In 16 years as an editor at Rolling Stone, James Henke has watched the magazine go through endless incarnations.”A rolling stone gathers no moss, ” he said, explaining how the magazine got its name in 1967 during the summer of love in San Francisco. Henke, the curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, spoke to an audience of about 50 people in the Stecker Lounge in the Ohio Union Tuesday.”Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, hoped that the magazine would not only be for the artists and the industry, but for every person who believes that music is the magic that will set you free,” Henke said. “Jann was actually 21 at the time that he started the newspaper (Rolling Stone). He had just dropped out of Berkeley and was disenchanted with what was going on in society,” Henke said.Although Rolling Stone was created during the era of the radical, rebellious underground press, Wenner’s magazine was not as political as its sister publications. “Unlike the underground papers during the time, Rolling Stone very rarely advocated demonstrations” Henke said. “It was a for-profit publication and looked cleaner and straighter than nearly all of the other underground publications.” he said. “If Rolling Stone had been part of the underground press, it wouldn’t be here today celebrating it’s 30th Anniversary. Like every other underground newspaper at that time, Rolling Stone would have been gone and forgotten.”Henke, a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, was previously a copy editor at The Cleveland Plain Dealer and had been a big music fan since he was a kid, but never imagined that he would end up working in the business.”It had a lot to do with luck, faith, timing and many other unexplainable factors,” Henke said. “My actual intention was to be a political reporter.” Upon winning a spot on the staff of Rolling Stone, Henke left Cleveland for New York City and “dove right into the magazine and the culture that it was covering.” “Jann gave us this great ability to blossom, to go out beyond the normal limit and to branch out and do something very different. But at the same time, it was a very professional magazine,” Henke said.His first interview was with Dan Fogleberg, a singer/songwriter in the late 70s.”It was the first time I had ever really met someone who was a celebrity, and then I got to interview Meatloaf and a couple others,” Henke said.Later, Henke was offered the chance to go to Los Angeles to cover music on the west coast. He was more than willing to go.”I did a cover story on The Clash and really got to hang out with them, which is really what makes Rolling Stone so special, because you would spend a lot of time with the artists,” Henke said. “You could really get a taste as to what the artists are like.”Henke would later interview Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Garcia, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney, and Eric Clapton.”It was the first interview that (Clapton) had done since the death of his son in a helicopter crash and the deaths of a few of his friends at a show,” Henke said. “I was extremely nervous to talk to him, but we actually had a pretty candid conversation and ended up talking for about four hours,” Henke said.Henke then got a job as vice president at Elektra Records, and later was offered the job of collecting artifacts for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “And that’s where I have been since,” Henke said.”Rolling Stone has been a real barometer of our culture and really tells the history of the last 30 years. I don’t think it was just ever a music magazine. It really captured our culture, from dealing with AIDS to the shootings at the Kent State University and I think it’s better now than it was 30 years ago.”