryan speaks with its author, American journalist Joe Hagan.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover of Rolling Stone, shot by Annie Leibovitz.

Jann and Jane Wenner at their home on Ord Court, December 1970. (Robert Altman)

Jann Wenner in 1977. (Jean Pigozzi)

Jane Wenner and Annie Leibovitz, 1977. (Jean Pigozzi)

Richard Gere playing a trumpet in East Hampton, with Jane Wenner, 1983. (Jean Pigozzi)

Michael Douglas and Jann Wenner in East Hampton, Long Island, 1986. (Jean Pigozzi)

Jann Wenner and his writers—William Greider, P.J. O’Rourke, and Hunter Thompson—interviewing Bill Clinton at Doe’s Eat Place, in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1992 (Mark Seliger)

Portrait of Jann Wenner, 2000 (Mark Seliger)

Bono, Jann Wenner, Mick Jagger, and Bruce Springsteen, at the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2009 (Mark Seliger).

Jann Wenner with son, Theo, in 2009. (Mark Seliger)

Wenner interviewing President Barack Obama at the White House in 2010 (Mark Seliger)

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.