Ben Fong-Torres was an editor and wrote for Rolling Stone magazine from 1968 to 1981. During his time at the magazine he interviewed and wrote features on Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, the Jackson 5, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Grateful Dead, Ike & Tina Turner, Diane Keaton, and Steve Martin.

I conducted this interview for the Winter, 1998 edition of fishwrap at Gavin magazine in San Francisco where Ben was an editor at the time. This interview was part of an oral history I did on the early days of Rolling Stone titled, “The Jann and the Restless.” In the interview Ben discusses how he got hired at Rolling Stone, his relationship with the editor and publisher of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner, working on the embarrassing Rolling Stone 10th anniversary TV special in 1977 and how Ike Turner threatened to break one of his legs and one of Jann Wenner’s!

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