Critic

Economics and Ego in ‘Sticky Fingers,’ Jann Wenner’s Swan Song

Biographer Joe Hagan chronicles the “Perception/Reality” of the mercurial founder of Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner speaks onstage during the 28th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2013.

Photographer: Lester Cohen/WireImage

Four years ago, Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone, approached the author Joe Hagan in an upstate New York restaurant and asked him to write his biography, promising he would cooperate fully and share his personal correspondence with rock stars such as Mick Jagger, Jackson Browne, and others who had graced the cover of his magazine and whom he had befriended over the years.

Hagan had his doubts.